Glass Art Association of Canada

Northern Lights 2026

Northern Lights 2026 – Canadian Glass Grad Exhibition

August 26 - October 14, 2026

It’s that time of year again where GAAC celebrates some of the newest voices in Canadian glass: GAAC's Canadian Glass Graduate Exhibition, an annual exhibition showcasing the work of our major glass institutions across Canada.

This year GAAC received exceptional work from graduating BFA and MFA students from the Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, Espace Verre, Montreal, Quebec, and Sheridan College, Oakville, Ontario. The variety of work encompasses glassblowing, kiln casting, mixed media, coldworking, and more.

For 2026, GAAC debuted its Student Award. In addition to all graduates in the exhibition receiving a complimentary one-year GAAC membership, a talented graduate was selected by the jury to receive a $300 award to support their artistic practice. GAAC is excited to establish this award to recognize our talented graduates and help propel them into their careers as emerging artists.

The recipient of the 2026 Student Award is Jesi Yager, a graduating MFA in Craft Media from AUArts. The jury was impressed with Jesi’s body of work, which showed exceptional conceptual development related to their themes of adaptivity, healing, and the power of nature's beauty when enduring pain and trauma. As part of the jurying process, all applicants also received personal feedback from the jury.

Please join us in celebrating the graduating glass students of 2026!!

List of participants – You can see more details and contact information in their profiles.

Incalmo Bottles

Year:
April 2025
Dimensions:
1 & 3). W = 3", H = 8" and 2) W = 5", H = 8"
Materials:
Glass
Description:
Using 50% “blue glass” (recycled) and 50% “batch” glass (new). Hot fused together using the incalmo technique, creating a new bottle.

Artist

Elisa Banks Elisa Banks

Game Pieces

Year:
April 2026
Dimensions:
Each Piece = W 4" x H 8"
Materials:
Glass
Description:
Colour Game Pieces: red, blue and yellow. These colour make up our world. Clear communication in life isn’t always easy. Our world is layered and unpredictable, and our perceptions are constantly shaped by our experiences, emotions, and circumstances. What we see and understand is often only part of a much larger picture.

Artist

Elisa Banks Elisa Banks

What are you Thinking?

Year:
April 2026
Dimensions:
Base 8" x 8" Height 12"
Materials:
Glass on Metal base
Description:
First impressions are easy, you can be anything or anyone. Relationships and communicating are tough when you start to express your emotions, beliefs, and feelings. Truth is, you never truly know what someone is thinking. Unfortunately, we can't see into each other's heads.

Artist

Elisa Banks Elisa Banks

Arches

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
89cm x 61cm x 64cm
Materials:
Verre coulé, Bomma , Cristal
Description:
Trilogie de verre et de cristal aux surfaces variées où la lumière s'absorbe ou se réfléchit au cœur de la matière.

Artist

Chantale Couture Chantale Couture

Née sur la Côte Nord, Chantale Couture vit et travaille à Montréal. Après ses études européennes en 1996, elle a évolué comme peintre décoratrice pendant de nombreuses années. Par la suite, elle a acquis une expérience comme finisseur de meubles haut de gamme. Aujourd'hui, en plus d'avoir un grand intérêt pour la conservation du patrimoine, elle souhaite développer une expertise en verre. Le travail avec la matière la passionne.

MÉTAMORPHOSE

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
Approx. 12 × 12 × 22 cm each
Materials:
Hand-blown and hot-sculpted glass (cold-assembled)
Description:
A set of six stemmed glasses illustrating the stages of the green tree frog’s development, from egg to adulthood. Each piece evokes the physical and mental evolution that every living being undergoes over time. The work celebrates transformation as a continuous state of change, growth and fulfilment.

Artist

Lénaïc Duros Lénaïc Duros

Lénaïc Duros, born in Toulouse in 1999, began her artistic training in Brittany, France, where she studied design and applied arts from 2014 to 2017. From 2018 to 2022, she specialised in glass at the Lycée Jean Monnet in Auvergne, where she learnt glassblowing and architectural decoration. Between 2017 and 2021, she undertook several advanced training courses in Europe, notably at the Verreries de Bréhat, with Pascale Seil in Luxembourg and Sylvain Zanibellato in France. Since 2022, she has been pursuing a college-level glass programme at the Espace VERRE school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There, she works as a blown glass assistant with various artists, including Isabelle Alepins, David Frigon Lavoie and Cat Designer Verrier. She also participates in cultural outreach activities. Her achievements were recognised with the Józef scholarship in 2023 and the Christian Poulain Perseverance Scholarship in 2025.

MUR FOSSILE

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
200 × 200 cm approx.
Materials:
Cast and thermoformed glass
Description:
A wall installation comprising ten glass panels revealing fossilised imprints. Through the transparency of the glass and the repetition of ancient forms, the work explores the memory of living things, the passage of time, and the link between past and present. It pays tribute to extinct flora and fauna, as well as to their enduring presence through the ages.

Artist

Lénaïc Duros Lénaïc Duros

Lénaïc Duros, born in Toulouse in 1999, began her artistic training in Brittany, France, where she studied design and applied arts from 2014 to 2017. From 2018 to 2022, she specialised in glass at the Lycée Jean Monnet in Auvergne, where she learnt glassblowing and architectural decoration. Between 2017 and 2021, she undertook several advanced training courses in Europe, notably at the Verreries de Bréhat, with Pascale Seil in Luxembourg and Sylvain Zanibellato in France. Since 2022, she has been pursuing a college-level glass programme at the Espace VERRE school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There, she works as a blown glass assistant with various artists, including Isabelle Alepins, David Frigon Lavoie and Cat Designer Verrier. She also participates in cultural outreach activities. Her achievements were recognised with the Józef scholarship in 2023 and the Christian Poulain Perseverance Scholarship in 2025.

VESPARANEALIBELLULA

Year:
2025
Dimensions:
Approx. 38 x 38 x 8 cm
Materials:
lost-wax casting, thermoforming, tracing paper (cold assembly) and paper
Description:
VESPARANEALIBELLULA is a hybrid creature born from the fusion of a wasp, a spider and a dragonfly, each symbolising aspects of my inner world: strength and discipline, patience and creativity, transformation and freedom. Presented as an imaginary scientific illustration, the work blends the living world, science and the imagination through drawings, texts and sculpted forms. It is a tribute to transformation and inventiveness, reminding us that beauty arises from the union of differences and reflecting my own inner quest: to learn to recognise, build and embrace my inner beauty.

Artist

Lénaïc Duros Lénaïc Duros

Lénaïc Duros, born in Toulouse in 1999, began her artistic training in Brittany, France, where she studied design and applied arts from 2014 to 2017. From 2018 to 2022, she specialised in glass at the Lycée Jean Monnet in Auvergne, where she learnt glassblowing and architectural decoration. Between 2017 and 2021, she undertook several advanced training courses in Europe, notably at the Verreries de Bréhat, with Pascale Seil in Luxembourg and Sylvain Zanibellato in France. Since 2022, she has been pursuing a college-level glass programme at the Espace VERRE school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There, she works as a blown glass assistant with various artists, including Isabelle Alepins, David Frigon Lavoie and Cat Designer Verrier. She also participates in cultural outreach activities. Her achievements were recognised with the Józef scholarship in 2023 and the Christian Poulain Perseverance Scholarship in 2025.

Stand Arrow

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
16cm x 24cm
Materials:
Glass
Description:
Hot assembled, inspired by the stand arrow from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Photo taken by Eleanora Debono.

Artist

Yanick Robichaud Yanick Robichaud

Yanick Robichaud is a glassblower based in Toronto, ON, inspired by Venetian glass, anime, and video games, always looking for ways to add these themes into his work. Driven by technical precision, he enjoys the difficulty of the process and has developed a deep appreciation for goblet-making, which has become the focus of his work. Yanick is drawn to the precision, technicality, and endless variety of techniques and shapes.

Ball Breaker

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
11cm x 15cm
Materials:
Glass
Description:
Hot assembled, inspired by the character Ball Breaker from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Photo taken by Eleanora Debono.

Artist

Yanick Robichaud Yanick Robichaud

Yanick Robichaud is a glassblower based in Toronto, ON, inspired by Venetian glass, anime, and video games, always looking for ways to add these themes into his work. Driven by technical precision, he enjoys the difficulty of the process and has developed a deep appreciation for goblet-making, which has become the focus of his work. Yanick is drawn to the precision, technicality, and endless variety of techniques and shapes.

Scary Monsters

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
13cm x 22cm
Materials:
Glass
Description:
Hot assembled, inspired by the character Scary Monsters from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Photo taken by Eleanora Debono.

Artist

Yanick Robichaud Yanick Robichaud

Yanick Robichaud is a glassblower based in Toronto, ON, inspired by Venetian glass, anime, and video games, always looking for ways to add these themes into his work. Driven by technical precision, he enjoys the difficulty of the process and has developed a deep appreciation for goblet-making, which has become the focus of his work. Yanick is drawn to the precision, technicality, and endless variety of techniques and shapes.

November

Year:
2025
Dimensions:
30cm x 20cm x 30cm
Materials:
Clear Glass on PLA Black Bust
Description:
November describes the shift in season, how it can cling, and feel heavy, yet also hold a crisp, clear, and delicate beauty. It carries the feeling of trees locked in ice, when the world is suspended between states: brittle, and luminous. Photo by Talesha Mahe

Artist

Ciara Travers Ciara Travers

Ciara Travers is an emerging artist based in Calgary, Alberta, whose practice centres on glass as a vessel for memory and material storytelling. Working through a combination of studio-based research and process-driven experimentation, she investigates how objects carry meaning and how material transformation can echo the movement of people across place and time. Her studio process is technically rigorous and research-driven, involving both digital fabrication tools and traditional hand-built approaches. She treats failure, revision, and material testing as essential modes of knowledge production, positioning the iterative studio process itself as a form of research. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Alberta University of the Arts, where she focused on material research and the evolution of visual language within contemporary craft. Her practice continues to grow through travel, archival study, and a commitment to connecting historical narratives with present-day experienc

December

Year:
2025
Dimensions:
30cm x 40cm x 30cm
Materials:
Clear Glass Frit and Black Glass Powder on PLA Black Bust
Description:
This work describes how we wear moments of change. December captures the midpoint of my final year of undergrad, when I felt myself speeding toward the finish line of graduation. The form suggests the graduate’s hood I was preparing to wear, holding both the beauty of being swept forward and the softness of uncertainty. The clear glass carries that sense of vulnerability and transition, while the black inscriptions anchor the piece with the certainty and clarity of lived experience. Photo by Talesha Mahe

Artist

Ciara Travers Ciara Travers

Ciara Travers is an emerging artist based in Calgary, Alberta, whose practice centres on glass as a vessel for memory and material storytelling. Working through a combination of studio-based research and process-driven experimentation, she investigates how objects carry meaning and how material transformation can echo the movement of people across place and time. Her studio process is technically rigorous and research-driven, involving both digital fabrication tools and traditional hand-built approaches. She treats failure, revision, and material testing as essential modes of knowledge production, positioning the iterative studio process itself as a form of research. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Alberta University of the Arts, where she focused on material research and the evolution of visual language within contemporary craft. Her practice continues to grow through travel, archival study, and a commitment to connecting historical narratives with present-day experienc

Only When the Light Shifts I

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
6 x 6 x 0.8 "
Materials:
Glass painting
Description:
Images become visible only when light changes, or when the viewer moves. Glass holds the images at the edge of recognition, delaying a stable reading.

Artist

Candy Wang Candy Wang

Candy Wang graduated from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. Her work uses glass to examine how form is recognized under changing conditions. Color, light, temperature, naming, and transfer shape not only appearance, but legibility itself. Glass is not neutral, but an active condition of recognition that redirects reading, delays visibility, and shifts the act of looking.

Only When the Light Shifts II

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
6 x 6 x 0.8 "
Materials:
Glass painting
Description:
Images become visible only when light changes, or when the viewer moves. Glass holds the images at the edge of recognition, delaying a stable reading.

Artist

Candy Wang Candy Wang

Candy Wang graduated from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. Her work uses glass to examine how form is recognized under changing conditions. Color, light, temperature, naming, and transfer shape not only appearance, but legibility itself. Glass is not neutral, but an active condition of recognition that redirects reading, delays visibility, and shifts the act of looking.

Only When the Light Shifts III

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
6 x 6 x 0.8 "
Materials:
Glass painting
Description:
Images become visible only when light changes, or when the viewer moves. Glass holds the images at the edge of recognition, delaying a stable reading.

Artist

Candy Wang Candy Wang

Candy Wang graduated from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. Her work uses glass to examine how form is recognized under changing conditions. Color, light, temperature, naming, and transfer shape not only appearance, but legibility itself. Glass is not neutral, but an active condition of recognition that redirects reading, delays visibility, and shifts the act of looking.

Athena Rising

Year:
2026
Dimensions:
2.4m x 2.2m x 1.9m
Materials:
blown, sand carved, fire polished, woven, and kiln formed glass; sculpted foam, lights, water.
Description:
Athena is a glass phoenix with articulated kiln formed wings, a body made of intricately woven glass that has been rolled up, incalmoed and blown, a head that was hollow sculpted and sand carved before being hot attached at the shoulder. She is suspended above a shallow glass scrying bowl (1m across) set into sculpted foam lava. In the installation, the glass marionette film "Into the Light" was projected into the bowl.

Artist

Jesi Yager Jesi Yager

Jesi Yager earned her MFA in Craft with a focus in glass from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. She began her studies at AUArts less than four months after the amputation of her left foot liberated her from severe chronic pain due to CRPS. Her work explores themes of adaptivity, healing, and the power of nature's beauty when enduring pain and trauma.

Puppet from "Into the Light", glass marionette film

Year:
2025
Dimensions:
Marionette dimensions 68cm x 35cm x 12cm
Materials:
Marionette materials blown glass, wire, wooden crutches, fabric, human hair
Description:
"Into the Light" is a 7.5min self-portrait glass marionette film project. It is an allegorical film to be projected in the scrying bowl beneath Athena Rising as the birth story of the phoenix. The film takes on pieces of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The film opens in a dark cave, the marionette slumped against a wall, the rise and fall of her breath the only indication of life. Eventually she stands up and begins to walk, following shadows that speak of a greater truth and possibility of life outside of her cave. This image is a portrait of Puppet, one of the two glass marionettes featured in the film, taken on set during filming.

Artist

Jesi Yager Jesi Yager

Jesi Yager earned her MFA in Craft with a focus in glass from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. She began her studies at AUArts less than four months after the amputation of her left foot liberated her from severe chronic pain due to CRPS. Her work explores themes of adaptivity, healing, and the power of nature's beauty when enduring pain and trauma.

Zoetrope Amphora Collection

Year:
2025
Dimensions:
each amphora 11-14 cm diameter, 15-20cm tall
Materials:
cameo cut blown glass
Description:
Three amphoras each depicting the 12 frames of an animation loop of my silhouette walking with a different method of mobility (crutches, knee crutch, prosthetic foot). These were used in "Into the Light" to project moving shadows in the cave.

Artist

Jesi Yager Jesi Yager

Jesi Yager earned her MFA in Craft with a focus in glass from Alberta University of the Arts in 2026. She began her studies at AUArts less than four months after the amputation of her left foot liberated her from severe chronic pain due to CRPS. Her work explores themes of adaptivity, healing, and the power of nature's beauty when enduring pain and trauma.