Chris Bird-Jones MA (RCA) is an award winning artist, living and working in Swansea and North Wales.
She is fascinated by the phenomenal nuances of refracted light and shadow, especially when glass is juxtaposed with sunlight. Early in her career she pioneered an approach to glass that saw her move away from traditional and pictorial stained glass to something that played and worked with the effect of light to create something more modern and contemporary in feel.
Often returning to particular themes, objects, forms and metaphors, she harnesses the playful transience of natural light in her work - key elements in her latest work.
A departure from the stained glass window, this latest work - collections of vibrantly coloured and silvered spoons - has allowed her to explore her fascination with everyday and ordinary objects. They showcase her ability to create something universally beautiful from the ordinary and unexceptional - described by Dr Frances Woodley as ‘making a universal tropic for cherishing’.
Among her many accolades and impressive CV, Chris Bird-Jones was selected as Creative Wales Ambassador in 2015. This saw her travel to Hawaii and the beginning of a journey of academic and social research which culminated in the silver spoon collection - an exploration in glass of our universal connection to, and with, the spoon.
Originally from Llangollen, Chris studied at Swansea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. A much sought after artist, her work is held in both private and public collections including the Art in Public Places Exhibition of the State Foundation: on Culture and the Arts, Hawaii, in National Library Iceland, Reykjavik, in National Library Wales, Aberystwyth, and the Godown Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur, and at POWIS, Penang, Malaysia, plus private commissions in UK, Europe, NZ and USA.
International Credentials
Chris won the Creative Wales Ambassador Award, Arts Council Wales, 2015 and through the Women’s International Glass Network has exhibited and toured across the world including:.
Women’s International Glass Workshop, (IOF, WAI) Neerja Modi School, Jaipur, India
Women’s International Glass Workshop, (IOF, WAI) Light Matters Exhibition/Workshop, Japan, May 2018
Wales Arts International (WAI) (IOF) for WIGW, France, 2014
Light Matters, WIGW, Hillside Gallery,Tokyo, Japan, 2018
Women’s International Glass Network Exhibition/Conference(WAI), Australia 2006; New Zealand 2002
British Council Award for Women’s International Glass Network Exhibition & Conference,Tokyo 1995
Other International work - in Asia and Europe and the US
Spoonful, (solo) POWIIS, Penang, Malaysia April 2019
Cultural Delegation to China: Welsh Government Trade Mission, to Shanghai & Hong Kong, March 2018
'Wales × Oita Friendship Exchange - The Art of Wales Exhibition in Oita, OPAM, Japan Sept 2019 traveling to Hong Kong for Business of Design Week Dec 2019
reFORMationen, Schloss Doberlug, Doberlug-Kirchain, Germany, March-July 2017, then touring to galleries in Poland, 2017-2018
Lumiere Visible WIGW, the Grange aux Verrières, Saint-Hilaire en Lignières, France, June – Oct 2016
Ohi, ho’ahu, gather, casglu, (solo) The Commons Gallery, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, 2015
‘Landna(h)me’. Ratibor, Poland Jan/May 2014; Naklo Poland Jun/Sept 2014; Märkischen Kreis (Soest) 2015
Her work also featured in
ISSUE 41, Oriel y Bont, Pontypridd, UK / Art Spot Korin, Kyoto, Japan, May 2019
