Material Cultures

North Lands Creative proudly representing artists at Collect Art Fair 2023 by Crafts Council at Somerset House, London

We are an autonomous notfor-profit contemporary arts organisation based in rural Scotland. Since our inception in 1995 in Lybster, we have been committed to building global networks and solidarities. Through our programmes we support and incubate emerging, experimental and transdisciplinary creative practices and pedagogies.

‘Glass and its interventions with other disciplines has always been central to our programming.’

In tandem with the exploration of the material, we are proud to represent artists in this showcase that anchor materiality alongside a narrative and ecology of place. Creating works that embolden the deep relationship they have with the material and nature.

Using the processes of flameworking, hot-sculpting and glassblowing, Cowan creates large-scale sculptures that overwhelm the viewer with ornate abstraction and viral accrual.

Amber Cowan’s sculptural work is based around the use of recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass. She incorporates collected antique glass into her pieces that is used to activated and animate the material into a visual story. Cowan lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she received an MFA in Ceramics/Glass from Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University. She has been a faculty member of the Tyler Glass Department since 2011. Cowan was awarded a 2021 United States Artists Fellowship in Crafts and was a recipient of the 2014 Rakow Commission from The Corning Museum of Glass. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of The Museum of Art and Design in New York, The Toledo Museum of Art and The RISD Museum.