Los Angeles-based glass artist David Gutierrez is the recipient of the 2026 Ron Desmett Memorial Award for Imagination with Glass. This annual award presented by Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) recognizes creative thinking and celebrates artists who think outside the box, practice curiosity, and take risks to create unique, imaginative works that are either entirely glass or that incorporate glass.
David Gutierrez’ experience with hot glass has been life changing he says. Since he first touched glass in 2014 his life has shifted directly into living a glass life. Six months into learning at Cal-State Fullerton, he was given the opportunity to take a class with Jimmy Anderegg at Pilchuck in 2015. It catapulted his life in glass and showed him what it took to become skilled in the craft.
“Glassblowing has and continues to be a transformative experience in my life and I have developed a deep passion, love, appreciation and devotion for the medium. As a result, I continuously challenge myself to create works in glass that showcase my inspirations and the appreciations I have for the Universe putting glassblowing into my life,” said Gutierrez.
About the Awardee
Since graduating school in 2018, he has been in a hot shop six-seven days a week working as Kazuki Takizawa’s main assistant at KT Glassworks as well as a glass instructor there on the weekends. He also works as a production glass assistant on Joe Cariati’s team three times a week. He has been able to travel to Pilchuck glass school on various occasions as a teachers assistant for Kazuki Takizawa’s class in the summer of 2019 and was ascholarship winner through Crafting The Future in 2023 to take Percy Echols II and Harriet Schwarzrock’s plasma lighting class Taming Lightning. He has traveled to Penland Craft School to assist for Kazuki Takizawa’s class in 2021. He has also been a teaching assistant at Haystack School of Craft for Leckie Gasman in summer of 2023. All of those experiences helped change his perspective on the medium and critically impacted his artistic practice and life. He has also participated in BIPOC events such as Better Together sponsored by Crafting the Future at Urban Glass in 2024. His work has been exhibited at Cal-State Fullerton, the Brea Gallery, LA Glass Center, and the Craft Contemporary Museum.
Gutierrez’ Residency at PGC
“It has been my dream to create interactive art that breaks the traditional separation from art and the viewer, but rather allowing the viewer to touch and interact with the art. Since first experiencing plasma glass pieces for the first time in 2023 at Pilchuck I have wanted to continue practicing controlling lightning within forms,” Gutierrez said.
For his residency, he proposed creating a set of five elemental animals that each exemplify different forms of nature inside and out of the forms. Each glass animal will exemplify different color techniques from cane patterns, transparent murrine patterns, and transparent double overlays to represent different forms of nature. Each piece will look beautiful and elegant while standing on their own without the plasma being charged but when they turn on the real spectacle will begin. Meanwhile each piece will be playful in form, fun, and reminiscent of bubbly playful anime characters.
“In their own form, these pieces will be elegant and beautiful but further intensified through incorporating charged plasma – transforming the pieces into interactive spectacles of light. Further, each piece will have unique pairings of gases to evoke different representations of the beauty and power of nature – from lightning, floating clouds to dancing fire and rushing water,” he said.
About The Ron Desmett Award
This annual award given by Pittsburgh Glass Center recognizes artists who think outside of the box, practice curiosity, and take risks to create unique, imaginative works in glass. It is in honor of PGC’s late cofounder Ron Desmett who was an artist who eschewed conventions and promoted idea over technique.
Pittsburgh Glass Center awards a minimum of $5,000 annually to an artist (or scholar) in one of four categories: Youth, Glass Artist, Non-Glass Artist, or Writer.
PGC co-founder and wife of Ron Desmett Kathleen Mulcahy and a committee of other artists, curators and community leaders select the awardees. The next deadline to apply is May 31, 2027. Applications are accepted online.
