Artist and designer Hanna Hansdotter’s mold-blown glass sculptures and low-relief wall works ooze, slump, and bulge, their soft forms interrupted by the hard lines left behind by the casting process. Trained at the preeminent Swedish glass manufacturers at Kosta Boda Glass Center and the Orrefors National School of Glass, Hansdotter’s rebellious and individualistic vessels remain defiantly craft-oriented in their techniques. Over time, she has developed a practice of conceptual design overlaid with a punk sense of artistry, apparent in her sculptures’ warped and distorted silhouettes produced in the process of constraining hot glass within heavy iron frameworks. Once the metal cages are removed, the result is both high-gloss and heavily baroque, a merger of amorphous, fleshy forms and variegated surface embellishments. Today, Hansdotter works in Glasriket or “Glass Country,” the famed center of Sweden’s historic industrial glassblowing dating to 1742.
Hansdotter is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and accolades, including the ELLE Decoration Design Awards, the Lauritz Craft Prize, and the Residence Arts & Crafts Award. In 2020, she received the Åke Andrén Grant in support of her exhibition Fading Prints at the Prins Eugen Waldemarsudde Museum. Since graduating in 2017 from Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design, Hansdotter’s work has frequently been exhibited within museums, including at the Gävle Art Center, Liljevalchs, and the Glazenhuis Flemish Centre for Contemporary Glass Art. Her sculptures are in the collections of the Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, the Public Art Agency Sweden, The Glass Factory at Boda, and the National Museum in Stockholm.
HANNA HANSDOTTER
b. 1984, Sweden
EDUCATION
2017
BA, Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
2012
National School of Glass, Orrefors, Sweden
2010
Kosta Glass Center, Kosta, Sweden
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Ornamental Abs, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
2022
Techno Forest, The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
2020
Fading Prints, Prins Eugen Waldemarsudde in association with Åke Andrén Grant, Stockholm, Sweden
Ornamental Abstractions of Industrial Memories, Kulturcentrum Ronneby, Ronneby, Sweden
Rabbit Hole, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
2.0, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2018
Fading Prints, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Gnist (Spark), Holmegaard Værk, Holmegaard, Denmark
2024
Forêts Astrales (Astral Forests), Institut Suédois, Paris, France
Summer Group Show, HB381, New York, NY
2023
Generation Glas, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
2022
The Collection, Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
Enter Art Fair with The Hole, Copenhagen, Denmark
2021
East Hampton Hole, The Hole, New York, NY
Once Twice, The Hole, New York, NY
Chart Art Fair with Steinsland Berliner, Charlottenborg Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark
Market Art Fair with Steinsland Berliner, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
2020
Palatset (Palace), The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
Chart Art Fair with Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
2019
Bachelor, Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden
Sculpture, Sculpture, Sculpture!, CFHILL, Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish Glass, Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium
2018
Immersion, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Meet and Greet, The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
Dallas Art Fair with Richard Heller Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017
Hommage, Form/Design Center, Malmö, Sweden
Hommage, Kosta Boda Art Gallery, Kosta, Sweden
What's Your DNA, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
What’s Your DNA, Form/Design Center, Malmö, Sweden
COMMISSIONS AND PROJECTS
2022
Commissioned Work for Hötorget with Vasakronan, Stockholm, Sweden
2021
Documentary SVT, Designhistorier
2020
Storefront installation, Selfridges, London, UK
2019
Designer, Annual Museum Collection, The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
Public Art Installation, Linneuniversity of Kalmar, Kalmar, Sweden
2018
Absolute Vodka, Commercial
Art Collaboration with Artilleriet, Göteborg, Sweden
2017/18
Interior Installation, SneakersNStuff, New York, NY; London, UK
2017
Designer/Artist, Orrefors Kosta Boda, Kosta, Sweden
Hommage, Kosta Boda 275 Years, “Nightfall Series,” Design Commission for Kosta Boda, Kosta, Sweden
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2023
Swedish Government Export Prize for Cultural and Creative Industries, Artist of the Year
2020
Åke Andrén Artist Grant
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Two-Year Working Grant
2019
Lauritz Craft Prize
Residence Magazine, Design Award, Craft of the Year
2018
Elle Decoration, Swedish Design Awards
New Glass Review, Corning, NY
Plaza Interior, Design Award, Craft of the Year
The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, One-Year Working Grant
2017
Degree Work Grant, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design
Estrid Ericsson Travel Grant
Fredrika Bremer Scholarship Fund
Konstfack Travel Grant for International Cultural Exchange, Corning, NY
Studio Grant, The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
2016
Fredrika Bremer Scholarship Fund
J.L. Eklund Foundation for Craft
Kosta Boda Working Grant, Kosta, Sweden
Petersenska Hemmets Scholarship Fund
2015
Petersenska Hemmets Scholarship Fund
COLLECTIONS
County of Gävle, Sweden
County of Uppsala, Sweden
County of Växjö, Sweden
Nationalmuseum/Swedish National Museum Collection, Stockholm, Sweden
Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, Gothenburg, Sweden
Statens Konstråd/Public Art Agency Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden
The Glass Factory, Boda Glasbruk, Sweden
