Glenn West

I first started experimenting with plastic at my art foundation course at North Warwickshire college in 1995. Unfortunately the only colour I had then was black. I carried on at Liverpool Art school using the plastic as a canvas and adding colour with acrylics.

Moving to Berlin in 2000 broadened my palette out somewhat as the Germans have a much better recycling attitude and bins had colour co-ordinated sections. As I type this I have found polyethylene in loads of new colours.

This year I had a studio in Barcelona for a couple of months and I changed my working practice. Instead of working with virgin plastic that I have collected over many years, I started to collect the plastic off the streets, recycling it into pictures.

This new aspect of my work adds another dimension to my practice. The planet has a massive problem with plastic waste and re-using found material in this way is a definite solution.. (albeit a small one.)

In the future I would like to travel to other big cities, collecting and using the plastic I find there, and then exhibiting them.

Here are two links to recent articles in major Plastics Industry Blogs:

Liverpool Art School 96-99,

Degree Show, Liverpool 1999
Galerie Taube, Berlin 2002-2007
New paintings, Erzhammer, Annaberg-Buchholz 2009-2012
"Zealous X" A large multi disciplinary exhibition in London 2013.
"Recent Meltings" New paintings at the Neues Konsulat Annaberg-Buchholz. 2013.
"Annaberger Kunstler" Weltecho, Chemnitz
"WM 14" Football crucifixes. CRockerfeller Gallery, Dresden. 2014
"Frost" Weltecho Gallery, Chemnitz 2014
New meltings in Barcelona 2015.
"Unglaublich" Weltecho, Chemnitz 2015
"Ghosts" Lazarus-Erker Haus, Annaberg-Buchholz
"Meltings", Villa Salzburg, Dresden. 2016
"Auerbach Impressions", Sächsische Verbraucherzentrale E.V. Auerbach, Vogtland. 2016
"Mirami!" Atelier West Annaberg-Buchholz 2017