Grotto of the Chocolate Nymph

Artist Amber Cowan (American, born 1981)

Date2018

Dimensions30 × 20 × 12 in. (76.2 × 50.8 × 30.5 cm)

MediumFlameworked American pressed glass, mixed media

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Jamar Art Fund of Marvin and Lenore Kobacker

Object number

2018.64

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, 2

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.

Label TextAmber 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.Published ReferencesSmith, Andy, "Stories in the Glass: Sculptor Amber Cowan Constructs Narratives from Rescued Factory Glass", in Hi Fructose Magazine, volume 51, repr. (col.) page 105.