Glass half full

NZ glass artist Luke Jacomb has spent the past six years touring and building his reputation in the US. The second-generation glass artist (his father is the renowned John Croucher) has held studio residencies in Cleveland, Maryland and Newark and will stage his first solo museum show at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in September. Jacomb’s distinctive hand-blown works mix Maori, Pacific Island and European designs with avant-garde mediums such as photosensitive glass. “He’s using cutting edge techniques to reinterpret and revivify traditional New Zealand motifs in a very cohesive and innovative way,” says NOMA decorative arts curator, John W. Keefe. Jacomb, 29, was initially reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps but has since emerged as a pioneering artist in his own right. “Glass is very seductive,” he says. “You can get caught in its spider web. But instead of being devoured by the spider, I’ve become one. Now I am totally bonkers with glass. I don’t think about anything else.”