michèle vanvlasselaer

Stained glass window for the wedding hall in Château Jadot (commissioned by the city of Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium).

Mouth blown glass, dichroic glass, painted and curved.

Size of the window: 425 cm x 260 cm (2022).

Photo credits: © Lieven Van Den Heede, © Tim Costima, © Michèle Vanvlasselaer

Stained glass window for the King and Queen of Belgium (commissioned by the city of Marche-en-Famenne).
Mouth blown glass, size of the window: 32 cm x 23 cm (2021).

Arc : mouth blown glass, size of the window: 205 cm x 60 cm (2019).

Bariolé, stained glass window for private residence architect Hilde Daem (Robbrecht en Daem architecten).

Mouth blown glass, size of the windows: 60 cm x 90 cm + 20 cm x 90 cm (2019).

Photo in situ © Hilde Daem, 2020

Photo's in art studio Michèle Vanvlasselaer

© Michèle Vanvlasselaer, 2019

Designs for stained glass windows in mouth blown glass and reclaimed glass donated to the glass-bank.

During an artist-residency of 6 months in Gaza, Palestine in 2018, I have set up a glass-bank. The glass-bank is a place where I collect broken glass pieces and stories.

Piano Phase is the title of this stained glass window, inspired by the composition "Piano Phase" by American composer Steve Reich, written in 1967 for two pianos. Here you can listen to the wonderful interpretation of Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase” by the fabulous Ictus Piano Duo (pianists Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Jean-Luc Plouvier; www.ictus.be), who generously allowed me to propose the link to this recording.

The stained glass window is made for musicians living in Antwerp, Belgium.

Size of the window: 140 cm x 115 cm x 85 cm (2016).

Designs on paper for 52 stained glass windows for the mosque at the port in Gaza, Palestine (2019).

The installation “In search of lost time” is a triptych and tells a story by revealing large slides; each of them acting as a unique chapter of an entity.

The canvasses are created by small plastic bags, hanging next to each other. In each bag one finds a piece of a rice bag. In the process of trying to understand time, the image is confiscated and divided it into small compartments.

Cambodia 2005

Bayt Al-Suhaymi (House of Suhaymi) is an old Ottoman house in the main street of old Islamic Cairo, Egypt. All the windows of the house are covered by delicate wooden latticework also called mashrabiyas. The mashrabiyas prevent intense sunlight and dust in but allow to let the cool breeze go through. They are also a veil through which women can look at the scenes of the courtyard and street without being seen from outside. Etching/polymer on copper, different sheets. Edition 2, paper size 75 cm x 45 cm (2008).

Jerusalem Tile Work, stained glass windows, 2018

“It all started while I was working on the design for a mosque in Gaza in 2017. There I was inspired by a Byzantian tile, and that idea developed later into a smaller project for a window in Jerusalem. But the commissioners became excited with the idea of having the design adapted to their second residence in Brussels, Belgium”.

The stained glass windows are all different in size, from left to right (in cm):


window 1: H: 63 x W: 18


window 2: H: 82 x W: 73


window 3: H: 130 x W: 73


window 4: H: 103 x W: 73


window 5: H: 98 x W: 73

“Movement 1”, stained glass window for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt. Mouth-blown glass, size: 210cm x 320 cm (2010)

Check out the whole project, called Mirage, four Stained glass windows and one skylight for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt

“The dance”, stained glass skylight window for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt. 

Mouth-blown glass, size: 350 cm x 350 cm (2010)

Check out the whole project, called Mirage, four stained glass windows and one skylight for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt

Four Stained glass windows and one skylight for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt

Mouvement 1

Mouvement 2

Seen being seen

The dance

Mouth-blown glass (2010)

“Seen, being seen”, stained glass windows for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt. 

Mouth-blown glass, 50 cm x 155 cm (2010) 

Check out the whole project, called Mirage, four Stained glass windows and one skylight for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt

“Mouvement 2” , stained glass window for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt. 

Mouth-blown glass, size: 150 cm x 150 cm (2010). 

Check out the whole project, called Mirage, four Stained glass windows and one skylight for the Said residence in Cairo, Egypt

Because of the continuous acceleration of the rhythm that we live our lives, images are penetrating our everyday life with a giga speed and with that same speed they belong almost immediately to the past, to the history of the immediate. As images are following the one after the other it also becomes harder and harder to remember them.

Etching/polymer on copper.

Edition 2, image size 37cm x 28cm (2012).

The Kivus are two provinces, North and South Kivu, in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since almost 20 years there is a war raging between different armed groups, all looting the abundant natural resources of the region.  In 2008 the United Nations officially declared rape as a war crime and crime against humanity.

Series of 2, Polymer on copper and drypoint.

The Kivus 1: Colour, image size 25 cm x 18 cm (2015)

The Kivus 2: Colour, image size 27 cm x 37 cm (2015)

Stained glass window for a ruin, a destroyed factory built in 1928 during colonial times in Kinshasa, D.R.Congo.

The glass used is a combination of mouth-blown glass Saint-Just (France) and recycled industrial glass from the factory in Kinshasa.

Size: 145 cm x 110 cm (2015).

Tshangu elongi ya solo? (The real face of Tshangu?). The district Tshangu is a suburb of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and generally famous for their concentration of the “kuluna”(*). The main activity of these homeless young people is robbing by using violence. Their favourite weapon is the machete. The two art works where exhibited in Masina (one of the five communes of Tshangu).

(*) Kuluna’s can’t be mistaken for Shégés, street kids in the DRC, often orphans or banished by their own parents, accused of sorcery. They end up in the streets and their main activity is begging or selling small items like napkins or sweets.

Series of 2 Etchings, Photopolymer on copper, different sheets. Edition: 1; Image size: 460 mm x 360 mm (2012).

The Kivus 3


Metal glazed bowl/Polymer. Edition 1, size 40 cm x 40cm (2015).

Design project for a renovated chinese chophouse, called Wangdome, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. - door, stainless steel gate (2005). 

Design project for a renovated chinese chophouse, called Wangdome, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Door, stainless steel (2005). 

Design project for a renovated chinese chophouse, called Wangdome, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. On the rhythm of bamboo, the balustrade crosses the inside and outside of the chophouse. 

Stainless steel balustrade, size: 40 meter x 110cm (2005).

Etching/polymer on copper. Edition 3, image size 37 cm x 28 cm (2007).

Polymer on copper. 

Edition 3, image sizes 25 cm x 20 cm (2011).

The concentric circles are part of our thumbprint, the unique identity of each human being. Identity is not static; it is relative, in constant evolution, depending on where you are. White spots, identity blurs: occupation, loss of land, erasure of memories...

Series of 4, polymer on copper

Edition 3, image size 28 cm x 38 cm (2008)

Stained glass window for the Lang-Hanafin residence in France.

Mouth-blown glass, size: 150 cm x 150 cm (2007).

Consuming images without reflection, the indeference. The installation consists of a ticket dispenser and an etching: size 75cm x 112cm (2015)

Because of the continuous acceleration of the rhythm that we live our lives, images are penetrating our everyday life with a giga speed and with that same speed they belong almost immediately to the past, to the history of the immediate. As images are following the one after the other it also becomes harder and harder to remember them.

Etching/polymer on copper 

Edition 1, image size 24 cm x 20 cm (2011)

Cinélux on Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is one of the two historic movie theatres from the sixties to have survived the Khmer Rouge era. They show mainly local or Thai horror films. Since the golden age, the Cambodian adoration for ghosts and old mythology has made horror films one of the favourite genres among moviegoers there.

Etching/polymer on copper. 

Edition 2, image size 17cm x 12cm (2006 ).