This class will focus on using the fusing kiln as platform for free form shaping of warm glass. Students in this class will build flexible, inflatable, and expandable fusings that can be brought out of the kiln to be worked in three dimensions. Students will learn methods and techniques for assembling fusible structures in flat glass, and bringing those structures to a working point from which they can be manipulated either inside or outside the kiln. Students will also be encouraged to develop their own methods for the manipulation of warm glass, and for construction and assembly of created parts in the hotshop. This will expand skill sets and possibilities in radical new ways, and open whole new areas for artist/ student exploration.

Matthew Szösz prefers his sculpture to be discovered rather than created, and works in partnership with material and process to explore new families of form.

He has received a BFA, BID, and MFA in Glass from Rhode Island School of Design. As well as, the Jutta Cuny-Franz Prize, the Borowsky Prize, and a Tiffany Foundation grant, and has been an artist in residence at programs across the US, Denmark, Japan and Australia. He has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Washington, Toyama, Penland, Pilchuck, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Public Glass in San Francisco, where he was executive director.

In 2010 he founded Hyperopia Projects, curatorial/ project group based in the USA that advances cross-genre material based sculpture and critical thought. He currently lives and works with his wife, Anna Mlasowsky, in Seattle, WA.