Steven Durow
Steven Durow is an Assistant Professor of Glass at California State University, Chico.
Whether it’s a work of art or a better world, the essence of being human is the ability to imagine what does not exist and through determined acts of will redefine reality. It is the nature of this relationship between our minds and our hands that allow the objects we create to be both a reflection of our inner selves and a catalyst for profound experience.
Steven embraces materiality in his work because he finds it a valuable metaphor for human agency, imagination, and will. He is drawn to glass which is visually light but physically dense, or steel because it can be visually delicate but physically strong. The multifaceted and contradictory nature of these materials form the core of his artistic practice and the ways in which he uses his work to talk about the connections between memory, materiality and self-acceptance. Steven's professional interests lie in pushing the boundaries of what glass as a material for artistic expression can achieve and its acceptance for use in public and large-scale sculpture.
Steven received his MFA specializing in large-scale sculpture and public art at Tulane University. Steven was Education Director at UrbanGlass in NYC, Associate Professor and Head of the Glass and 3-Dimensional Studies Program at Salisbury University and Head of the Glass Area at CSU Chico since 2022.
Steven’s work has been exhibited internationally and throughout the United States, and is included in multiple public, museum, and private collections. His solo exhibition Heartland at the Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs, CO was funded in part with a grant from the NEA. His work has been reviewed and written about in Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, Glass Quarterly and New Glass Review.