About
“I’ve spent the past twenty-seven years concentrating on glass as a material and exploring its expression in natural forms that are developed as a direct response to architecture. The sculptures are “echos” of the built environment, installations that derive their scale and contours from the building itself but are rendered in more ethereal and organic forms. I imagine these installations in “conversation” with the building, both sympathetic to its geometries but also acting as its counterpoint. In this way, my work talks to a client’s building. Not someone else’s building, not a type of building, but their building.”
— Nikolas Weinstein
Inspiration
Nature
I’m interested in how nature is built and moves; how honeycombs are both strong and light; how waters leave their trace in carved river banks. My goal is to bring these types of natural elements into the built environment; as if some invisible force has brought the architecture to life and expressed itself in glass.
Light
Because glass conducts light more efficiently than any other material, it is uniquely defined by and changed by it. Like a chameleon, these installations integrate with their environment by throwing back the colors that surround them such that a sculpture in the cool light of morning is completely different than one in the blush of dusk.
Architecture
I build sculptures that “talk” to buildings; that bring a sense of character or focus to a space by developing a conversation with its key elements, scales, and rhythms. I’m after installations that feel like they grow out of the architecture and are just as much a part of the space as the windows or columns.
Biography
Born in New York City in 1968, Nikolas Weinstein grew up in a creative household with an architect father and a sculptor mother. Early internships at the American Museum of Natural History and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography sparked a fascination with organic structures and patterns—an interest that continues to inform his artistic approach.
After studying comparative literature at Brown University, Weinstein discovered glassblowing and, in 1991, established his studio in San Francisco. His career took off in 1996 when Frank O. Gehry commissioned a monumental glass installation for the DZ Bank in Berlin. This project set the stage for his distinctive approach: integrating large-scale glass sculptures seamlessly within architectural spaces.
Driven by a vision for ever-larger and more complex artworks, Weinstein pioneered a new approach to glass sculpture at an architectural scale. By developing a continuous and flexible glass matrix that behaves like a textile, he achieved a scale previously inaccessible in glass art. Unlike traditional methods that assemble smaller elements to create the illusion of size, his breakthrough enables sculptures to span vast distances as a single, cohesive system while maintaining structural integrity. For over 25 years, he has worked closely with Arup’s Lead Material Scientist, developing engineering innovations that push the physical possibilities of glass.
His work spans the globe, with notable projects including the world’s largest glass sculpture—standing nearly eight stories tall—and a striking installation for the Grand Ballroom of Norman Foster’s Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island, Singapore, the flagship property that launched the Capella brand. His projects have been commissioned for spaces designed by leading architects such as Kengo Kuma and Snøhetta, as well as by developers including Swire Properties and Pontiac Land Group.
Now working from studios in New York and San Francisco, Weinstein leads an interdisciplinary team of glassblowers, engineers, and programmers, continually expanding the boundaries of what glass can achieve in architectural and sculptural contexts.