Visiting Artist Lineup
September
Anya Gallaccio
September 9-13
Anya Gallaccio creates site-specific, minimalist installations and often works with organic matter (including chocolate, sugar, flowers and ice). Her use of organic materials results in natural processes of transformation and decay, meaning that Gallaccio is unable to predict the result of her installations. Something which at the start of an exhibition may be pleasurable, such as the scent of flowers or chocolate, would inevitably become increasingly unpleasant over time. The timely and site-specific nature of her work makes it notoriously difficult to document. Her work therefore challenges the traditional notion that an art object or sculpture should essentially be a monument within a museum or gallery. Instead, her work often lives through the memory of those that saw and experienced it – or the concept of the artwork itself.
October
Benjamin Cobb
October 14-18
Through 25 years of working in glassblowing, Benjamin Cobb has honed his mastery of glass, traveled across the globe, and worked with hundreds of artists. An East Coast transplant, Cobb holds a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology and has been a demonstrating artist at glass studios as far afield as Sweden, the Czech Republic, Italy, and France. He’s taught at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, and many other glass programs in the US. He’s a recognizable leader and voice in the glass community and has contributed to the success of countless works of art. In his own work, Cobb draws inspiration from the natural world as well as scientific process. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner, WA, Museum of Glass, and dozens of galleries across the country. Cobb is the longtime director of the Museum of Glass Hot Shop.
Gabe Feenan
October 21-25
Gabe Feenan began his glass career in 1996 working in production studios in the San Francisco Bay area. He has been a visiting and demonstrating artist at glass studios across the world including Verrerie Pierini in Biot, France, The Glass Factory in Emmaboda, Sweden, and Pilchuck Glass School, to name a few. Elegant and refined, Feenan’s personal work evokes strength and balance with their stacked geometric shapes. Relying on pure ability and technique, Feenan seeks to emphasize the importance of a skilled artist’s hand in a machine-made world.
Gabe Feenan has been a gaffer on the Museum of Glass Hot Shop Team since the Museum opened in 2002.
November
Josefina Muñoz Torres
November 4-8
Josefina Muñoz Torres is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Chile whose work explores territory, place, and space through glass, sculpture, and installation. Her international career spans exhibitions, residencies, teaching, research, and public art projects across South America, North America, Europe, and East Africa. During her residency, she will be creating an experimental body of work exploring how glass and ceramics can construct landscapes, both abstract and real. The work is inspired by her fieldwork in the southern Patagonia islands, and will involve creating work that corresponds with specific geolocated topographies from the area.
Megan Stelljes
November 11-15
Megan Stelljes uses her art to explore her own values and emotions that are continuously influenced by changing social scenes. By reinterpreting commonplace objects and imagery, Stelljes mines the deeper subconscious meanings lying therein. The pervasive sexual undertones throughout her creativity are tempered by the cultural contrast of her conservative Midwest upbringing, and her looser adopted home and community in the Pacific Northwest. By speaking in visual metaphors, she allows the audience to define their own narrative while busy interpreting her intent.
Stelljes attended Emporia State University in Kansas, where she earned her BFA in glass sculpting. Upon graduation, she apprenticed under Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen. Living in Arlington, Washington, she now works out of Gray Barn Studios while operating her own neon shop to create sculptures that often combine neon and hot-sculpted glass.
December
Greg Dietrich and Aya Oki
December 9-13
In 2024, artists Greg Dietrich and Aya Oki began a collaboration at Pilchuck Glass School, combining Dietrich’s engraved graal blanks with Oki’s hot-sculpted bubble forms. The result was a dynamic transformation: engraved motifs were expanded into three dimensions through Oki’s process of attaching and inflating hot glass bits, creating sculptural surfaces that gave imagery new depth and vitality. Dietrich and Oki will continue this artistic dialog, seeking to create works that speak to transformation, material dialogue, and the unexpected beauty that emerges when processes intertwine.
aya-oki.com | @ayaokidoki
Davĩd Rios
December 16-18
Davĩd Rios is a Chicano mixed-media artist who resonates with the essence of Mexican American identity and acculturation. Rios discovered his passion for glassmaking and the arts during a creative work program with Hilltop Artists in Residence at the age of twelve. Experiencing a childhood filled with field trips to Chihuly's boathouse captivated a young Rios with the opulence of glassmaking and its community. Non-profit programming gave Rios a family and a deep appreciation for the arts and their impact on youth. Rios found his life calling in supporting at-risk youth access to the furnace and arts that swept him off his feet as a child. Understanding and embracing creative outlets can save lives.
Currently, Rios is focused on completing his academic journey in view to becoming a grant writer for non-profit arts programming while simultaneously becoming a Race and Ethnic Studies historian.
