Ekin Deniz Aytac & Joshua Davids

Ekin Deniz Aytac & Joshua Davids are a husband-and-wife team of glass artists who have been creating artwork together since 2014. Aytac hails from Edremit, Turkey while Davids is originally from Colorado, USA. The couple draws from their unique combination of cultures, heritages and experiences to develop expressive new works of glass art.

Aytac began working with glass in Istanbul, Turkey before studying the craft further in the Czech Republic. She eventually attended the graduate program at West Texas A&M University. Davids also discovered his passion for glass while seeking a master’s degree in fine arts at the same university. Both artists fell in love with glass as a medium due to its physical nature, the teamwork aspect of creating with it, and its ability to interact with light and space.

In 2015, Aytac and Davids moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan to manage Glass Art Kalamazoo, a nonprofit public access glass studio. There they taught classes, created events and demonstrations, and further developed their skills before taking their practice independent in 2020.

Their signature body of work, called “Cityscapes,” is a sculptural exploration reflecting on the nature of self as it relates to the places and things that shape human experiences. The series manipulates traditional glass vessel forms into unconventional objects evoking landscapes from a unique perspective. Aytac and Davids employ a variety of hot glass color applications, diamond cutting, and sand engraving techniques to represent the visual rhythms of the world.

Each “Cityscape” piece is meticulously planned, with colors and patterns strategically applied to the interior and exterior of a glass bubble. The bubble is then blown out, shaped, annealed, cut with a diamond saw to resemble an abstracted cityscape, and finally sandblasted to reveal layers of color and detail. As storytellers, the artists embed personal meanings into each detail while allowing room for viewers’ own interpretations.

Aytac and Davids’ work has been exhibited in internationally renowned galleries, museums, and private collections around the world. They are currently represented by Raven Gallery in Aspen, Colorado. In December 2022, the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass featured them as Artists of the Month.

Some of their notable glass artworks include:

• Pillars
• Radiant Sky
• Duality | Ikilik
• Urban Egg (Gobeke)
• The It Girl
  
  

Through their highly technical yet expressive glass art, Ekin Deniz Aytac and Joshua Davids continue to build a unique visual language exploring the interplay between self, place, light and form. Their collaborative approach, multicultural influences, and mastery of both traditional and innovative glassmaking techniques distinguish them as an exceptional artist duo on the contemporary glass art scene.