Animal lover

Since 2018, Daum has collaborated with the Belgian sculptor Patrick Villas, an artist renowned for his vibrant and sensitive representation of the animal world. Born in 1961 and trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Patrick Villas has been exhibiting his works across Europe for over twenty years. For Daum, he has created striking sculptures, such as the Panther Head or the Lion Head , embodiments of the strength, majesty, and contained tension of the animal kingdom. His approach to crystal, in direct contact with the material, reveals the richness of the modeling he sculpts by hand. The technique of crystal paste, which captures the light and the finest veins of the modeling, faithfully reproduces the intensity of his artistic gesture. Villas' sculptures, set on natural stone bases, radiate an almost carnal presence.

Patrick Villas is part of the contemporary animal figuration movement, in the lineage of the great masters of the 19th century such as Antoine-Louis Barye, but with his own formal style. He favors a raw, expressive material, in the service of a stylized and nervous naturalism. His work is distinguished by the absence of superfluous details: everything is movement, tension, rhythm. His sculptures reveal more than they describe. A pure, instinctive animality emanates from them, accurately translated into crystal glass, a living material par excellence. Through this collaboration, Daum perpetuates the legacy of animal sculpture while offering it a contemporary and powerful reinterpretation, where the wild nobility of the animal world is combined with French glassmaking excellence.

Daum continues its dialogue with artists inspired by the living world by collaborating with Umberto , a French sculptor fascinated by nature and the movements of aquatic fauna. From photography to sculpture, his journey is driven by a constant quest: that of form in motion, of matter that vibrates and reveals the essence of the animal world. Passionate about images since childhood, Umberto first turned to photography before exploring volumes and materials in art foundry workshops.

His sculptures, resolutely figurative, pay homage to the fluid and dynamic beauty of marine creatures. The manta ray , majestic and silent, becomes in his work a metaphor for grace, freedom, and quiet power. With Daum, Umberto finds in crystal glass the perfect medium to sublimate his creations. The transparency, the iridescent reflections, and the richness of blue nuances reveal the depth and lightness of the form. In a balance between strength and weightlessness, his manta rays seem to glide through space, carried by an inner light. Produced in small and large formats, these works translate the singularity of Umberto's gaze on the marine world: a universe of undulating movements, silent volumes, and instinctive elegance. The collaboration with Daum thus reveals a poetic vision of the animal, where the crystal becomes a suspended sea.