These are the new-gen Scandi glass artists to know

Scandinavia has a long and detailed past with glass: just consider Swedish glassware for one. The love for the material stretches back as far as its industrial history. In fact, some of the earliest works were established in the country way back in the 1600s – one of the very first being the Kungsholmen glassworks, started here in Stockholm, which utilised glass blowers imported in from Venice. Later still, in the 20th century, Småland became a focal area for a large number of glass works due largely to its close proximity to resources such as water and wood.

And still today, glass continues to be a go-to material, with a contemporary cast of new artists embracing it and shaking up a stayed and traditional scene. Get to know them here:

When you think of glass you think: hard, cold and unmalleable. But Malin Pierre’s unique designs are truly the opposite. With their soft, pillowy-like edges, and squashy, voluminous appearance, these pieces look more like floating balloons or jellyfish than they do a rigid, impenetrable work.

Originally a TV and film scenographer and production designer, Pierre turned to the art of glass slightly later on in life, studying at Konstfack Ceramics and Glass after having children. Using a technique called ‘Hot Blow Mould’, Pierre, whose first solo exhibition aptly titled ‘Hard Softness’, blows the glass into a hot plaster form in order to fashion her pieces, finding her inspiration in haute couture and the fashion designs of everyone from Craig Green and Maison Margiela to Rick Owens.

Stockholm-based Swedish artist Sara Lundkvist’s sculptural, sci-fi style creations look as if they have been crafted on another planet entirely, rather than homegrown here in Sweden. Her futuristic pieces, crafted from both blown and cast glass, range from huge glow-in-the-dark rainbow-coloured crystals to otherworldly, reflective glass orbs.

Having already won a whole host of accolades, including the Young Swedish Form award in 2015 and the Swedish glass in European Glass Contex in 2016, Lundkvist is an exciting new name to watch. She was even one of the grassroots founders of the women's separatist glass group which creates a space for Swedish glass on better equal terms.

Crystal used to be considered a bit of a fusty, dusty material, used for your grandmother’s decanters or best glassware that only came out on special occasions, but Reflections Copenhagen is breathing new life into the stayed material with their whimsical and joyful, colour pop creations. Founded in 2015 by designers Andrea Larsson and Julie Hugau, the duo wanted to create a business from something alternative and nontraditional, using reflections of natural light, so they decided to give crystal a contemporary update.

Starting with mirrors and just a handful of crystal tea lights, soon enough they were moving on to art deco-style perfume bottles and tables with bejewelled crystal legs. With all their pieces made exclusively by hand, Reflections Copenhagen puts sustainability and craftsmanship at its very core, and that’s so clearly reflected back in every one of its works.

Art can be lots of things, but it should always try to be fun. Rasmus Nossbring embodies that notion in his comically whimsical glass creatures, who, if you look at them, seem as though they will smile right back. A longtime glass lover, Nossbring started his career at just 15 as an apprentice at the Reijmyre Glassworks, before ending up at Konstfack.

In Nossbring’s sculptures we see his little figures play out dramatic scenes with humour and warmth, depicting stories of work and everyday life. And he is clearly an artist who has wholeheartedly embraced the figurative tradition in his work, and we’re grateful that he has.

Multi-disciplined Finnish artist Mustonen, who lives and works in Brooklyn, creates stunning abstract art works in both painting and digital form, with great splashes and shapes – and he regularly turns his hand to working with glass too.

Having studied at the Helsinki University of Art and Design and later the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in the Netherlands, his skills have already been tapped by the likes of the New York Times and the New York City Ballet. And most recently, he teamed up with Finnish glass icon Iittala to design a series of architecturally brutalist glass vases that we’re seriously coveting.