Justin Weiler’s work unfolds through glass and Indian ink on paper, investigating with care the very conditions in which an image arises. The transparency of the surfaces, the layering of planes, and the shifting play of light give rise to unstable spaces, perceptible only over time and through the movement of the gaze. The image never presents itself fully at once; it forms in strata, through successive filtrations, inviting a profoundly physical and sensorial experience of perception.

His works forge an intimate dialogue between geometry and openness, where surfaces act as thresholds rather than boundaries. Stripped down to their essentials, the structures orchestrate delicate balances between suspension and grounding, opacity, and transparency. Glass is not merely a medium here; it becomes a condition of the work’s existence, an active plane that captures, filters, and transmits light.

This attention to the perceptual qualities of the material places his work within a tradition where glass becomes a space rather than a surface, reminiscent of the explorations of West Coast American artists like Larry Bell. In Weiler’s work, however, this perceptual aspect is inseparable from drawing, which remains an invisible framework, guiding the arrangement of planes and directing the viewer’s gaze.

Through glass or ink, Justin Weiler creates works that are never fully closed, revealing forms that remain in constant relation to their surroundings and to the presence of the viewer.

(Text by Henri van Melle)