Cathryn Shilling FSDC

Cathryn Shilling began her arts career as a graphic designer but went on to study glass after moving to Connecticut with her family. On returning to the UK she studied kiln formed glass at Kensington and Chelsea College and blown glass with Peter Layton at the London Glassblowing Workshop. She set up studio in London in 2009 from where she has gone on to create a large and varied body of work.

Cathryn experiments with colour and technique to produce beautiful one-off sculptures. Her innovative pieces push the glass beyond our usual comfort zones. With some sculptures, glass rods are woven together like fabric, mimicking the flexibility and movement of cloth. The apparent frailty of the glass is balanced by the strong dynamic forms, differing levels of light picking out layers of colour.

Cathryn’s most recent body of work, Cloaked, further explores the relationship between fabric and the human form. Clothing conveys so many things. Not only does it provide protection against the elements, it also broadcasts your position and identity within society, as well as reflecting your mood and emotional situation. Her pieces explore these themes and the associated misconceptions and judgments that we are all guilty of making.

Cathryn’s work has been collected and widely exhibited internationally including: Aesthretica Art Prize, York Gallery, York 2021; Op Art Glass at the Imagine Museum, St Petersberg, Florida, USA; Ireland Glass Biennale 2019 at Dublin Castle; The 3rd Session of China·Hejian Craft Glass Design & Creation Exhibition and Competition, Ming Shangde Glass Museum, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, China 2019; TACTILE at Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium, New Aquisitions 2017 at Glasmuseum Lette, Coesfield, Germany, Peter Bremers & Cathryn Shilling: A Two Person Exhibition at Schiepers Gallery in Belgium, The CGS Jubileum 20th Anniversary Exhibition at Etienne Gallery, Oisterwijk, Netherlands, The Taos Art Glass Invitational New Mexico, USA; BODYTALK at the Glasmuseet, Ebletoft, Denmark; COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery with London Glassblowing and Vessel Gallery; East-West Artists Exhibitions in Kyoto, Japan and London; Hot Glass at Contemporary Applied Arts, London; Collective Genius at Vessel Gallery, London. She has exhibited at the British Glass Biennale in 2010, 2012, 2015 and in 2017 her collaboration with Anthony Scala won the Craft & Design Award. She has twice exhibited as a finalist in the Emerge Juried Kiln-glass Exhibition at Bullseye Projects, Portland, Oregon, USA. In 2013 Cathryn won the international Warm Glass Artists Prize and has twice been nominated for the SUWA Garasuno-Sato Glass Prize and several times for the Arts & Crafts Design Award. In 2015 she was number 4 in the Glassation list of ‘The Most Game Changing Female Glass Artists’ and number 25 in the Graphic Design Hub’s list of ‘The 30 Most Amazing Glass Artists Alive Today’. Cathryn’s work was represented in New Glass Review 33. During 2018 Cathryn was Artist in Residence at North Lands Creative, Lybster, Scotland.