Maurice La Rooy(Amsterdam, 1992) graduated in Graphic Design at the Mediacollege Amsterdam in 2012. After realizing that the world of computers and Graphic Design was not the life he had envisioned he started an apprenticeship, glassblowing, at the Van Tetterode Glass Studio, then owned by his father, Louis La Rooy(1947).
He apprenticed there for two years at which he was the Hot shop Coordinator at this point. He met several of the glass artists in the community and it wasn't long until he met John Moran whom had just started a Glass Studio in Ghent, Belgium. In 2015 Maurice started working at Gent Glas on a regular basis involving himself in the educational part of the studio. From 2019-2021 he functioned as Studio Coordinator at Gent Glas and mainly focused on the educational programs that Gent Glas has to offer.
A lot of his work frequents somber topics. Maurice has always found works that portrait something heavy, to really resonate with the emotion he feels towards an artwork, which has left him with a need to pursue this within his own work.
The work Maurice makes is frequently figurative and always oriented around glass since he grew up around that medium. He has spent a lot of time of his youth playing in his father’s glass studio, however it wasn't until his twenties that he pursued a professional carrier within the arts.
His works range from hand-sculpted glassworks to installations incorporating found objects as he frequently works from an idea and uses the components that feel like they suit the idea best. Due to this reason, the works he makes vary a lot and he enjoys the experience of starting out from a concept and then seeing the work come to be, especially in a medium such as glass. “As the liquid material is formed into the desired artwork it is almost as if I am in dialogue with the material, I touch the glass and it reacts, we go on and on like that until we arrive to an agreement which is the beginning of the artwork” Says Maurice. As he has progressed working with glass, he has found ways to involve graphics in his work and has created a distinct style that allows him to apply his graphic elements to his works.
