Julia Kastler studied glass art and design and has a MA in fine arts as well as art pedagogy from the University of applied Arts & Design in Linz (Austria). After a couple of years working as a stained glass restorer, she trained as a stained glass artist with the British stained glass artist Mark Angus. Since 2020, she has been working in her studio in Graz (A) as a glass artist and designer and has been represented in numerous exhibitions. Julia Kastler specializes in working with mouth-blown coloured glass and combines the traditional glass painting techniques with the unconventional in her artworks.

In my narrative works I mainly use stained glass, but also casting and screen printing. I create paintings, glass panels, installations and objects.

Women are a central theme in my art, especially their role in political, social and mythological contexts. I often create portraits that are sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract. They are intended to evoke emotions and reflections. I want to make the hidden visible and provide food for thought in order to find parallels and connections. I discover these connections in nature, with its cyclical rhythm, it inspires me to express the connection between human life and natural cycles. Questions about relationships, responsibility and the role of women today also flows into my art.

In my talk I will share my own journey with glass, how I came to it and some milestones in my artistic life so far. I will talk about important encounters and people who have accompanied me on this journey and continue to do so. I will present the narrative approach of my works, including the themes that occupy me in my art and how I express them in different ways.
And last but not least, I would like to talk about the heritage and opportunity of narratives in stained glass, how it works in a contemporary context and has great potential in glass art today.