Maria Koshenkova: Desire, tension, and melted form

When the glass begins to respond in return
Born in Russia and educated at the Stieglitz Academy in Saint Petersburg and The Royal Danish Academy – Glass & Ceramics in Copenhagen, Koshenkova now works from Holmegaard Værk in Denmark. Here, she develops her artworks in close collaboration with glassblowers through repeated heating, blowing, and precise interventions, where the resistance of the material is an active part of the process. Her background in classical drawing, modeling, and ballet grounds her work in a bodily discipline where technique and intuition continuously shift in relation to one another.

Her sculpture Faun’s Flesh is nominated for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. It revolves around tension, desire, and transformation – a form that both contracts and expands like something alive beneath the skin. Here, the glass is not merely shaped; it responds.

Art Matter met Koshenkova to talk about tension, control, and the moment when the material begins to respond – and no longer can be fully controlled.

“It means a great deal – both as recognition and as a confirmation that glass can carry complex narratives about the body, identity, and experience. I work with glass as a fine art material. For me, it is a living medium through which I can explore transformation and organic forms in motion. On a personal level, the nomination marks an important point in my journey – from Russia to Denmark – and in my exploration of the body through material.“

“I work with glass as a living material, sustaining a tension between body, transformation, and dissolution.“

“It begins as an intense energy within. As a child, I found a language for it through ballet – where the body became an instrument of tension, balance, and vulnerability. Later, there arose a need to translate this inner movement into form. In glass, I found a material where this can happen directly. It is both fluid and solid, fragile and strong. It is within this duality that I work with questions of identity, transformation, and desire.“

“Glass has historically been positioned within craft, but I work with it as sculpture and fine art. I am interested in expanding the understanding of what glass can be – both formally and conceptually.“

“Faun’s Flesh emerges from a personal experience of intense desire and attraction – an exploration of where the pulse begins and where it dissolves. The work moves beneath the skin and attempts to sustain a tension and a longing in constant transformation. It is not a figure, but a state.“

“It began with a color – a deep, blood-red tone that seemed to rise from within the body itself. I worked with it in watercolor before it insisted on volume and became sculpture: stretched, tense, and alive – like a feeling in the process of becoming and dissolving.“

“I then selected colors – from recycled glass and new materials – in shades of yellow, white, and red with varying intensity. I began with a small, controlled bubble, where the color was built up in layers. This was where the work resided. As the form was blown, I disturbed it – pulling, twisting, and allowing gravity to work against it. I did not build a body. I sustained a tension.“

“The work went in and out of the furnace six to seven times at around 1000 degrees, each time to continue the deformation. At a certain point, the glass became so tense that it could only be moved in short, precise intervals – at that stage, I worked extremely fast. After cooling, I cut and ground the surface to reveal the structure. Finally, I applied a thin layer of silver amalgam in selected areas. I worked with it like a form of ink, where the silver appeared fluid and semi-transparent, adding a subtle metallic quality to the surface.“

“Because they represent two different states. Casting is planned and controlled. Free-blown is moment and movement. I work with both, but it is in the unpredictable that something begins to happen. That is where the body emerges in the material.“

“All the time. I work with pressure, rotation, and tempo, always together with a team of up to four people. At temperatures around 1000 degrees, we have to trust each other completely. For me, it is a form of choreography – not as staging, but as a physical necessity, where the body is in constant relation to the material.“

“I have worked there since 2020. It is a place with a strong history and some of the most skilled glassblowers in Denmark. I still feel a sense of awe when I enter the workshop. At the same time, it allows me to work at a scale and complexity I could not achieve alone. The museum’s collection is a constant source of inspiration, and the surrounding nature influences my work more than I had expected.“

“It is an essential part of the process. The work emerges in a shared space of precision and timing, where every movement matters. The collaboration allows me to push the material further than I could alone and creates an intensity in the process that is reflected in the work.“

“I am interested in the body as something in constant transformation – something that can dissolve, stretch, and become porous. Something that holds both strength and vulnerability, desire and resistance. My sculptures exist between the anatomical and the abstract.“

“I begin with a precise idea, but color always changes in the heat. It exists in layers, and small variations can alter the entire expression. It is a balance between control and chemistry – and a curiosity about what the material itself wants.“

“The works function as an extension of the space. I always take the architecture as a starting point and often work with ropes that I dye myself, allowing the color to move between rope and sculpture. This creates a connection between the work and the space. The installations are not static but activate a vertical and bodily tension.“

“For me, intuition is a form of embodied knowledge shaped through experience. In this exhibition, I worked with pieces that emerged without a fixed plan, in direct dialogue with the material. Suspended in states of tension, they activate both the architecture and the viewer’s movement.“

“We both work with the body – not as a figure, but as tension. Something that pulls, holds, and yields. It is as if the forms are always on their way somewhere, as if they could slip out of themselves.“

“My sculptures are not self-contained; they shift in character depending on how they are installed. What matters to me is that they activate something in both the body and the surrounding space.“

“My practice is expanding towards larger-scale works, with an increasing interest in the public realm. I am currently working on my most ambitious sculpture to date, investigating how tension and transformation can be articulated within an architectural framework.”