Gundi Viviani Finch                              September 2003

Gundi is a glass artist living and working in Ontario, Canada. She was born in Germany and lived for 20 years in Chile before moving to Canada in 1973.

Her Glass creations are inspired by the extreme cold and intense light of the Canadian winter and the sparkling icicles that form around the waterfalls tumbling over the Niagara escarpment. Nature is the real source of the vibrant energy and flowing shapes that permeate Gundi’s sculptures. These whimsical shapes contrast markedly with the regularly layered small pieces of glass.

Each sculpture is painstakingly created through the process of cutting plate glass into small pieces, followed by tumbling, then fusing the pieces with the strong clear bonding adhesive. The fusing is supported by a mold. The process results in multi-faceted sculptures which glint beautifully in sunlight or with spot lights. They are titled Greek Vessels, Teardrops, Kelp baskets, Blue Angels, kaleidoscopes, Waves, Sails, Souls, Legong Dance… They breathe with life and light, in a beguiling mix of brittle strength and supple fluidity.

By being a one person operation, Gundi represents Studio Glass par excellence. Recently, she has focused on the creation unique sculptures. This resulted in a superb body of work that Mostly Glass Gallery showed for the first time at SOFA Chicago 2001.
 

Type of glass. Gundi uses plate glass. Her initial work was monochrome, using Green Glass. It is now increasingly infused with bold, colored edges. This reflects Gundi’s innate sense of design having worked on suede and leather garments in the early 80’s. Recently she started using White (Starphire) Glass which has given an even more vibrancy to her vessels. However, white glass is significantly more expensive, than green glass; hence the high price of the sculptures made with white glass.