The Berardo Collection

Danny Lane was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1955. He moved to Britain in 1975 to study with Patrick Reyntiens, an artist working in stained glass. He also studied at Byam Shaw School of Art (1975-77), then joined the painting course being taught by Cecil Collins at the Central School of Art (1977-80). He concurrently developed applied art objects with Isamu Nagouchi. In 1981 Lane set up a studio in Whitecross Street in London's East End, enjoying contact with engineers and craftsmen. The following year he moved his studio to Metropolitan Workshops, Hackney, and established Glassworks in Camden Lock while developing steel work in collaboration with blacksmiths and theatre metalworkers (1983-85). Sheet glass and steel became his hallmark materials, and he uses them to make all manner of startling, even flamboyant furniture, applied art objects and architectural installations. In 1989 he once again moved his studio, this time to massive premises in Hythe Road, west London. And his primary focus also moved - from furniture and objects to large-scale sculpture. Lane works frequently to commission, both nationally and internationally. Important projects include a balustrade of stacked glass for the glass gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1994); outdoor water sculptures in Delhi (1997); Shora's ala El-Nil (Sail on the Nile) for Conrad International Hotel, Cairo (1998); and recently a twenty-ton irrigated glass sculpture for Swires Properties, Hong Kong, and a 30-metre continuous drawing on an oval glass wall for the boardroom of the ITN building in London. The glass in both his furniture and sculptures is in the form of thick sheets, which he cuts and stacks, assembling them with stainless steel rod. They appear as layers - a little like the contours of an Ordinance Survey map. Glass is celebrated for its traditional qualities of transparency and reflectiveness, but Lane is able to transcend the seeming fragility of his chosen material and uses it with freedom of expression.