Glass Artist Laura Kriefman
Laura Kriefman
Laura Kriefman is an internationally exhibiting contemporary stained glass artist working from her dedicated leaded glass studio in Dawlish, South Devon. Her work combines exceptional technical delivery with a playful, vivid visual style. Driven by a love of colour and movement, Laura translates the rigid flow and precision of traditional leaded glass into striking modern statements. Her diverse portfolios span from clean, geometric architectural doors and windows and detailed glass painting to intimate figurative nudes crafted in rare mouth-blown glass. With over two decades of creative expertise, she balances rigorous structural engineering with a colorful, vivacious artistic edge.
Technical Expertise
Glass Exhibition History & Permanent Collections
Artistic Style: Playful, colourful, and vivid. Driven by a deep love of colour and movement captured within the absolute precision of leaded glass.
The Methods: Fully custom work built entirely by hand, from initial cartoon to final leaded assembly. Specialises in traditional leadlight, copper foil, intricate kiln-fired vitreous glass painting, glass casting, and neon execution.
Industry Standing: Exhibiting Artist in the UK Glass Biennale 2026, and International Festival of Glass, Bulgaria 2025. Full Selected Member of MAKE Southwest and an active exhibiting member of the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS). Heritage Craft Bursary Recipient 2026.
Major Awards: Winner of the prestigious Amanda Moriarty Memorial Prize (2024); Longlisted for the national Ruth Borchard Portrait / Self Portrait Prize (2025).
Other International Awards and Fellowships: Chosen for a number prestigious fellowships including Mozilla XR Studio Fellow 2018, PRS UK Female Innovator in Music 2017 (Keychange.eu), 2016 INK Fellow, 2015 WIRED Magazine/The Space Creative Fellow and a 2011-2012 Fellow of the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme. Outstanding Contribution to Innovation – Media Innovation Award 2013; Best Exhibition/Event- Media Innovation Award 2013; Royal Television Society Award for Best Digital Innovation 2012; and an Honorary Mention, Prix Des Arts, Ars Electronica, Smart Oxford Playable City Commission 2017.
Permanent Collection: International Biennale of Glass, Bulgaria — Acquired 'Cleo' (2025).
Selected Major Exhibitions:
UK Glass Biennale 2026 (The World of Glass, St Helens, 2026, curated by Glass Arts Society). Featuring 'Doug'
International Festival Of Glass 2026: Cabinet of Curiousities (The World of Glass, St Helens, 2026. curated by Contemporary Glass Society) Featuring 'ObdisIAN Bruce'
Endangered Craft Exhibition (Stourbridge Glass Museum, 2026, curated by Heritage Craft Council, Stourbridge Glass Museum and Contemporary Glass Society). Featuring 'Rache'
Summer Show 2026 (Make South West) Featuring 'Contemplating What Comes Next'.
Selected pieces from The Bulgaria International Biennale Collection 2026 (Gallery of the Ministry of Culture, Sofia, Bulgaria) Featuring Cleo.
"It's All in the Technique" Showcase (The World of Glass, St Helens, curated by Contemporary Glass Society, 2026). Featuring 'Mr Feathers', 'Dartmoor Temperate Rainforest'.
Delamore Arts Annual Exhibition 2026 (Devon). Featuring 'Doug', 'Lily' and 'Contemplating What Comes Next'.
International Festival of Glass, Bulgaria (National Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2025). Featuring "Cleo'
Green Hill Arts Biennale (Devon, 2024). Featuring 'Dartmoor Temperate Rainforest'
Gallery Representation & Features: Featured gallery artist at Make South West (Bovey Tracy) White Sails Gallery (Dartmouth) and Thelma Hubert Gallery (Honiton). Industry feature profile in Devon Life Magazine and Arts in Liverpool.
Experienced Glass Artist:
In 2024 I moved into working full time as an architectural glass artist. I combine exceptional technical delivery with a contemporary visual style that combines my love of colour and movement into the flow and precision of leaded stained glass work. From Geometric Architectural pieces and glass painting, to nudes in rare mouth blown glass - my glass work is playful, colourful and vivid. I have won the Amanda Moriarty Memorial Prize 2024 and have had work selected for the International Biennale of Glass, Bulgaria 2025. My work has been featured in Devon Life Magazine and Green Hill Arts Biennale.
Technical Capacity:
Working at an Architectural level I understand and am able to adapt designs to the technical specification of exterior glazing, including multiple experience of designing and making work for encapsulation in toughened glass and for triple glazing, and for specific architectural apertures and design considerations.
Responsive Designer:
I am an award winning Arts Practitioner with over 20 years experience creating socially engaged projects worldwide. I am a confident workshop facilitator, trained coach and mental health first aider, with an advanced DBS check. I am comfortable adapting workshops to different communities and reflecting local stories, people and imagery into final creations. I enjoy engaging wide ranging audiences and communities and creating groundbreaking colourful work with multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholders.
Exceptional Track Record:
I have an exceptional track record for creating amazing work with community engagement that has longevity and impact. My work is bright, colourful and vivid. Alongside its craftsmanship it contains poignant reflections of our stories and interactions in this world. My glass work often combines nature, human forms, industrial landscapes and geometric abstract patterns. I have an artistic vocabulary that reflects your brief for working that is welcoming, that connects people, that uses vintage and the salvaged glass.
I am an arts practitioner with over 20 years experience- I am an internationally successful and award winning public realm artist:
Through my previous company Hellion Trace Ltd I have created work worldwide both for long term installation and developed community led public events and spectacles.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
I was the winner of the Smart Oxford Playable City Commission 2017, and 2 x finalists for the Playable City Award. Hellion Trace have built interactive installations designed for public spaces that have been encountered worldwide: from Japan, Brazil and India, to Shanghai, San Francisco and Sheffield. Our public installations reach 1,000 people per day.
Collaborative co-production processes and techniques: I have an extensive reputation for facilitating diverse collaborations and have run mentoring and workshops exploring their creative techniques in universities around the world.
Stakeholder Management: I have worked extensively across the construction industry (with strong relationships with British Land, Woods Bagot, and Socius). I have extensive world class city-leadership experience and am used to framing work, and understanding the considerations of multiple city-wide stakeholders. Projects like Mass Crane Dance involve complicated integrated performance systems, citywide permissions and advanced strategic and emergency planning. Mass Crane Dance which was launched with WIRED Magazine. Mass Crane Dance is a spectacular meeting of music, light, and synchronised construction cranes dancing across the skylight at night: The inaugural Crane Dance Bristol event was seen by 10,000 people and reached 4 million people online.
Cultural leadership: I am an award winning Choreographer and Creative Technologist. Chosen for a number prestigious fellowships including Mozilla XR Studio Fellow 2018, PRS UK Female Innovator in Music 2017 (Keychange.eu), 2016 INK Fellow, 2015 WIRED Magazine/The Space Creative Fellow and a 2011-2012 Fellow of the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme. My awards earned through my company Hellion Trace include: Outstanding Contribution to Innovation – Media Innovation Award 2013; Best Exhibition/Event- Media Innovation Award 2013; Royal Television Society Award for Best Digital Innovation 2012; and an Honorary Mention, Prix Des Arts, Ars Electronica, Smart Oxford Playable City Commission 2017.
I have a proven track record on project delivery, budget management and stakeholder engagement- and have been accountable for budgets of over £1,000,000 per annum. I always deliver on time, and to an exceptional standard.
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