The Glass Apprentice is the project of the young artisan, glassblowing artist and designer Pròsper Riba Vilardell. He dreamt in the magnificent forests of Bohemia when he was immersed in an intense learning process. From this brand he creates, produces and markets his works, collaborates with several firms and design professionals and disseminates his knowledge among students. The Glass Apprentice team is made up of Pròsper Riba Vilardell and the portuguese Telma Araújo, his assistant and goldsmith.
Pròsper’s father comes from a lineage of Catalan artists who have devoted themselves for generations to sculpture, literature, music and goldsmithing, some of whom have left their mark on their respective generations. His mother, a stage director, gave him the name of the protagonist of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
He trained at the German School in Barcelona and later at the Massana School of Design. It was there that he discovered blown glass, beginning a journey of apprenticeship in various schools and workshops: The United States (Penland School of Craft), Belgium (Provincial Archeological Museum), Switzerland (Glassworks Matteo Gonet), Austria (Glashütte Comploj) and France (JMW_Studio and Fluïd); and especially at the Glasfachshule Zwiesel and Bild-Werk (Germany), the birthplace of the Studio Glass Mouvement. To the acquisition of this training, we must add his research on the mastery and transformation of the sphericity of blown glass, its sculptural expressiveness, the appearances of glass as a material, geometry and the symbiosis light-form-colour, works that he has shown in national and international group exhibitions.
The choice of The Glass Apprentice is not accidental, if one takes into account that the art of glass is an ancestral technique and its learning has been considered until a few years ago as an initiatory process. In fact, with this name, Pròsper wants to express that experimentation and learning are at the core of his philosophy and his work, and that in his action, the artisan discipline of Northern Europe and the playful and exploratory spirit of the Mediterranean come together.
The pandemic took him back to Barcelona and from there he established several links and professional agreements with Taller del Museo del Vidrio de Vimbodí y Poblet (Tarragona), and with the Real Fábrica de la Granja (Segovia), in order to move forward with his project.
He currently has a workshop in Barcelona in the Sant Martí district.
Pròsper Riba Vilardell has recently received the National Crafts Emprende award from the Generalitat de Catalunya. He was also selected as Best of Spain 2023 by AD magazine, along with 23 other talents.
