Hannah Gibson is an internationally award winning glass artist and geologist based in North Wales. For almost three decades, Hannah has explored the creative possibilities of glass, developing a research led practice at the intersection of art and science. Drawing on her background in geology and a deep understanding of glass as a material, she has dedicated much of her career to unlocking the creative potential of recycled glass. Through sculpture, installation and public art, she transforms recycled glass into works that explore memory, materiality and the stories objects carry, revealing the extraordinary histories held within familiar objects.
Growing up at the foothills of Snowdonia, overlooking the Menai Strait, Hannah developed an early fascination with geology, leading her to study Geology at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst there, an interest in glass grew into a lifelong passion. She later completed a Master's in Glass, where she began developing the bodies of work Recycling Narratives and Whispering Sweet Nothings. Returning as Artist in Residence, her research explored materiality and the transformative potential of recycled glass, laying the foundations for a practice that continues to investigate the relationship between object, memory and cultural heritage.
Working predominantly with recycled glass, Hannah transforms glass that has played a meaningful role in people's lives, from medicine bottles and insulin vials to perfume bottles, windscreens and everyday domestic objects, into cast sculpture that preserves the histories embedded within the material. Every object is carefully selected for the story it carries, allowing experiences of healing, celebration, loss and survival to become inseparable from the finished work. Through this process, she invites audiences to reconsider the social, emotional and cultural significance of the objects that shape our lives.
In 2025, Hannah presented Glass Renewed: Hannah Gibson and the History of Glass, a major solo exhibition at the Museum of Brands in London, bringing together contemporary cast glass with historic objects from the Robert Opie Collection to explore memory, nostalgia and the cultural significance of everyday glass.
In 2026, Hannah created Recycling Narratives, No Matter the Weight, in collaboration with textile artist Naomi Beevers for the Glass Fashion Show at the Corning Museum of Glass. The work consists of thousands of individual pieces of recycled cast glass, each made from donated glass carrying its own story and hand assembled into a wearable dress. Created from glass contributed by people around the world, the installation explores the emotional and physical weight carried through illness, loss, hope and survival, transforming individual experiences into a collective portrait of resilience, compassion and connection.
Hannah's work has received international recognition, including the Award of Excellence at Habatat Detroit in 2024, First Prize in the Glass Art Society's Trace: An Exploration of Sustainable Glass Art in 2023, being shortlisted for the Coburg Prize for Contemporary Glass in 2022, and being Highly Commended in The Glass Prize in both 2021 and 2022.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Corning Museum of Glass, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Imagine Museum, the National Liberty Museum and the Royal Scottish Academy, as well as at SOFA Chicago, COLLECT, PAN Amsterdam, the British Glass Biennale, Habatat Detroit Fine Art, Habatat North Carolina, The Etienne Gallery, Gallery TEN and London Glassblowing.
Alongside her studio practice, Hannah creates public art, delivers lectures and workshops internationally, and continues to expand the possibilities of recycled glass. Hannah's work demonstrates how materials that have completed their original purpose can become enduring works of art, preserving personal narratives while contributing to wider conversations about sustainability, memory and our relationship with the material world.