As mediums of art, stone and glass don’t usually mix. Or if they do, one has to play second fiddle to the other since both materials are hard, semi-impervious and, if you liken them to a person, divas demanding all the attention each one could get from an adoring public.
By ALEX Y. VERGARA
But this didn’t stop artist and businessman David Kaufman, who’s in the marble business, from pushing the boundaries of what’s possible by exploring the idea of incorporating stone and glass in one artwork with no less than the country’s “Father of Glass Sculpture” himself, Ramon Orlina, as his collaborator.
The product of their collaboration, a five-foot masterpiece of marble and glass resembling a folded piece of origami, is now on display at the gallery area of MC Home Depot, Uptown Palazo in BGC, alongside David’s other smaller artworks made primarily of marble. Dubbed as “Rebirth,” the exhibit will run until May 8.
“We did a project together in Batangas, and he supplied me with the marble,” said Orlina. That was in December. That introduction and, if you will, initial soft collaboration, set the ball rolling.
“We’re not just talking here of stone and glass,” said David. “There’s also a steel structure supporting everything to make it stand. So, the entire work weighs around 500 kilos.”
Because glass and stone aren’t normally laminated together— “either stone is stone or glass is glass,” said David–both artists are venturing into uncharted territory. In other words, it was a learning experience for both. In David’s case, as a painter more than a sculptor, he was inspired to further explore the possibilities of marble as a medium in his collaborative piece with Orlina, as well as with his own artworks on display.
David, tapping into his knowledge in architecture, and his team first worked on the sculpture’s steel frame before even touching a single piece of marble. The artwork’s genesis began with a lowly piece of paper, which he crumpled randomly. From there, the artist in him experienced a lightbulb moment before he started going about fashioning a marble artwork that’s noteworthy for its sharp, origami-like angles.
After a couple of months, the unfinished artwork was sent to Orlina’s studio where he and his team set about figuring out where and how to properly attach several glass components. After some time, he did!
“It’s an impressive piece of work,” said Orlina, referring to his collaboration with David. “This could be the start of a modern direction [in art] that we can do together–a new and modern direction.”
For his part, David, who divides his time between Manila and Madrid, welcomes the chance to work with someone like Orlina. He described their initial joint venture as a beautiful “learning experience.”
“I enjoyed it,” he shared. “While working together, I always put myself in student mode. So, whenever he has an input, I listen carefully and consider it as a very valuable lesson.”
“Rebirth,” David Kaufman’s one-man exhibit of marble pieces, which are anchored on a main artwork resulting from his collaboration with Ramon Orlina, is on display until May 8, 2026, at the MC Home Depot gallery at Upper Palazo in BGC.
