Episode
Gemma Hollister: Narrative Structure and Divine Light
- Published
- Dec 19, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3297
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Summary
Upon graduation from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture with a BFA in glass, Gemma Hollister was awarded the Windgate-Lamar fellowship from the Center for Craft, which allowed her and her partner to start a small studio in Philadelphia, Antolini Glass Co. While balancing her personal artistic practice and work as a production glassblower, the artist recently appeared on Netflix's Blown Away: Extreme Heat . The show inspired new work, which she made both in her own studio and during a residency at Monterey Glassworks. States Hollister: "Blown Away gave me a chance to challenge myself and level up my skills in glassmaking. It isn't very often that you are given such specific parameters and a time crunch to make your work. I gained so much confidence in myself as a gaffer and an artist. Looking back, it was also very special to me to be able to represent a younger generation of glassblowers, especially female glassblowers, on such a big stage." A 2023 Saxe Emerging Artist nominee, Hollister developed a practice that involves creating fantastical objects, sculptures, and installations that center around themes of imagination and control, manifesting as both literal and abstract sculpture. For her, working with glass is an exercise in the belief that her own actions directly affect change. She works to further understand the material so that she can control its outcomes by working with direction and intention. She says: "The act of creating glass, as in many crafts, is a protest against an unresolved and rapidly evolving technological world. Glass historically has proven the power to educate, inspire, and call to action those who observe it. In my practice, I manipulate traditional associations with both blown and stained glass — its narrative structure and divine lig…