Grotto of the Chocolate Nymph
Artist: Amber Cowan (American, born 1981)
Date: 2018
Dimensions:
30 × 20 × 12 in. (76.2 × 50.8 × 30.5 cm)
Medium: Flameworked American pressed glass, mixed media
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Jamar Art Fund of Marvin and Lenore Kobacker
Object number: 2018.64
Label Text:Amber Cowan’s elaborate grotto composition is characterized by exceptional repurposing of scrap glass (cullet) and finished pressed-glass pieces. Cowan brings cullet and her found glass objects to her studio where she reheats and reshapes the glass at her flameworking torch. She also utilizes a historic glass press purchased from the now defunct Fenton Glass Company (similar to the one on view in Gallery 3) to create her own pressed objects, like the shells that are found scattered throughout Grotto of the Chocolate Nymph.
Cowan’s subject matter is inspired in part by the 16th-century Grotta Grande (large grotto) in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy, as well as Jan Brueghel The Elder’s painting A Fantastic Cave with Odysseus and Calypso of 1616. The central opening in Cowan’s grotto mimics the niches that contain sculptures in the Grotta Grande. Instead of figures from Greek and Roman myth, Cowan’s grotto features a “chocolate” nymph, named after the historic swirly-brown color of glass produced by the Fenton Glass Factory that is reused in this work. The chocolate nymph is nestled within a wonderland of plants, flowers, animals, and shells.
Cowan’s subject matter is inspired in part by the 16th-century Grotta Grande (large grotto) in the Boboli Gardens, Florence, Italy, as well as Jan Brueghel The Elder’s painting A Fantastic Cave with Odysseus and Calypso of 1616. The central opening in Cowan’s grotto mimics the niches that contain sculptures in the Grotta Grande. Instead of figures from Greek and Roman myth, Cowan’s grotto features a “chocolate” nymph, named after the historic swirly-brown color of glass produced by the Fenton Glass Factory that is reused in this work. The chocolate nymph is nestled within a wonderland of plants, flowers, animals, and shells.
DescriptionFlameworked glass from vintage dead stock cullet and collected original pressed glass wares in the historic "chocolate," which ranges from light coffee to a rich dark brown color. The entire "grotto" is embedded in a wood box that mounts on the wall.
On view