The Glass Heart: Art, Industry & Collaboration
The Glass Heart | Two Temple Place
27 January - 21 April 2024
We were honoured to exhibit Peter Layton's archived installation 'Battery' in the highly anticipated 2024 exhibition The Glass Heart. This external showcase hosted at Two Temple Place united over 100 glass artworks spanning 170 years, and included a breathtaking new installation from our own resident artist Louis Thompson in collaboration with Sophie Thomas.
The exhibition highlighted works from the historic industrial glass heartlands of Stourbridge in the Black Country and Sunderland in the North East, alongside the contemporary home of stained glass at The Stained Glass Museum in Ely. In its exploration of narratives central to glass art and manufacturing The Glass Heart celebrated the timeless skills, artistry and innovation required to work with this challenging material.
The exhibition was conceived and curated by curator and writer Antonia Harrison. Antonia Harrison said:
“As a material, glass has a particular vitality. From the molten state of its formation to the reflective and light emitting qualities of its final form, glass retains an amorphic heart. As artist Sam Herman pronounced, Glass is a dance of immediacy’.
These vital qualities lend glass its particular power as an artistic medium – one which reflects, commemorates and illuminates our human condition.”
The Glass Heart is a Two Temple Place exhibition, produced in partnership with National Glass Centre Sunderland, The Stained Glass Museum, Ely and Stourbridge Glass Museum.
Our Stories
Country & Town House - The Luxury List: November 2026
Country & Town House features the Lolo x London Glassblowing platter in its November Luxury List, picking out the limited-edition collaboration between Peter Layton and José Pizarro as a way to liven up the table this winter.
Women in Glass - Exhibition Open Call
London Glassblowing invites applications from UK-based women working in glass to take part in Women in Glass, a group exhibition opening in September 2027 to coincide with the studio's celebration of Peter Layton's ninetieth birthday. We are pleased to welcome back Cathryn Shilling, London Glassblowing's gallery curator from 2010 to 2019, who returns as guest curator for this special exhibition.
A Bermondsey Street Collaboration
Renowned glass artist and founder of London Glassblowing, Peter Layton, has collaborated with old friend and celebrity chef, José Pizarro, to create 30 limited-edition platters, launching on 12 October, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of José Pizarro on Bermondsey Street and the 50th anniversary of London Glassblowing.