A State of Matter: Modern and Contemporary Glass Sculpture explores glass through its three different states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Work from 1965 to the present day will be on display by 16 artists including Claire Falkenstein, Mona Hatoum, Luke Jerram, Joseph Kosuth and Hew Locke.

Glass is a mysterious and wonderful thing. Less a material than a state of matter, the heat of the furnace transforms grains of silica into molten lava, which can be stretched, flattened, moulded, blown or cast. Unlike stone or wood, there is no essential ‘truth’ to glass as a material. Thus, when sculptors turn to glass, they are able to make it perform the most extraordinary feats, sometimes using its common properties, sometimes subverting them, and often while making profound underlying comments on issues of identity and human frailty. A State of Matter: Modern and Contemporary Glass Sculpture will showcase the material properties of glass as a medium and the ways in which artists have worked with or against these properties. 

The exhibition will explore the collaborations between artists and master glassmakers which are key to many examples of glass sculpture. Although a number of sculptors specialise in working with glass, more often than not artists turn to the skills and expertise of professionals in order to realise sculpture in glass. The exhibition aims to demonstrate that glass is an infinitely variable material, used in imaginative and subversive ways by a diverse range of artists.