4. Amber Cowan, Powder Box and Offering in River and Jade
Is this what Martha Stewart sees when she trips on acid? I like to think so. Jadeite, a green-tinted milk glass that was popular for mass-produced housewares in the 1940s, had fallen out of fashion until Stewart led a revival under her brand in the 1990s. For this luscious wall sculpture, acquired by the MFAH last year, the artist Amber Cowan combines pieces of vintage pressed glass with dense leaves, flowers, and squiggles made from scrap glass discarded by producers. Cowan’s extravagant sculptures take the kind of old-timey glassware found at thrift stores and turn it into dazzling hallucinogenic dreams.
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