Amber Cowan's sculptural glasswork is based around the use of recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass. She uses the processes of flameworking, hot-sculpting and glassblowing to create large-scale sculptures that overwhelm the viewer with ornate abstraction and viral accrual. With an instinctive nature towards horror vacui, her pieces reference memory, domesticity and the loss of an industry through the re-use of common items from the aesthetic dustbin of American design. Her recent diorama-style pieces tell stories of female loneliness, self-discovery and escapism by using figurines and animals found in vintage pressed glass pieces as recurring symbols within her narrative.
Cowan lives in Philadelphia where she received an MFA in Ceramics/Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University. Her work can be found in museum collections around the world.
