Maria Bang Espersen

WSKG Arts is proud to partner with the Corning Museum of Glass in a series of features highlighting their past resident artists.Danish artist Maria Bang Espersen seeks to expand the viewer’s perspective through her work in glass. By stretching and bending the molten material, her sculptures show a frozen movement, while the glass retains a soft look. Espersen studied art history at the University of Aarhus, and glass and ceramics at Engelsholm Højskole, both in Denmark. She has completed additional studies at the Kosta School of Glass in Sweden, The Royal Danish Academy of Design, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.In her March 2013 Residency at The Studio, Espersen explored movement in glass, using three different approaches: the suspension of movement, movement of light, and movement as a concept. With the help of assistants, she created large-scale sculptures based on these approaches.“I question our strongly rooted perceptions of how we understand our surroundings,” says Espersen. “Glass is used for its special qualities, whether they are familiar to us or not, to offer a new perspective. I present glass in ways that often has very little, but at the same time everything, to do with what glass is or can do as a material.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP62kJdF6f4This feature was produced by the Corning Museum of Glass.