Tora Urup is an internationally recognised glass artist. Since 2001, she has shown a particular interest in exploring the visual effects obtained within a series of circular glass sculptures in vibrant colors of thin opaque and thick transparent glass. This body of work is reflecting Urup’s investigation into the specific role played by color and material in our perception of volume and space and reveals the artist’s interest in altering archetypes like the glass bowl into dreamlike objects.

By combining subtle colors and making them interplay with each other by varying the glass thickness, Tora Urup enables new spatial perceptions that reverse our conventional under-standing of the traditional glass bowl. The interior volumes of these trompe l’œil sculptures seem to float independently of their exterior, and by the careful juxtaposition and treatment of cut and polished surfaces, she is creating a genuine illusion of a seemingly infinite and liquid space in-side a physically restraint volume.

Tora Urup started her career working with ceramic art in Tokoname, Japan in 1982-83, after which she studied glass and ceramics at the School of Applied Arts in Denmark. In 1994, she graduated from the Royal College of Art in London and subsequently returned to Denmark to collaborate with Holmegaard Glassworks and Royal Copenhagen porcelain. Since 2001, Tora Urup has been running her own design studio and produced her works in colaboration with highly skilled craftsmen in Europe and Japan.

Tora Urup’s art works are part of important museum collections such as The François Pinault Collection, Paris; The Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki Finland; the MUDAC, Lausanne; The Craft and Design Museum Reykjavik Iceland; Coburg Glass Museum, Germany; The Art Council, Copenhagen Denmark; Kunstforeningen af 14 August, Den-mark; The Glass Museum, Ebeltoft Denmark, and the Designmuseum Danmark.

Artist’s Resume