Ioan Nemtoi is one of the most prolific contemporary European artists and certainly the most recognizable name in the Romanian art glass landscape. Member of a young contingent of European artists, Ioan has found a novel and brighter artistic expression in glass making. Original of Dorohoi, a small and prosperous city located in N. E. Romania, loan completed his studies in 1991 earning a BA in glass and ceramics from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest. In 1995, Ioan opened his own glass making studio in his native city and embarked on a career that now spans over a decade and all continents. Connoisseurs and critics alike throughout the world soon took notice and not before long, Ioan's works were on display in major art exhibitions, art galleries, museums, cultural organizations and in hundreds of personal collections.

Ioan is a glass artist dedicated to impose his own style, determined to be himself no matter what. He has the patience and tenacity to surpass all obstacles, to continually refine the art of glass by searching for new means of expression, asserting new technics and new aesthetics. Polishing his art at Murano, assimilating the Scandinavian art glass experience, Ioan moved ahead claiming higher values and objectives for himself. He, more so than other artists of his generation, emphasizes throughout his work the architectural dimensions in glass by constructing three-dimensional structures and shapes united in proportions and symmetry.

For Ioan, glass is much more than just playing with colours, light and transparencies. It is about shaping geometrical volumes, unconventional morphologies, play of surfaces, intersections of angles and visions. Although influenced by classical themes, Ioan employs an artistic language characteristic of the contemporary art world, revealing an artist passionately fond of the inner dynamics of shapes and matter.

"Glass is not only art it is also craft. The one who blows and shapes forms out of incandescent substance is a craftsman. I begin by learning the techniques of Murano and Bohemian glassblowers, and than the innovations brought by Art Deco and Art Nouveau, and finally what influenced me the most was the Scandinavian experience at Kosta Boda in Sweden. Yet, I didn't want to stop at the stage of craftsmanship; I am not interested in achieving effect by all means. Beauty is inherent to the art of glass, but I am trying to take it to a higher level, to reach a new aesthetic: the uncommon beautiful called sublime."

"I am a man of my times, working with modern techniques. I would like to be understood from the perspective of present time, even if contemporary art is often accused of being ephemeral, anti-aesthetic, and sometimes chaotic. I know my art is not pointless when somebody reacts to it, asking questions, being moved or being intrigued by what they see in my works. I never thought that one day I would have my own studio and furnaces, even more a team to teach and work with, and share the joy of making every glass piece, of adding color and shaping new forms, of every work that I name and give a right to be in the world of glass. Maybe this is why I often live so intensely the joy of every new project or the excitement of meeting all those who know and love my work; maybe this is also the reason why I want to establish an international school of glassblowing in my native city of Dorohoi".

"The technique I use is almost like watercolor painting which gives the glass both life and depth and makes it bubble with color. I like to add color to shapes." Ioan also said: "When working with molten glass, one must think and act very quickly yet gently. In the beginning this was very hard to control, but I made glass my challenge. It is also fascinating for me to work with both fire and water. Working with glass has become my way of expressing my feelings. What started as my challenge, today is my art!"

"Although I create with an equal easiness traditional and modern forms, I always try to invent, to animate and to filter the vitreous matter through thousands of chromatic effects, by adding precious metals (gold, platinum, silver), or by expressive polishing and filigree transparencies".

"I know my art is not pointless when somebody reacts to it, asking questions, being moved or intrigued by my works. I never thought that one day I would have my own studio and furnaces, even more a team to teach and work with, and share the joy of every glass piece, of every color and shape, of every work that I name and bring in the world of glass".