Hastings College glass professor’s work featured at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery
(Hastings, Nebraska) – Molten glass moves with heat, gravity, breath and time—a dialogue between artist and element that Hastings College Assistant Professor of Art Aya Oki knows well. Starting this month, museum visitors from around the world will experience that dialogue firsthand when her sculpture, Bloom X, goes on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Oki’s piece is part of Handwork: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery, an exhibition opening to the public on Friday, Nov. 13. Highlighting 53 selections from the Smithsonian’s permanent collection, the exhibition celebrates the expressive power of skilled craft and material innovation. Bloom X was recently acquired into the museum’s permanent collection, ensuring Oki’s work remains part of the nation’s premier collection of contemporary craft.
More information on the exhibition can be found at www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/handwork.
Oki will attend a private opening reception at the gallery on Nov. 12 before greeting visitors at the museum’s public open house on Saturday, Nov. 14. She will be stationed near Bloom X to chat informally with guests about the sculpture, her process and her artistic philosophy.
“Having Bloom X become part of the Smithsonian’s permanent collection and be exhibited at the Renwick Gallery is an incredible honor,” said Oki. “My ideas often emerge through the process of glassblowing, as I work directly with molten glass. I’m fascinated by how the material stretches, flows and responds to heat, gravity and breath. Each experience brings new questions and possibilities, often leading me in directions I hadn’t imagined. I’m eager to share this way of working directly with visitors at the opening and bring those experiences back to students and the community at Hastings College.”
Oki joined the Hastings College faculty this year, leading the College’s distinguished glass program and sharing an internationally recognized practice with students in the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center.
A native of Japan, Oki’s artistic practice is rooted in a sustained engagement with molten glass through glassblowing. Through repeated making and close observation, she continues to deepen her understanding of the material, allowing her techniques and artistic approach to evolve together. Her sculptures have been exhibited across the globe, including at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, Homo Faber in Venice and the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize exhibition in Paris. Her work is also held in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, the Imagine Museum and the Museum of American Glass.
Throughout her career, Oki has taught, conducted demonstrations and participated in residencies at prestigious glass institutions such as the Pilchuck Glass School, the Penland School of Craft and the Corning Museum of Glass. She is also among a select group of artists featured in the forthcoming book Secrets from The Studio, slated for publication by the Corning Museum of Glass in 2027.
Oki studied glass at the Aichi University of Education in Japan before earning her Master of Fine Arts in glass from the Rochester Institute of Technology.