Artist and designer Hanna Hansdotter’s (Swedish, b. 1984) mold-blown glass sculptures and low-relief wall works ooze, slump, and bulge, their soft forms interrupted by the hard lines left behind by the casting process. Trained at the preeminent Swedish glass manufacturers at Kosta Boda Glass Center and the Orrefors National School of Glass, Hansdotter’s rebellious and individualistic vessels remain defiantly craft-oriented in their techniques. Over time, she has developed a practice of conceptual design overlaid with a punk sense of artistry, apparent in her sculptures’ warped and distorted silhouettes produced in the process of constraining hot glass within heavy iron frameworks. Once the metal cages are removed, the result is both high-gloss and heavily baroque, a merger of amorphous, fleshy forms and variegated surface embellishments. Today, Hansdotter works in Glasriket or “Glass Country,” the famed center of Sweden’s historic industrial glassblowing dating to 1742.
Hansdotter is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and accolades, including the ELLE Decoration Design Awards, the Lauritz Craft Prize, and the Residence Arts & Crafts Award. In 2020, she received the Åke Andrén Grant in support of her exhibition Fading Prints at the Prins Eugen Waldemarsudde Museum. Since graduating in 2017 from Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design, Hansdotter’s work has frequently been exhibited within museums, including at the Gävle Art Center, Liljevalchs, and the Glazenhuis Flemish Centre for Contemporary Glass Art. Her sculptures are in the collections of the Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, the Public Art Agency Sweden, The Glass Factory at Boda, and the National Museum in Stockholm.
Contemporary works by five of today’s most distinguished Scandinavian glass artists are beautifully arrayed at HB381 for the Manhattan gallery’s annual Summer Group Show. Spotlighting Stine Bidstrup, Lene Bødker, Frida Fjellman, Hanna Hansdotter, and Maria Koshenkova through August 16, the exhibition is brimming with dazzling confections that represent an array of techniques including casting, mouth-blowing, sand-blasting, and mirroring. Each of the five women produce works of differing forms and functions, with some favoring hard-edge crystalline shapes and others going a more Baroque, organic route—but they are all united by their desire to push the bounds of what is possible through the famously finicky medium.
On June 3, the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell presented the government's Export Award for Cultural and Creative Industries 2023. The award, established in 2017, is decided by a jury comprising representatives from the cultural and creative sectors. This year's award went to Svenskt Tenn, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Hanna Hansdotter, one of today's most interesting and innovative glass artists, was recognized as this year's rising star.
HANNA HANSDOTTER
Swedish, b. 1984
EDUCATION
2017
Hot glass sculpting, CMOG, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
BA, Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
2012
Technical glassblowing, Orrefors National School of Glass, Sweden
2010
Qualified glassblowing and cold working, Kosta Glass Center, Sweden
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Once Twice, The Hole, New York, NY
2020
Ornamental Abstractions of Industrial Memories, Kulturcentrum Ronneby, Ronneby, Sweden
Fading Prints, in association with Åke Andrén Grant, Prins Eugen Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, Sweden
Rabbit Hole, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
2.0, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2018
Fading Prints, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Generation Glas, Chill, Stockholm, Sweden
2022
Enter Art Fair, The Hole, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Collection, Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
2021
Once Twice, The Hole, New York, NY
Market, Steinsland Berliner, Liljevalchs, Stockholm, Sweden
Chart Art Fair, Steinsland Berliner, Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark
East Hampton Hole, The Hole, New York, NY
2020
Palatset, The Glass Factory Boda, Boda, Sweden
Chart Art Fair, Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
2019
Swedish Glass, Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium
Bachelor, Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
Sculpture, Sculpture, Sculpture!, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2018
Dallas Art Fair, Richard Heller Gallery, Dallas, TX
Meet and Greet, The Glass Factory, Boda, Sweden
Immersion, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017
What’s Your DNA, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Hommage, Kosta Boda Art Gallery, Kosta, Sweden
What’s Your DNA, Form/Design Center, Malmö, Sweden
COMMISSIONS AND PROJECTS
2022
Commissioned work for Hötorget with Vasakronan, Stockholm, Sweden
2021
Documentary SVT, Designhistorier
2020
Storefront installation, Selfridges, London, UK
2019
Public art installation, Linneuniversity of Kalmar, Sweden
Designer of The Glass Factory Boda yearly museum collection
2018
Absolute Vodka, commercial
Art Collaboration with Artilleriet, Göteborg, Sweden
Interior installation, SneakersNStuff, New York, NY & London, UK
2017
Designer/Artist at Orrefors Kosta Boda, Sweden
Homage, Kosta Boda 275 years, “Nightfall series,” design commission for Kosta Boda
Interior installation, SneakersNStuff, New York, NY & London, UK
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2023
Swedish Government Export Prize for Cultural and Creative Industries, Artist of the Year
2020
Åke Andrén Artist Grant
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, two-year working grant
2019
Lauritz Craft Prize
Residence Magazine, Design Award, Craft of the Year
2018
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, one-year working grant
New Glass Review (published in book), Corning, NY
Plaza Interior, Design Award, Craft of the Year
ELLE Decoration, Swedish Design Awards
2017
Estrid Ericsson Travel Grant
Studio Grant, The Glass Factory Boda, Sweden
Degree Work Grant, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design
Konstfack Travel Grant for International Cultural Exchange, Corning, NY
Fredrika Bremer Scholarship Fund
2016
J.L. Eklund Foundation for Craft
Petersenska Hemmets Scholarship Fund
Kosta Boda Working Grant
Fredrika Bremer Scholarship Fund
2015
Petersenska Hemmets Scholarship Fund
COLLECTIONS
2022
County of Gävle, Sweden
2021
Statens Konstråd, Public Art Agency Sweden
Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, Gothenburg, Sweden
2020
County of Växjö, Sweden
Statens Konstråd, Public Art Agency Sweden
2019
Statens Konstråd, Public Art Agency Sweden
County of Uppsala, Sweden
2018
The Glass Factory Boda, Glass Museum, Sweden
County of Uppsala, Sweden
2017
Nationalmuseum, Swedish National Museum collection
