At the 2025 Seattle Art Fair, glass took centre stage — not just as a medium, but as legacy, language, and lens — tracing Seattle’s pivotal role in shaping the Studio Glass Movement while spotlighting where the medium is headed next.
Glasswork arrived late to the American art world. While Europe spent centuries refining its techniques, the U.S. treated glass as industry: factory-made, functional, and anonymous. That began to change in the early 1960s, when artists started working with glass in their studios, embracing it as a medium for experimentation and self-expression. This shift became known as the Studio Glass Movement, which took root in the Pacific Northwest, thanks to pioneering institutions such as the Pilchuck Glass School and the Museum of Glass.
“There are so many artists living and working in Seattle who experiment with this medium, so we figured, why not tell a broader story this year?” said Fair Director Kelly Freeman. That story spans both legacy and innovation, spotlighting not only the artists and institutions shaping the future of contemporary glass but also the process itself, with panels and programmes that foreground the making as much as the final work.
“We’re not just showing glass, we’re talking glass, we’re teaching glass… we’re making glass,” said Freeman, “We are touching every point.”
This year, the Seattle Art Fair returned to the Lumen Field Event Center for its ninth edition, serving as both a centrepiece for the Pacific Northwest’s arts community and a destination for contemporary work from around the world. The fair brought together 88 local, national, and international galleries, alongside live performances and institutional collaborations. It also welcomed more than 24,000 fairgoers.
The heat was palpable at the entrance of the event centre, where a live glassblowing demo set the tone, offering a rare, up-close look at the process before visitors encountered the polished results inside. Presented in partnership with Pilchuck Glass School and the Museum of Glass, the demonstration transformed molten, lava-like liquid into form, story, and spectacle. “What’s more historical than the process itself?” said Freeman.
Inside the fair, the Corning Museum of Glass mounted a regional pop-up spotlighting Seattle-based artist Kelsey Fernkopf. Curated by Tami Landis, CMoG’s curator of Postwar and Contemporary Glass, the installation drew from New Glass Review 44, the museum’s annual snapshot of global innovation in the medium. Fernkopf’s neon, otherworldly sculptures pulse through the space, blurring the lines between object, architecture, and atmosphere. Landis also moderated a panel with Fernkopf to talk about her creative process.
A nod to the past grounded the fair’s forward-looking exhibitions. Dedicated tours and theatre programs centered on neon and glass traced Seattle’s deep ties to the Studio Glass Movement, reminding visitors that the city’s role in shaping the medium is as much historical as it is ongoing.
Glass-focused presentations continued with Nine Lives, a group show from the Pittsburgh Glass Center featuring works by Sandra Bacchi, Chris Clarke, Matt Eskuche, Jason Forck, Kathleen Mulcahy, Lyla Nelson, SaraBeth Post-Eskuche, Gillian Preston, and Chris Ross. The exhibition cast a wide net across the medium, with each artist pushing glass in a different emotional or material direction. Nearby, Romson Regarde Bustillo’s To Make Hard Soft, presented by J. Rinehart Gallery, featured layered blown glass with textiles that referenced Southeast Asian burial rites. The result is a quiet, meditative sculpture mapping the edges of memory, loss, and cultural lineage. Other exhibitors showcasing glass artists include JC2 Gallery, Stonington Gallery, and Traver Gallery, among others.
“This is a fair, very much about, and in support of, its region,” said Freeman. This year, 56 local nonprofit institutions partnered with the fair, underscoring its deep connection to the Seattle community.
Freeman hopes attendees walked away with more than a few photos and a list of their favourite booths. “[Seattle] is teeming with creative activity, and I always want the attendee to leave inspired, and take advantage of that the remaining 364 days of the year,” she said.
Written by Julia Shanker
