Ones to Watch: Yuli Glass

Adad Hannah and Nicole Ondre reinvigorate the art of glass painting with a modern touch.

Bold yet spare swaths of colour turn simple panes of glass into minimalist abstract art pieces: a little bit of magic from Vancouver-based artists Nicole Ondre and Adad Hannah (together known as Yuli Glass), whose experiments with colour and opacity bring dimension to shower doors, office walls and building exteriors. “We’ve both used a lot of different materials and worked with different mediums, and this seemed like something completely unique,” says Ondre. “It’s the beauty of the material itself—it’s very fluid with a lot of possibility and potential.”

The pair use ceramic frit pigments that fuse to the glass when tempered, creating a seamless original hand-painted art piece that appears to have been caught inside the glass. “People have been painting on glass for thousands of years,” Adad points out—but in their capable hands, it seems like the process is brand new.

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