Amber Cowan creates sculptural glasswork centered on recycled, upcycled, and second-life American pressed glass. Using flameworking, hot-sculpting, and glassblowing techniques, Cowan constructs large-scale sculptures that overwhelm the viewer with ornate abstraction and viral accrual in an instinctive display of horror vacui. The primary material used for her work is glass cullet sourced from scrapyards supplied by now-defunct pressed glass factories as well as flea markets, antique stores, and donations of broken antiques from households across the country. Her pieces reference memory, domesticity, and the loss of industry through the reuse of these common items from the aesthetic dustbin of American design.

Her recent diorama-style pieces tell stories of self-discovery, escapism, and female loneliness utilizing figurines and animals found in collected antique glass pieces. These figurines become recurring symbols in an evolving narrative while simultaneously paying homage to the history of US glassmaking.

She lives and works in Philadelphia, where she received an MFA in Ceramics/Glass from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. Cowan was the recipient of the 2014 Rakow Commission from the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, and her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence.