Tara Traister is an artist and military veteran who served in the Navy and Army National Guard from 1992-1998. She began making art as a way to heal from military trauma in art therapy workshops at the Brooklyn Veteran’s Medical Center.
Yiyi Wei is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in China. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Department, where she began to consider her artworks as processes that perceive the entangled connections between human and non-human existences.
Rob Panepinto, also known as "p0ng," discovered the art of glassblowing at Urban Glass in the mid-1990s and has been pursuing his passion ever since. Over the years, he has honed his craft through teaching and collaborating with other artists, constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible with glass.
Terri Sigler received her MBA from UCLA and a BA from Howard University. A devoted student of glass, Terri’s artistic expressions are interpreted through vessels and sculptural art. She’s studied at the Corning Museum of Glass, Penland School of Crafts and Pilchuck, among others. She is currently a studio artist in the New York area.
Born and bred in Brooklyn, Ellis fell in love with glass taking classes at UrbanGlass while in high school. After attending Tyler School of Art and Architecture he returned to New York, where he splits his time between Urban Glass and his studio in Mountaindale NY. His work focuses on experimentation in pattern and texture, incorporating blown glass and cast metal.
Goldie Poblador was born in the Philippines where she received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2009.
Jessi Li (b.1987) grew up in Jersey City, NJ. They hold an MFA from Hunter College (2019) and a BA from Bard College at Simon’s Rock (2009). Li makes sculpture about the instability existence in glass, clay, and repurposed objects.
Marcy Chevali is a visual artist with an MFA from the Maine College of Art; she has been based in New York City since 2008.
Ben Barocas has been lampworking borosilicate glass since 2002. Over the years he has exhibited in solo and group shows in Ruckus Gallery, Stoked Gallery, Long Island Glass, Made Gallery, Sherlocks Glass, 1 Percent Gallery, and many more.
Rebecca Erde is a designer, fabricator and educator based in Brooklyn. She has a diverse background in glass casting, architecture, woodworking, metalworking and digital fabrication.
Born and raised in Japan, Tomo Sakai discovered glass when she was a teenager. After graduating from the glass program at Tama Art University in Tokyo in 2002, she moved to a small town in the glassmaking region of the Czech Republic to study glass engraving.
Austin Grier is a Northern Californian glass craftsperson who has been in Brooklyn since Thanksgiving 2021. He has practiced borosilicate and soft glass flameworking since 2011.
Cedric Major Mitchell, Los Angeles-based glass artist from Oklahoma who honed his skills while attending Tulsa Community College studying business. Learning about the glass art-form as an emerging local hip-hop artist while recording in the music studio, he immediately enrolled as an elective. As a student, he quickly transitioned into an apprentice and instructor at The Tulsa Glassblowing School.
Suzanne Head received her BFA in drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2016. With a multi-faceted approach to visual story telling, Suzanne has created work in pencil, paint, clay and glass, in addition to pursuing public art as a muralist.
Jessica Tsai earned her BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. She worked in New York City as an art fabricator, moldmaker, and museum preparator.
Jenine Bressner has been sculpting glass with torches since 1998, and lasercutting textiles since 2009, having studied glass at RISD and digital fabrication through MIT.
Miguel Unson draws inspiration from archaeological ambiguity and deliberate chaos. He found his voice in glass having completed a Masters Degree in Communication and Packaging design at Pratt Institute.
Avery Shaffer, an artist and designer working in kiln-formed glass, received his BFA from East Carolina University with a concentration in painting.
Nisha Bansil works in NYC and the Catskill Region of NY, where she fabricates commissioned glass works as well as her personal projects. She has been a resident artist at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, and Bullseye Projects.
Mostly known for mixed media sculpture often involving glass, Christopher Duffy is part dedicated craftsman and part cultural dilettante. He has lived in New York City since 2006 in Brooklyn and or Queens.
Always playing with new materials, Ali Feeney is drawn to all things soft, shiny, and contrasting. Emerging artist, business owner, and educator, her research focuses on gender norms, craft histories, materials, and family dynamics.
John Dillard (B. Gulfport, MS, USA 1995. ) Is an interdisciplinary sculptor living and working Brooklyn, NY. After receiving a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design, John continues to show nationally and internationally with residencies at Penland School of Crafts, Burren College of Art, and George Enescu University of the Arts.
Christopher Kerr-Ayer grew up in rural Vermont. He started learning about glass in 2009, as an apprentice in a small production studio. Kerr-Ayer refined his skill and studio practice through working as a production assistant and employee. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Johnson State College, Vt.
Ipek grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and is a glass artist, curator and an architect. She moved to Brooklyn in 2018 after receiving her MFA degree in Glass from Rhode Island School of Design.
Lucas Kernan (they/them) is a second generation glassblower and technician at UrbanGlass.
My name is John McGuckin and I’ve been crafting with glass since 2014. I graduated from Salem Community College, New Jersey, in 2020. While there I earned a degree focused in scientific glass technologies. My work has consisted of pendant and marble making with borosilicate glass.
After studying Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design, Megan found herself where many makers do, supplementing multiple jobs in the arts by working in hospitality.
Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez has been a professional glassworker for over 13years, a path that has led her to artist residencies at Pilchuck Glass School, The Creative Glass Center of America, MASS MoCA, STARworks Glass Lab, and the UTAG Glass and Neon Studios. Her work has been shown internationally at several venues, most notably in Young Glass, a once-per-decade exhibition featuring rising international glass artists under 35. Domestically she recently exhibited at Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh and UrbanGlass in Brooklyn. Her sculptures are included in New Glass Review #33 and #38, publications of The Corning Museum of Glass. Ahmadizadeh Melendez is currently faculty at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, from which she received her BFA in Glass. She holds an MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.
After taking a neon design and fabrication course with Lili Lakich in Los Angeles, Jess studied neon glassblowing under Michael Flechtner to make her own light sculptures. She worked as the Lab Supervisor at the Museum of Neon Art before she moved from Los Angeles to New York in 2021 to pursue her glass education.
Brooklyn born artist Malcolm Kriegel began his career as a maker in high school.
Emily Doerflein’s work captures the human form using glass as well as mixed materials. After receiving her BFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Emily has moved back to New York to join the UrbanGlass community.
Caroline (Coco) Picard is a writer and curator based in New Mexico. As the Executive Director of the Green Lantern Press, she has published over 40 books on art, theory, and literature.
Ghislaine Sabiti is an interdisciplinary French/American Congolese-born artist, a painter, costume designer, and flame worker who was raised on the outskirts of Paris, France and is now based in New York.
Anna Riley is a researcher, teacher, and artist interested in material culture. Her research and creative projects have been supported by fellowships, residencies, and grants from the Center for Craft, the Brooklyn Arts Fund, UC Berkeley, Residency Unlimited, the Corning Museum of Glass, UrbanGlass, the Museum of Arts and Design, WheatonArts, and Dieu Donné Papermill.
Jason Montalvo, MPS, LCAT, ATR-BC is a Brooklyn-based Art Therapist with over 15 years of experience in working with youth of diverse backgrounds and is currently working with at-risk foster children, adolescents, and their families throughout the New York City area currently with the agency Mercyfirst.
Gabriel Cohen is one half of Fredericks & Mae - a company that started 12 years ago making handmade arrows, tassels and kites.
Hilary Wang is a maker turned archivist. She holds a MSLIS from the Pratt Institute School of Information and was the Guggenheim Museum Born-Digital Archives Fellow and a former Graduate Fellow at Barnard College Archives and Special Collections.
Oki (hello)
My name is Lenise Omeasoo, I’ve been creating beaded jewelry for the past 10 years. Starting out with small hair accessories for my daughter, then moving on to larger pieces for my growing following.
Shuhei Fujii is a Japanese glassblower who works out of UrbanGlass. In a loud, bustling Brooklyn, Shuhei tries to imbue each glass vessel with the subtlety and simplicity, and the beauty and quietness, of Japanese craft-making.
Brooke Hamling is an artist working in cast glass and ceramics. She is currently the head of research and development at Zircar Luminar Glass Products.
Jasmine Anokye, a 2016 Bead Project Alum, is the founder of Waysted Studio - an artistic lifestyle brand passionately committed to self care and body autonomy.
Susan Spiranovich and Adam Holtzinger are the founders of KEEP, a Brooklyn-based lighting company. The two met at the Cleveland Institute of Art where Susan graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and Adam with a BFA in Glass.
Phil Garip is a neon artist and fabricator based in Brooklyn. He is a Sagittarius, a cat parent, and his love language is improv.
Amanda Ladd has been working with flowers professionally for over 15 years.
Simone Kearney is a writer and an artist living in New York City. She is author of Days (Belladonna Press, 2020, forthcoming), My Ida (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2017), and In Threes (Minute BOOKS, limited edition artist chapbook, 2013).
Rowan Renee is a Brooklyn-based artist who explores how queer identity is mediated by the law. In their research-led practice, they collect imagery, text and documents that address the intergenerational impact of gender-based violence and incarceration from State records and family archives.
Evan Voelbel received his BFA in 3D/Glass from Massachusetts College of Art in 2010. Following his undergraduate education, Evan worked as a teaching assistant at Massart, as a studio assistant for glass artists local to Massachusetts and also as a gaffer and teacher at a number of glass studios in the Boston area.
Nate Cotterman is known for his modern interpretation of glass objects, using traditional Venetian glass blowing techniques.
Ross has been working with glass since 2005 after being introduced to the material at Franklin Pierce University while getting his B.S. in Business Administration.
Kacie Lees is an interdisciplinary artist and professor based in Brooklyn, New York. Lees’ vivid works examine affective qualities of light and tertiary spaces.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Silvia Levenson immigrated to Italy in 1981, during the "disappearances" of the Dirty War. In 2004, Levenson received the Rakow Commission Award from the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and in 2008 she was shortlisted for the Bombay Sapphire Prize. In 2016 she received the Venice Glass Award.
Sally Prasch started working in glass in 1970 with Lloyd Moore. Received BFA in Ceramics and Glass, also degrees in Applied Science and Scientific Glass Technology.
An avid fan of frozen treats, Gayle Forman gravitates toward things that melt, spill, and generally make a mess.
David Licata is an artist from White Plains, New York. He is a graduate of Cranbrook academy of art with a MFA in metalsmithing and a BFA in Sculpture and Art education from SUNY New Paltz.
Liesl Schubel was born in Ontario, Canada in 1990, and currently lives in Trenton, NJ. As a queer person, the complexity of identity, home, and familial histories and relationships inspire their practice. Liesl is trained as a glassblower, having worked with glass for over 12 years.
Heavily influenced by an extensive background in hot glass fabrication, Czeresko's work is preoccupied by the cultural significance and the hierarchical systems of value that exist within the objects and beings that surround us.
Jeffrey Close is a maker, designer, and artist based in Brooklyn, NY whose work explores an inclination towards fine art, architecture, and functionality within the context of 21st century design.
Moore is an artist and educator currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Making and teaching has led her all over the country, including: Seattle, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania
Blaine is a (commercial) photographer in New York, most interested in people and design. Blaine studied Photography & Imaging at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and he has been commissioned by T Magazine, Vogue, and Nike.
Grace Whiteside is a NYC based artist, glassmaker and founder of an interdisciplinary collaborative design line called Sticky Glass. They received two BFA’s from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017 in Sculpture and Craft and since then has exhibited work at venues such, as Black Iris gallery (Richmond, VA), Recess (Brooklyn, NY), Westbeth Gallery (NYC), Present Company (Brooklyn, NY), Established Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) and UrbanGlass’s Agnes Varis Art Center (Brooklyn, NY).
David King earned an MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 2011. King has twice been a fellow at WheatonArts, as well as an emerging artist in residence at the Pilchuck Glass School.
