Colin Reid

Colin Reid is an English glass artist that has achieved worldwide acclaim for his mastery of the techniques of kiln-casting and polishing glass. Born in 1953, Reid studied at St Martins College of Art and Stourbridge School of Art and trained as a scientific glassblower. He is an acknowledged master of cast glass as an artistic medium and has work represented in over forty international public collections. His work commands attention through intriguing reflections and optical illusions within his sculptures.

His work commands attention through intriguing reflections and optical illusions within his sculptures. Reid’s work often amazes those who have never seen it before and prominent themes of his sculptures have included castings of masonry at Burton Agnes Hall, an Elizabethan house in Yorkshire. A number of his assistants have emerged from his studio to become leading glass artists in their own right. His sources of inspiration are numerous, but each work uses the qualities of glass – transparency, refraction, and reflection – to extraordinary, dynamic effect. Reid takes glass to its extreme to create pieces which are both majestic and magical. Over the decades he has worked with this fragile material to create exquisite works of art which intrigue and invite us to wonder at how they are made. Reid’s sculpture has an extraordinary ability to make a first-time viewer stop and be drawn in to look carefully again and again. His brilliance has given him the cutting edge in kiln-cast glass and international recognition for his inspirational work.

He exhibits internationally and has work in over 50 museum collections worldwide. He has undertaken many public and private commissions often combining glass with other media such as metal, stone, or wood.

 “I take inspiration from nature, architecture, and everyday objects. I use lost wax casting to create sculptures with rough highly textured areas contrasted with immaculately polished and reflective surfaces, using both clear glass and color.”

He has also taught short courses widely over the years in Europe, Japan, Australia, and the United States. He has achieved several distinctions throughout his career, including being featured in several volumes of New Glass Review (Volumes 2, 3, 9, 13, and 32).

Notable commissions of Reid’s include "Musa Cavendishii", a magnificent glass table for Chatsworth House, "Cipher Stone", the landmark artwork for the new GCHQ and one of the largest pieces of art glass to have been cast in the UK, and "Ikthus" an intimate font in the Sacred Silver and Glass Gallery, V&A. The Duke & Duchess of Buccleuch also commissioned Reid to make a Books series for Bowhill and to make four glass book pieces as awards for the Walter Scott Prize. Lund Humphries published a monograph on his work in 2013 to coincide with a retrospective exhibition at the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum 5th October – 5th January 2014.

Reid’s public collections include: Victoria & Albert Museum, London; National Museums Wales; National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh; Museo de Arte en Vidrio de Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Glass Art Fund, Strasbourg, France; The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, Czech Republic; and The Corning Museum of Glass, among others.