“I work with cold, sharp glass sheets, turning them into shimmering sculptures. My passion is for monumental size, aesthetic shape and out-of-the-ordinary glassworking technique. Over the past decade, I have developed my signature style in monumental, layered glass sculpture. My inner engineer is proud of the quality of work I achieve, even in artworks that weigh many tonnes. While I - the artist- am never satiated, always searching for more inspiration, ideas, forms and collaborations.”
Ernests Vitins (Ernests Vītiņš, 1984) is a glass artist specializing in monumental sheet glass stacking, aka layered glass technique. Ernest works exclusively with layered glass sculptures, installations, and architectural sculptural ensembles. He has in-depth knowledge gained over more than a decade of experience in the field. His innovative and professional approach offers enduring artwork of the highest quality. Ernest works mainly on public and private glass art commissions for indoor and landscape spaces. His artworks adorn spaces in over 15 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.
In 2011 Ernest graduated from the Latvian Academy of Arts, Faculty of Visual Plastic Arts and Glass Art Department, received an EU scholarship for his academic achievements, and defended his bachelor's and master's theses with excellence. In 2014 and 2016, he was nominated for the annual Latvian Academy of Arts alumni award for enriching the Latvian art scene locally and internationally. In 2015 he created the largest contemporary sculptural ensemble of glass art in the Baltics - "In Nature", located in the foyer of the Nature House of the Academic Center of the University of Latvia.
Since 2004, Ernest has continually been working on commission projects, holding solo exhibitions, as well as being invited to participate in international group exhibitions. With his solo exhibition "Within the Glass Labyrinth", he received the national award "Kilogram of Culture 2019" in the visual arts category. Due to his expertise in layered glass art, he was invited to participate in the annual Scientific Conference of the Art Academy of Latvia 2022, "Synergy of Humanitarian and Natural Sciences In History and Theory of Culture", to give a presentation on practical monumental layered glass art-making.
More recently, Ernest collaborated with the USA-based not-for-profit organization, the “Memphis Botanical Garden Foundation” (MBG) and the Ikebana Japanese Society. Ernest's team designed, crafted, shipped, and installed the large-size layered glass sculpture “Budding Flowers” (2022) for childhood cancer patients in the Japanese garden “Seijaku En”. This year (2024), Ernest made a public space artwork, "Between the Lines," for a new cancer patient center at Riga East University Hospital and exhibited his first artwork in Dubai. He has recently been invited to join the Latvian Academy of Arts teaching force as a guest lecturer at the Glass Art Department (May 2024) and has become a member of the Latvian Designers Union (July 2024).