Artist of the Month
February 2020
Joanna Manousis
Joanna Manousis is a British artist and designer living and working in the United States. Her elegant and stylish works speak to human emotion, identity, and the passage of time. Dramatic wall installations and freestanding sculptures demonstrate her proficiency with a number of processes including core casting, while blurring distinctions between fine and decorative art. She is represented by Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Selene, 2017; 33-1/2 x 33-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches; cast opaline glass, stainless steel, aluminum
Bottled Pear, 2019; 20 x 13 x 5 inches; negative-core cast and blown glass, cast bronze with patina
Indra’s Web, 2015; 64 x 53 x 4-1/2 inches; crystal, mirror, stainless steel, aluminum
Lace, 2008; 28 x 52-1/2 x 1/2 inches; fused murrini, waterjet-cut sheet glass
The Golden Thread (Hex Decanters), 2019; 11 x 11 x 3-1/2 inches; cast crystal, 24-carat gold mirror
Figs and Urns (III), 2019; 54 x 54 x 3 inches; cast crystal, stainless steel, aluminum
Parr Diamonds, 2018; 62 x 37 x 4 inches; cast crystal, glass, stainless steel, oil paint
Veil, 2015; 36 x 24 x 1/2 inches; fused murrini, waterjet-cut sheet mirror (This piece was recently acquired by the Huntsville Museum of Art)
Joanna Manousis
Artist Statement:
My work captures and animates liminal moments, revealing a world in which objects, beings, and places are interconnected. I reappropriate material objects as a device to lure and engage a universal audience. Through spatial configuration, context, and material I use the information connected with them as objects to spark an extended dialogue.
I predominantly use glass in my sculpture to induce reflection, both physically and metaphorically, in the viewer. It is the transparency of glass, a solid state of atmosphere that simultaneously reveals yet barricades, that I find most compelling. Through the intrinsic material properties and associations of glass, I use the medium to create installations that speak of human emotion, cultural identity, and the passage of time.
Within recent years I have utilized core-casting techniques as a means to create residual details within cast glass forms. I chemically polish and gild the negative spaces within the glass in order to enliven and transform static surfaces into three-dimensional mirrors that reflect both the viewer and the environment that the piece inhabits.
About Joanna Manousis
British–American artist Joanna Manousis lives and works in the United States, creating sculptural objects and installations in glass and mixed media. She has earned numerous awards and internationally recognized nominations for her work, including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Nomination in 2017, The Margaret M. Mead Award through the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center in 2011, the Hans Godo Frabel Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Glass" in 2010, and a Bombay Sapphire Award nomination for "Excellence in Glass" in 2008. Manousis has created her work within major public museums and studio residency programs, including The Toledo Museum of Art, OH; The Museum of Art and Design, NY; The Corning Museum of Glass, 
NY; and Cité Internationale des Arts, France. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions and art fairs including The Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark; The British Glass Biennale, UK; Salon Art + Design, NY; and FOG Art + Design, San Franscisco. Holding a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Alfred University, New York, and a First Class Honors Bachelor Degree in Fine Art from The University of Wolverhampton, England, Manousis has worked, studied, and taught in Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.
Click here for an artist's resume.
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Momentum Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.
The Alliance informs collectors, critics and curators by encouraging and supporting museum exhibitions, university glass departments and specialized teaching programs, regional collector groups, visits to private collections, and public seminars.
