Brit Hammer's biography

Brit Hammer is an internationally celebrated artist whose work is privately collected, both in Europe and the US. Brit's artworks have aptly been called "fresh and optimistic", as through each artwork she offers the world a message of hope and healing. Her work has been featured in dozens of international lifestyle magazines and design blogs.

Over the past decade Brit has worked on several projects, including the re-creation of a large glass mosaic monument for the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam and consulting on a mosaic restoration for Amsterdam Central Station. She has also designed monumental glass sculptures and stained glass windows for public spaces and bespoke glass furniture.

For Brit it all began in 1977 at the tender age of eight, when she saw glassblowing for the first time. Four years later she saw her first glass mosaic—a pietra dura necklace. While in her teens Brit was exposed to a large number of European stained glass windows, and she fell in love with how they threw the light. Those and other seemingly disconnected events stayed with Brit, as did her love of architecture, even though she chose to pursue a different path.

At 16 Brit apprenticed herself to her Norwegian mother to learn pattern making and couture techniques. So began her formal exploration of the sculptural qualities of a medium and how one could manipulate them to create something new. What became evident was her interest in color, texture, light reflection and transparency as well as line, shape and form.

Brit started her fashion career in 1991 after graduating cum laude and in the top 10% of her graduating class with a BSc in fashion and textile design from Philadelphia University (formerly Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science). While in school she won awards for her work, including the annual student fashion show’s coveted Best Collection award for her theatrical and somewhat sculptural evening wear collection, Oceanic Fantasy. Brit returned several times to her alma mater to jury the student fashion show and as a guest lecturer during her years working first as a designer and later in production and sourcing for world-class brands.

In 2000 events transpired that led Brit from New York City to Rotterdam—thanks to meeting a flying Dutchman while hiking mountains in New Zealand—and two years later she could no longer ignore the call to work with glass. In total, it took 25 years for the seed planted in her childhood to come to fruition. An overwhelming desire to create a single glass mosaic grew into a company, which allowed Brit to develop her complex style "painting" with glass and to design architectural glass installations and bespoke glass furniture.

What interests Brit most about glass is its dualistic nature; it is both strong and fragile. It serves as metaphor for life itself, especially when applied in the medium of mosaic—a medium that expresses the idea that everyone is the creator or destroyer of one’s own life.

Brit’s bold, abstract fine art Byzantine glass mosaics are complex puzzles of color that often incorporate a few dozen shades. Her trademark style combines colors in such a way that each one can be seen, reflecting her philosophy that every person is equally important in the tapestry of life; everyone has a purpose and something to contribute to society. Furthermore, Brit tells a story using symbolism and various combinations of color, texture, light reflectance, and transparency, which delight the eye and invite the viewer to interact by walking back and forth to catch the sparkles emanating. Lighting plays an integral role, and each work looks different during mornings, afternoons and evenings as well as during each season of the year.

In 2005 Brit began experiments in sculpting cement, and in 2007 she started painting on textured art glass using pigments and a binder. Both activities led her to embark upon a small series of works called Deconstructed Mosaic. It was these experiments that led Brit to embark upon her current direction of painting fresco paintings in a non-traditional way -- in cement.

Painting frescos in cement allows Brit to use mosaic materials in a new, different way and frees her from the limitation of predetermined colors. It also enables her to form a more intimate connection with each artwork, as she uses her hands to sculpt the cement while spontaneously blending the pigments. Through this new body of abstract, lyrical fresco paintings Brit wishes to express to viewers to take one’s life into one’s own hands and to create something beautiful with it.

In addition to her role as artist and teacher, Brit is the author of the bestselling books Breakout! Your Pathway to Success and Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice. Her other titles include Meditations: Messages From the Other Side.

Brit Hammer lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands with her husband and their two cats.