1974 Born in Belgium
1997 MA Fine Art, Department of Visual Arts, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, Belgium
2013 Printmaking Academy Anderlecht (Brussels), Belgium 2023 MA Education, Department of Visual Arts, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, Belgium
Michèle Vanvlasselaer is a Belgian artist whose work explores the intricate interplay between glass, light, and perception. She investigates how glass can function as a mediator between interior and exterior spaces, shaping not only our experience of time and place but also the ways in which meaning emerges within a given environment. Her work does not merely capture light; it transforms it—fracturing, reflecting, and refracting—revealing hidden layers of space and time.
A recurring theme in her practice is the notion of place and belonging. Over the past two decades, she has lived and worked in diverse cultural landscapes, immersing herself in the local realities, histories, and materialities of each environment. Whether in Phnom Penh, Kinshasa, Cairo, or Gaza, each context has shaped her approach to glass—ranging from the reuse of existing materials to responding to distinct atmospheric and light conditions.
Her recent project, Discursive Landscape, deepens her investigation into how glass alters our perception of space and identity. Conceived for a Berlage-designed building in Amsterdam, this installation explores the function of glass as both a window and a threshold—an element that simultaneously frames, distorts, and expands spatial awareness. The glass is not a static architectural component but rather an active field of light and material, where reflections, transparencies, and shifts in colour are in constant dialogue with the surrounding space.
Parallel to this, Michèle Vanvlasselaer is developing a new project in collaboration with Zurich-based American composer and visual artist Rama Gottfried. This work explores the interaction between light and sound as a layered, discursive space, where material phenomena (glass, acoustics) and immaterial elements (light, resonance) shape and influence one another. The installation will engage with light refraction, shadow, and sound, constructing an environment in which the perception of space and time remains in flux, continuously shifting and being redefined.
Additionally, Fragment, the first work in an evolving series, further explores these themes on a more intimate scale. Suspended between two metal frames, it exists in a state of in-betweenness, detached from architectural constraints. Inspired by Don DeLillo’s play Valparaiso, in which a man accidentally arrives in the wrong city and subsequently undergoes a series of media-driven events that further fragment his identity, Fragment similarly captures the precarity of place and selfhood within a globalised world, where fixed reference points are in constant dissolution. The mouth-blown glass, marked by subtle imperfections and irregularities, refracts light in unpredictable ways, unsettling spatial perception and challenging the viewer’s sense of orientation. This work suggests that seeing is never a passive act but a continuous process of reinterpretation.
Throughout the years, Michèle Vanvlasselaer has created large-scale glass installations across vastly different contexts. In Phnom Penh, she developed In Search of Lost Time, a series of monumental installations inspired by the textures of Cambodia’s omnipresent plastic bags and rice sacks. In Kinshasa, she completed Meeting Under the Ficus Tree, a 100m² stained-glass wall for the Bilembo cultural centre, composed of over a thousand pieces of reclaimed glass from an abandoned colonial-era cotton factory. Other significant works include Bariolé, a glass installation for architect Hilde Daem (Robbrecht & Daem Architects), Between the Lines for the King and Queen of Belgium, and Heterotopia, a stained-glass window for the wedding hall of the city of Marche-en-Famenne.
Now based in Brussels, Michèle Vanvlasselaer continues to push the boundaries of stained glass as a contemporary medium. Her work challenges the way we experience space—how transparency, reflection, fragmentation, and sound not only shape our gaze but also our sense of orientation and presence within a world in perpetual motion.