International Festival of Glass 2022 winners announced

Over £17,000-worth of awards were announced at the Private View evening at the launch of the International Festival of Glass on 25 August 2022.

More than 700 guests attended the Ruskin Glass Centre in Stourbridge, UK, to enjoy the cream of British glass art. A total of 128 glass works, by 103 artists, were selected for the British Glass Biennale exhibition.

The British Glass Biennale’s Best in Show award went to Karen Browning for her piece ‘Miss, Spent Youth’, a cast glass piece capturing the impact of a gunshot (main image). The jury who selected the winner comprised Michelle Bowen, Brandi P Clark, James Devereux, Michelle Keeling, Wayne Strattman and Bryony Windsor.

The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London selected Nina Casson McGarva’s ‘Yellow Lichen’ for their Arts & Crafts Award winner. They were so impressed with the work on display that they awarded two runners up prizes: Layne Rowe for his piece ‘Ornithology’ and Jon Lewis for ‘Moon Rock’.

The Glass Sellers’ Student Award winner was Stephen Chadwick for his piece ‘The Drowning of Handcraft’, with Giles Fearon the runner up with ‘Furo’.

Other winners were Sogon Kim, for ‘Interstellar’, and Juliet Forrest for ‘Gorgonian Paradise’, both winners of the Glass Society Best Newcomer Awards. Rachel Elliott won the Glass Society Uniting the Planet award for her piece ‘Maelstrom’.

The US-based Glass Art Society selected Anthony Amoako Attah as the winner of the International Artists Award, for his piece ‘Stole’.

The first International Bead Biennale exhibition saw the top prize go to Stéphane Olivier for ‘Coral’, with ‘My View’, by Astrid Riedel, selected as runner up. These awards were sponsored by Barbara Beadman, Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers.

The International Festival of Glass is on from 26-29 August 2022, with several exhibitions continuing to 1 October, across Stourbridge Glass Quarter and Wolverhampton.

For more information visit www.ifg.org.uk

For a full list of artists in the British Glass Biennale visit www.glassbiennale.org

Main image: The British Glass Biennale’s Best in Show winner  ‘Miss, Spent Youth’, by Karen Browning.