Artist of the Month
July 2026
Jen Blazina
Jen Blazina is a sculptor and printmaker who uses glass as her primary medium. She lives in Philadelphia where she is a working artist and professor of printmaking at Drexel University. Her work is influenced by commonplace possessions, familial vignettes, and photographs that evoke an ephemeral sense of past memories. Blazina is represented by Raven Gallery in Aspen, Colorado. Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Purple Beaded Purse, 2026; 3 x 6 x 1 inches; cast glass, vintage chain
Cutting Ties, 2022; each plaque 14 x 11 x 1 inches; cast glass, cast bronze
Tiny Bit, 2024; Purse: 3 x 4 x 3.5 inches, Tray: 13 x 7 x 0.5 inches; glass, bronze, vintage chain, topaz
Party Time, 2026; 13 x 13 x 2 inches; cast glass
Deco, 2024; Purse: 6 x 5 x 3 inches, Tray: 13 x 7 x 0.5 inches; glass, bronze, vintage chain, topaz
Yellow Cowboy Purse, 2025; 6 x 12 x 1.5 inches; cast glass, vintage chain
Jen Blazina
Artist Statement:
As an artist, I have always been intrigued with the idea of what might be precious to one person will be discarded by another. My work is influenced by the found object. Whether this object is found in a secondhand shop or discarded in the trash, I am always influenced and attached to certain lost beauties of these objects.
As a printmaker and photographer, I was never happy working on paper. I created installations in cast bronze and in resin, but I was, and still am, interested in glass because of its translucency which creates a haunting and dreamlike quality that conveys an experience and a notion of memories. Photographs and chosen objects allude to temporal narratives and fleeting moments. By re-creating and casting mementos in glass and metal, I transform their history in my own voice. The process allows me to capture and hold on to another time in the past. I’ve never found another material that could translate those expressions. Whether it be screenprinting on glass or casting objects in glass, the sensibility of the material makes it the only medium that conveys my concepts.
About Jen Blazina
Jen Blazina currently lives in Philadelphia, PA where she has a studio and is a professor of printmaking in the College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University. She has been working with glass since 1998. Blazina received her M.F.A. in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, MI; her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in New York; and her B.F.A., summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Purchase College in Purchase, NY. Following graduate school she returned home to Washington, DC where her first job was as a gallery manager at the Glass Gallery of Bethesda, MD. “I had never had any experience with glass until that point. Through my tenure working around it, I found a material I fell in love with and have never looked back.”
Blazina’s work is in multiple collections such as the Neuberger Museum of Art, The Imagine Museum, The Cranbrook Museum of Art, and the Corning Museum of Glass to name a few. Jen has been awarded numerous residencies including: the Corning Artist in Residency at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; GAPP Residency at Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, OH; Bezalel Art and Design Academy in Jerusalem, Israel; and the Creative Glass Center of America in Millville, NJ. She has also been awarded prestigious grants as the Bessie and Louis Stein Fellowship; Independence Foundation Grant; and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Raven Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (AACG) is a not-for-profit organization and leading resource for glass collectors, art enthusiasts, artists, gallerists, museum personnel, and educators on all things related to glass art. AACG provides a collaborative place for robust conversations about glass art, including its production, techniques, and trends. We also encourage and support the glass community through annual grants and artist scholarships.
