Nel Verbeke

Brussels-based concept designer working in hand-blown glass and metal to create contemplative lighting objects she calls proto-instruments. Educated at Design Academy Eindhoven and LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, Verbeke exhibits internationally and is represented in New York by Emma Scully Gallery. Her Mirror Hourglass was the first contemporary design work acquired by gallery owner Emma Scully, and her collection Mirror at Dusk, featuring silver-coated glass fixtures with tarnished domes inspired by twilight, inaugurated the gallery's Upper East Side viewing room in February 2025. Another piece, The Rasp, is a proto-ritual instrument used to trace concentric circles into a wall. Her research-driven practice examines handcrafted, collectible objects within an industrial manufacturing landscape, drawing on early-industrial and Romantic-era responses to mass production.