Congratulations to Pratt's Glass Studio Manager, Fumi Amano, on receiving the 2022 Saxe Emerging Artist Award!

As a world-renowned center for glass art, the Seattle area is lucky to welcome glass artists who move here to make, learn, teach, and share their work. Pratt Fine Arts Center is especially lucky that Fumi Amano, a multi-disciplinary, award-winning glass artist, accepted the position of Glass Studio Manager in 2020.

While Fumi supports a creative community of instructors teaching a full range of glass art techniques and skills at Pratt, she produces a wide-ranging portfolio of personal work. In one series of work including Chirality - I and II, Fumi transforms old building materials into new forms. “I make sculptures using mundane materials. Shapes of objects are constructed in a distorted manner to reflect the misunderstanding between people. I am trying to expose the absurdities of a manipulative social structure."

Fumi also explores themes of feminism in glass, multi-media sculpture, and performance art. “I have been encouraged to speak louder as an Asian artist since the racial equity movement has grown recently. Through my art, I would like to express the reality of being minoritized in this country. I challenge the tradition of the “silent Asian woman” to reveal the complexities that lie underneath the guise of the superficial “dream” of being an Asian woman.”

In recognition of her artistry, skill, and unique expression, Fumi has been named 2022 Saxe Emerging Artist Award Winner, one of three chosen from 40 applicants. She will present her work at Tacoma 2022, Glass Art Society’s annual conference - #316/317 in the Greater Tacoma Convention Center from 11:00am on May 20.

Fumi is joining the international community of glass artists coming to the Pacific Northwest, May 18-21. Over 100 presenters from 17 countries will gather for this four-day conference to reflect on the last 50 years of glassmaking and imagine the next 50 years of creating, collecting, and teaching glass art.

And at Pratt, Fumi helps glass artists and students imagine what can be created with this versatile, fluid material. She shares her enthusiasm for Pratt with her students, inviting access to a fully equipped studio and accepting art-making space. Fumi says, “ My goal is to open the glass studio to all people in our community.”

To see some of Fumi’s current work, visit fumiamano.com