The Gallery at Barrio Glassworks features beautifully designed, handmade objects by glass artists from San Diego, Southern California and beyond. We are dedicated to representing artists at all stages of their career — emerging, mid-career and well established. With roots in the American studio glass movement, we focus on innovative contemporary work by artists who work with glass in unique and innovative ways.
NARRATIVES
Susan Hirsch
In the Gallery
Now through Spring 2025
San Diegian Susan Hirsch is a master artist and teacher of Fusion Glass.
Whether gallery work or public installations, Susan Hirsch creates glass art that reflects the endless possibilities of her material and techniques. Susan’s signature line of fused and slumped glass sculpture features poetry, lyrics, or other messages embedded in multilayered patterns, textures, and finishes. She believes these words help viewers think differently and more deeply about the work than is possible when using color and form alone.
An artist whose work embodies bold designs and clear focus. Susan holds a B.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Herron School of Art, Indiana University. Her 25 year career in retail advertising has garnered critical acclaim as a Creative Director and Graphic Designer.
In 2007, she took a beginning glass fusing class and fell in love. Since opening FIRE FUSION STUDIO, she shows, sells, and teaches classes at her studio in San Marcos, Ca. and through Glass Art Magazine offers 2 fused glass webinars. Locally represented by the Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in La Jolla, Ca., her works are found in private collections in the U.S. and England.
Her lastest endeavor is stepping into the hot shop and glass blowing.
Susan is available for private consultations and commissions for your home or business. Please contact susanthehirsch@gmail.com
Past Gallery Exhibitions
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Carlsbad by the sea
An underwater exhibition
It is our privilege to present a collection of artworks celebrating the majesty of the ocean. This exhibition is a collaboration featuring marine, aquatic, and sealife themed glass sculptures.
Enjoy the beauty of the ocean without getting wet.
Now through Fall 2024
Please join us to MEET THE ARTISTS on Saturday Aug 3 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Legendary local glass artist
Buzz Blodgett
A new exhibition in the gallery
February 18 - Spring 2024
You are invited to
Meet The Artist
Sunday February 18, 2024
11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Buzz Blodgett has been blowing glass since 1969, coming from a family of artists it's only natural that he became one himself. The family glassblowing studio is alive and well flourishing in the small coastal beach community of Leucadia along the southern California coast of Encinitas. Blodgett Glass has produced many lines of glass art starting with the "Music In Glass" line of bells and windchimes (1972-1982) followed by "Bubble Lites" (1975), "Space Lites" (1977) and "Sea Foam (1981). These lines were continually refined over the years into what we have today.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
September 19, 2023 - Winter 2023
Goodbye, Hello
Michael Hernandez
A neon light exhibition
Meet the Artist
October 13, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Teardrops
Drew Raskin
February 2023 - April 2023
Drew Raskin resides in Carlsbad, California and is Barrio Glassworks Studio Manager. Drew first saw glassblowing when he was 15 years old which led him to find workshops in Seattle and an eventual major in Glass at California College of the Arts in Oakland. He has studied glass with independent artists at Penland, Pilchuck and the Corning Museum of Glass. Drew incorporates classic and modern techniqTues to his broad range of work style. He is an emerging artist driven by the chaos and social injustice he sees in the world around him.
IG @the_raskinator
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Takin A Dip
Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty
July 2022 - Winter 2023
The Gallery at Barrio Glassworks is featuring the collaborative works of Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty, including pieces made for the exhibition and pieces made during their visiting artist residency. If Jennifer's style looks familiar, many of her pieces are already included in our retail gallery.
They create narrative-driven glass sculptures referencing nature, the sea, animals, plants and bee life. Their art reflects the team's humor, whimsy and imagination, balanced in design and beauty.
In their collaborations, Caldwell includes sculptural components using borosilicate glass and a torch while Chakravarty combines blown and sculpted glass forms with cast components.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
MEDITATION
Steven Ciezki
Mid April through Summer 2022
MEDITATION features glass blown tower sculptures inspired by stacking stones often seen on beaches and on nature hikes. Steven's perfect execution of these colorful and rhythmically balanced sculptures inspires a calming mediative feeling.
On displays is also Steven's blown glass wall panels which take blown glass into a new and unexpected direction.
Rounding out his exhibition is a series of original charcoal painting and prints capturing intense moments in glassblowing.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Kazuki Takizawa
Winter - Spring 2022
As an artist who lives with Bipolar Disorder, Kazuki uses glass as a means to explore his inner reality and destigmatize mental illness. In an aim to give the invisible shape, Kazuki crafts elaborate vessels and installations, each with a unique story. Universally rooted in a dialogue around mental health, his series examines broad themes such as attaining minimalism amid chaos as well as personal narratives around family and his individual challenges. Takizawa has travelled to numerous communities in and outside the US to share his work and to act as an advocate for mental illness. His practice offers an uncommon and inclusive space to increase awareness and start a conversation.
In the gallery
at Barrio Glassworks
Nic McGuire
March - Summer 2021
Our exhibition space showcases the contemporary works of San Diego Glass Artist Nic McGuire, anchored by “Monarch Flutters”, a floor to ceiling installation of butterflies in motion.