Shield Sculpture

Æsa Björk graduated from the Glass Department of Edinburgh College of Art with a 1st class BA (Hons) degree in 1995 and MA in 1997. In 1994 she was an exchange student at VSUP in Prague and studied with Vladímir Kopecky. This both influenced her work and encouraged her in her pursuit of working with glass as a sculptural material. She has frequented the Pilchuck Glass School as a student and TA since 1998 where in 1999 she also was an Emerging Artist in Residence and an instructor in 2016. In 2006 she was an Artist in Residence at the Corning Museum of Glass. Her work has been shown internationally, she has received numerous grants among them a 5 years working grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture 2015-2019. She has had several public art commissions in Norway where she co-founded the open access gallery and workshop S12 in 2005. From 2011-2014 She held a 3 year position as a visiting artist and faculty at the School of Art and Design, Sculpture/Dimensional Studies, Alfred University. Her work is in the collections of the National Museum of Art and Design in Oslo and KODE Art Museums in Bergen, Norway. She currently works and lives in Bergen Norway where she also is an artistic advisor for S12