Joanna Manousis is a British–American artist working in glass and mixed-media sculpture. She is drawn to the contrasting qualities of glass; transparent yet solid, it simultaneously reveals barricades. Manousis is currently a Ph.D. candidate exploring the reflective potential of cast glass as a canvas for three-dimensional mirrors. Glass often acts as a lens in her work to magnify residual formations of objects within. On occasion these negative spaces are mirrored, enlivening static surfaces in her pursuit to reflect the viewer and the environment that the sculpture inhabits. “Incorporating the audience’s gaze, whether it is distorted or clear, centralizes the viewer within the work itself, facilitating a stronger connection between observer and object.”
In 2021, Joanna Manousis and partner, Zac Weinberg founded ‘Manberg Projects.’ Their aim is to deliver customizable glass wall installations using digital and handmade processes that produce minimal waste. CNC-milled graphite molds are used with traditional glass blowing & casting methods to create modular glass sculptures that have infinite configuration and scale possibilities. Born from Manousis’ core-cast wall installations, this new series of works celebrates symmetry, pattern, and form, using dimensional mirrors that act as a reflective canvas to light.
Manousis’ work has been supported by the Arts Council of England and The Queen Elizabeth Trust. She has been nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and a Bombay Sapphire Award for 'Excellence in Glass,' and received the Margaret M. Mead Award through the Burchfield Penney Arts Centre, and the Hans Godo Frabel Award. Manousis has created her work in internationally recognized residency programs including the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; and Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. Her work has been exhibited at Design Miami and Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland; FOG Art + Design, San Francisco; the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark; and the British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge, England. Manousis holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Alfred University, New York, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art–Glass from The University of Wolverhampton, England. She has worked, studied, and taught in Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
My work is born out of a sustained exploration of human nature and the conflicts that exist between our inner reality and the world we occupy. I often emphasize decadence and grandiosity to illuminate the superfluous nature of accumulated luxury when faced with our own impermanence. I am also interested in engaging the viewer’s gaze, drawing the participant into a state of reflection, literally and philosophically, about the essence of human existence and ideas related to growth, emotionality, aspiration and mortality.
Glass is my chosen medium and I am drawn to its contrasting qualities–transparent yet solid, it simultaneously reveals yet barricades. In recent works I use cast glass as a lens to magnify residual formations of objects within. On occasion these negative spaces are mirrored, enlivening static surfaces in my pursuit to reflect the viewer and the environment that the work inhabits. Incorporating the audience’s gaze, whether it is distorted or clear, centralizes the viewer within the work itself, facilitating a stronger connection between observer and object.