ABOUT
Simon Berger (b. 1976, Herzogenbuchsee) is a Swiss artist working with laminated safety glass. Trained as a carpenter and self-taught as an artist, he developed his technique of controlled impact in 2016. With a hammer, he sets precise blows into the glass; the resulting fractures form the image — up close a web of cracks, from a distance a face of almost photographic presence.
His practice spans portraits, spatial works and large-scale installations, and extends to site-specific projects in architecture and public space. His work has been shown internationally: Glass Ceiling Breaker, the Kamala Harris portrait at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington (2021); solo exhibitions at the Museo del Vetro in Murano, the Glasstress exhibitions of the Fondazione Berengo in Venice; and the permanent installation “The Four Icons” at The St. Regis Venice (2025). A monograph appeared in 2024. In 2026, he presents The Persistence of Presence at the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
Berger lives and works in Niederönz, Switzerland. His international career is managed by NOA contemporary.
Practice
In Simon Berger's work, glass is support and subject at once. Its transparency, its resistance and its vulnerability remain visible. Every impact changes the image and the material at the same time.
From a distance, faces and forms become legible. Up close, they dissolve into impact points, radiating lines and dense fields of fractures. Light passes through the glass, catches on the broken edges and shifts with the position of the viewer. The image is built from material, light and perception together.
The human face remains a recurring point of departure. Increasingly, the work extends into space: in exhibitions, public projects and architecture, glass is layered, suspended, mirrored or integrated into its surroundings. The same gesture that creates a portrait can become a structure, a reflection or an intervention in a room.
Live performances form a distinct part of the practice. In museums and cultural institutions, works come into being in front of an audience, blow by blow, until the image becomes visible in the glass.
Selected milestones
Selected solo exhibitions
• 2026 · The Persistence of Presence, National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
• 2026 · Fractured Presence, HOFA Gallery, London
• 2025 · A Matter of Metamorphosis, Casarsa della Delizia
• 2023–2024 · Facing Grace, Musei Civici di Treviso
• 2023 · Shattering Beauty, Museo del Vetro, Murano
• 2023 · The Doors of Perception, Museo Civico di Sansepolcro
• 2022 · Le verre dans tous ses éclats, Vitromusée Romont
Selected group exhibitions
• 2026 · Materiality, Saatchi Gallery, London
• 2024 · Glasstress 8½, Fondazione Berengo, Venice
• 2022 · Glasstress – State of Mind, Fondazione Berengo, Venice
Public projects and commissions
• 2025 · The Four Icons, permanent installation, The St. Regis Venice
• 2025 · Terra Nobilis, Paris [bestätigen]
• since 2024 · Subway Car, Wynwood Walls, Miami
• 2023 · Tosca, Paris, with the Mairie de Paris
• 2022 · Morphogenesis, Sculpture Garden Biennale, Geneva
• 2022 · L'espoir, Street Art Fest Grenoble, permanent
• 2021 · Glass Ceiling Breaker, Lincoln Memorial, Washington
Selected collections
• National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
• Museo del Vetro, Murano
• Vitromusée Romont
• Museo Civico di Sansepolcro
• Beit Beirut, Beirut
• Gallotti&Radice Collection, Milan
Collaborations
Bulgari · Glenfiddich · Gallotti&Radice
Publication
Monograph, 2024 [Titel und Verlag]
Button: Download CV → [CV 2026 als PDF]
Essay-Auszug
«… the destructive gesture of mere blows of a hammer on a glass pane ultimately ‘draws’ images of great visual intrigue that emerge from the tangle of powerfully orchestrated cracks.»
Sandrine Welte, curator
Link: Read the full essay → /press
Selected Press
ARTNET
To Celebrate the Glass Ceiling Kamala Harris Shattered, This Artist Installed a Portrait of Her in Washington Made Entirely of Cracked Glass
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE