9 Glass Artists Who Break Barriers with Their Art

Transparent and brittle yet remarkably rigid and durable, glass is a contradiction of itself. It can be formed from lightning striking the desert sand, magma erupting from a volcano or humans melting a precise mix of silica and minerals, and in all cases the results are often beautiful.

Perhaps that’s why art made from glass is so spellbinding. It’s inherently fragile to some degree, yet its strength and versatility make it an ideal medium for countless artists. And though there are undoubtedly a myriad of glass artists whose work is worth admiring, nine have proven to be some of the most accomplished and influential. 

Dale Chihuly

Arguably the most famous glass artist in the world, American artist Dale Chihuly is a Washington state native whose work has been exhibited across the U.S. and around the world. 

He first began experimenting with glass as an artistic medium in the 1960s, and soon pioneered never-before-seen glass blowing techniques. These were a departure from traditional methods which aimed to achieve perfect symmetry — instead, Dale’s techniques involved using gravity and centrifugal force to form molten glass into undulating, more organic-looking shapes. 

With the help of those techniques, Dale was able to mold glass into the brightly-colored, larger-than-life sculptures he’s known for, and soon become one of the most well-known blown glass artists of all time.

If you want to see Dale’s work in person, his home city of Seattle is one of the best places to do so. There, Chihuly Garden and Glass provides a permanent home for many of the artist’s most impressive pieces, all located in a tranquil garden setting right next to the Space Needle.  

Ginny Ruffner

Another innovative American glass artist with a stunning portfolio is Ginny Ruffner. After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting, she became fascinated with glass artworks and began experimenting with the medium shortly after graduating. 

She was especially inspired by lampwork, a technique that involves using a torch to melt glass before reforming it into the artist’s desired shape. 

Ginny mastered the technique in the following years, and in the mid-1980s made a cross-continental move from Atlanta to Seattle. It was on the West Coast that her career truly began to explode, and by the early 1990s she was a superstar of the art world. 

Although a catastrophic 1991 car crash threw a wrench in her plans, she defied the odds and learned to talk, walk and ultimately create art again. 

Today, Ginny’s art is displayed in museums, public spaces and private collections around the world. If you happen to be in Seattle (visiting the Chihuly Garden and Glass, perhaps), you can see one of her most extraordinary works right downtown. A staggering 27 feet tall, the Urban Garden consists of mechanically opening and closing flowers in a large steel flower pot. 

Lino Tagliapietra

Born in Murano, Italy in 1939, Lino Tagliapietra is widely regarded as one of the greatest Murano glass artists of all time.

Murano glass refers to glass artworks and objects made by skilled artisans on the Venetian island of Murano. Lino’s work certainly qualifies as such. He became an apprentice glassblower at the young age of 11, and by 21, was given the prestigious title of Maestro.

In the late 1970s, Lino began teaching at Seattle’s Pilchuck Glass School. There, he introduced traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques to American students and catalyzed a tradition of knowledge exchange between glass artists in Italy and the U.S. 

As glass scholar and curator Tina Oldknow put it, “Lino came to America to discover what there might be here for him and to teach others to work glass. In the process, he helped to pioneer an industry—not for commerce, but for art.”

Today, Lino’s impossibly elegant and beautifully complex works are on display in museums around the world. 

Rui Sasaki 

Born in 1984, Rui Sasaki is a Japanese glass artist who’s been making waves in the art world since receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2010. 

She works with multiple mediums, but she’s especially well known for her mesmerizing use of phosphorescent glass and crystal. With their help, her work takes on an ethereal, blue-green glow, gently illuminating the spaces and people around them. 

In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Rui explained that “fragility and breaking glass is an inspiration for me, because glass is very fragile, but it’s really strong—much stronger than iron in some ways.”

Martin Blank

After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1984, American glass artist Martin Blank immediately headed west and began his career working on Dale Chihuly’s team.  

Eleven years later, Martin became an independent artist and was soon creating large-scale glass sculptures at prestigious locations around the world. 

One of his most recognizable works is Fluent Steps, a sculpture located directly outside of Tacoma’s Museum of Glass. Measuring over 200 feet long, the piece is composed of more than 750 pieces of hand-sculpted glass. 

Not in Tacoma? You can also see Martin’s work in Shanghai, Beijing, New York, Boston and more cities around the globe. 

Ivana Mašitová

Some glass artists’ work almost overwhelm the viewer with their awe-inspiring size and dramatic shapes. Czech glass artist Ivana Mašitová’s sculptures are different. Most are monochromatic, and their blocky shapes can appear deceptively simple on first glance. 

But take a closer look and you’ll soon see just how meticulously detailed each piece is. From impossibly smooth planes to subtly swooping curves to finely-textured patterns, the work required to complete and perfect each sculpture is evident. 

Ivana studied at the Secondary School of Glass Making in Kamenický Šenov, Czechia before moving on to the Academy of Applied Arts in the nation’s capital city of Prague. As a former student of renowned husband-and-wife glass artists Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslav Bryctová, Ivana’s work is part of a long legacy of extraordinary Czech craftsmanship. 

If you’re in the West Palm Beach, Florida area, you may be able to see some of Ivana’s sculptures in person at Habatat Galleries. 

Carol Milne

Canadian artist Carol Milne began her college education as a student of landscape architecture, but after discovering her passion for sculpture pursued a graduate degree in that field. While she’s experimented with an array of materials, she eventually settled on glass as her primary medium. 

As an avid knitter herself, Carol found a way to cast knitted work in glass with the help of the lost wax casting technique. As the first glass artist to attempt and succeed such a feat, she quickly gained international recognition for her knitted glass pieces. 

Carol’s work is now featured in collections around the world, from the Amazon corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington to the Notojima Glass Art Museum in Ishikawa, Japan.

Jean-Pierre Canlis

After first experimenting with glass blowing in his home state of Hawai’i in the 1990s, American artist Jean-Pierre Canlis discovered his love of glass. He subsequently studied glass art further in college, and as a student was introduced to Dale Chihuly during a summer trip to Seattle. 

Like so many other glass artists, his career was launched with his employment at Dale’s studio. After five years there, he opened his own studio. 

Of his artistic philosophy, Jean-Pierre says that “simplicity and completion are the most important elements of my work. Anyone can make something simple seem complex; it is taking the complex and translating it into the simplest form that inspires me.”

His art is on display in several galleries in North America, and is included in countless private and public collections worldwide.  

Niyoko Ikuta

With her sculptures’ mesmerizing shapes and seemingly gravity-defying construction, Japanese glass artist Niyoko Ikuta (or Ikuta Niyoko, according to Japan’s surname-first naming conventions) is renowned not just in her birthplace but also around the globe. 

Rather than using extreme heat to melt glass into the shape she desires, Niyoko uses adhesive to connect thin sheets of glass into one unified object. Then, she exposes the cross sections, a technique the Metropolitan Museum of Art describes as creating “an illusion of motion.”

Niyoko’s most well-known series, Ku, is inspired by Buddhist philosophies about individual perception of reality and existence. 

Although she lives and works in Kyoto, Niyoko’s work is displayed in public collections across North America, Asia and Europe. 

Just the Tip of the (Glass) Iceberg

While Dale Chihuly, Niyoko Ikuta and everyone in between are certainly some of the most celebrated and famous glass artists, that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones creating fascinating art from molten glass. 

So if you’re looking for more inspiration for your own glassblowing career (or just want to gaze at some more striking sculptures), don’t worry—thousands more glass artists' work can give you the spark you need. And depending on where you live, their studio might be just down the street.

Written By

Carrie Buchholz

Carrie Buchholz is a freelance writer who lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and dog.

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