AMES, IA.- Amber Cowan has developed a unique artistic process based around the use of recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass to create intricate glass sculptures. On Wednesday, January 19, 2022, the exhibition Mythical Bounty: Glass Sculptures by Amber Cowan will open at the Brunnier Art Museum, second floor of the Scheman Building, 1805 Center Drive, Ames, Iowa.

“University Museums is excited to have the opportunity to host glass artist Amber Cowan on January 19th, along with celebrating her remarkable new commission created for the permanent collection of glass that began with the donations of Ann and Henry Brunnier and continues to grow through the Iowa Questers,” said Adrienne Gennett, curator of the Brunnier Art Museum. “Cowan is an important and unique contemporary glass artist who has developed an artistic process that honors an important era of American glass, which she preserves and recycles to create the fantastical and whimsical worlds within her beautiful sculptures.”

Cowan invites viewers to look closely and discover the stories she tells in her glass sculptures. Her complex dioramas and three-dimensional sculptures often use existing historic pressed glass objects she finds beautiful, then the remaining glass of the same color is melted down and painstakingly flameworked and blown to fill the space with ornament. Each sculpture has a narrative that must be sought out by the viewer as they peer through the many layers of glass ornament she has created.

Mythical Bounty celebrates The Dreams of a Descendant Sireneuse, the new work of art University Museums has commissioned from Cowan for the permanent collection. “The piece itself will be loosely themed on the Greek mythology story of the Sirens,” Cowan said when designing the new commission. “The masthead nude will act as a ship in the center of the diptych scene and include a rocky ‘cullet’ coast in which other nude figurines will lure the ship/vase.” The addition of Cowan’s sculpture connects with the range of Early American Pressed Glass of the Iowa Questers Glass Collection within the permanent collection, while also expanding the variety and depth of the contemporary glass collection.

The exhibition also includes both recent and newly created sculptures by Cowan. Each sculpture tells a unique visual story that Cowan has meticulously created, drawing viewers into a world that seems almost alive and blooming in front of their eyes.

This exhibition is curated and organized by the artist, Amber Cowan, and University Museums with Heller Gallery.