Bethany Wheeler is an artist based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia and her practice encompasses studio glass sculpture, jewellery and design objects. She obtained a Master of Fine Art degree from Monash University in 2003 and has been exhibiting her work both nationally and internationally for 20 years.  She has several years of experience as a Studio Technician, Lecturer and Trainer, teaching and assisting in many kiln forming and casting workshops.  In 2013 she established 1000 Degrees Glass Studios, a communal kiln forming and cold working studio in Melbourne.  Her success is recognised both nationally and internationally via  extensive exhibitions, corporate and public commissions.  Bethany’s work can be found in private and public collections including the National Glass Art Collection of Australia.

Bethany is Director of 1000 Degrees Glass Studios and Bespoke Awards, an arts business creating handmade awards, tokens of recognition and appreciation, and gifts of protocol in glass.     

Artists Statement

I am drawn to working with glass because we live in vitreous environments; it’s a material that surrounds us in almost every part of life.   Glass allows light to fill space, letting objects visually materialize and dematerialize simultaneously whilst describing interior and exterior space.  It is charged with fascinating material paradoxes, fragility | solidity, liquid | solid, transparent | translucent | opaque – it is a hybrid that illustrates notions of the human condition and ways of seeing.