Three Artists: Zac Weinberg, Joanna Manousis, and Anthony Amoako-Attah

Zac Weinberg

Zac Weinberg is an American artist living and working in Sunderland. His practice centre’s on understanding how objects function; how materials are harnessed for practical purposes, and how they in turn, become physical manifestations of human wants and needs.

Weinberg arrived on these shores four years ago with the aim of exploring the intersections between digital technologies and traditional glassmaking techniques. The work in this exhibition serves as the culmination of this research, employing a combination of CNC waterjet cutting, kiln forming and excessive amounts of grinding and polishing.

The primary material, industrially produced float glass typically used in the built environment and intended to be looked through, rather than at, serves here as both sculptural body and electrical component. Fused with copper wire at high temperatures, the resulting object contains an embedded circuit within the insulative body of glass. With the path of cause-and-effect on full display to the viewer, these works stand in stark contrast to the sleek rectangles of glass we carry in our pockets, devices engineered to obscure their operations. In an age of cloud-based algorithmic selection and opaque user agreements, it seems fitting to encounter an object with nothing to hide.

This work was made possible through the support of National Glass Centre, The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, Pilkington Glass North America and Fulbright International. Weinberg would like to thank the following individuals for both their skill sets and unwavering optimism over the years: Joanne Mitchell, Colin Rennie, Karsten Oaks, Kyle Sword, Alli Hoag, Diane Wright and Rory Back.

Joanna Manousis

Joanna Manousis is a British American visual artist known for creating both monumental and intimate-scale sculptures in glass, mirror, and mixed media. Her work often mimics familiar materials and objects, provoking perceptual shifts and altered realities for the viewer. Currently undertaking PhD research at the University of Sunderland through the National Glass Centre, Manousis explores dimensional mirrors within cast glass, a practice historically overlooked in both mirror-making and visual art.

Her work has been recognised with nominations for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and the Bombay Sapphire Award for Excellence in Glass, and she is a recipient of the Margaret M. Mead Award and the Hans Godo Frabel Award. She has participated in prestigious international residencies, including those at the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio), the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), the Corning Museum of Glass (New York), and Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris). Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Design Miami and Art Basel (Switzerland), FOG Art + Design (San Francisco), Glasmuseet Ebeltoft (Denmark), and the British Glass Biennale (England). Manousis holds an MFA in Sculpture from Alfred University (New York) and a BA (Hons) in Glass from the University of Wolverhampton (England). She has worked, taught, and studied across the UK, USA, Japan, and Australia.

Anthony Amoako-Attah

Anthony Amoako-Attah is a multidisciplinary Ghanaian artist and a researcher focusing on glass art, ceramics, textile printing, and pattern design.

Based in Sunderland, he approaches glass as a Western material and is particularly interested in transforming its properties to mimic the appearance of woven fabric. Anthony achieves this by employing advanced techniques such as screen printing with glass powders and enamels, water jet cutting, and kiln forming.

His innovative process highlights the intersection of tradition and modernity in his work, creating pieces that challenge conventional perceptions of glass art.

Amoako-Attah’s work has earned multiple awards, including the at the Collect 2022 Artist of the Fair award, the International Artist Award at the British Glass Biennale, the Juror’s Choice Scholarship award at Pilchuck Glass School, and the Warm Glass UK 1st Prize for Aspiring Glass Art. Amoako-Attah has exhibited at Vane Gallery and Sunderland Museum & Winter Garden in the UK, Heller Gallery, Habatat , and the Museum of Glass in the USA, as well as other museums and galleries around the globe.