Brit Micho, Curator of Exhibitions
Over the last few years, the FWMoA has received wonderful donations from a multitude of sources: artists, sponsors, local supporters, and people who simply love the museum. Our largest gifts of art have come from those who collect wonderful art over decades to bedeck their homes. FWMoA’s most recent gift of glass artworks was from the collection of Ralph and Dena Lowenbach.
New Jersey natives Ralph and Dena Lowenbach began collecting glass in 1985, as they were attracted to the array of visual effects through the medium’s interaction with light. Through visits to studios, galleries, and activities with collectors’ organizations, they built a collection of around 130 glass works over 35 years, augmented by personal stories and relationships. Advocates for the medium, the Lowenbachs have enjoyed sharing their collection and passion with others. In the summer of 2025, the Lowenbachs donated 96 works to the FWMoA’s studio glass collection, which has grown exponentially over the last 15 years to nearly 700 works. This is largely thanks to the generosity of several significant donations from private collectors like the Lowenbachs. This exhibition, A Life Reflected in Glass, The Collection of Ralph and Dena Lowenbach, celebrates highlights from this exciting new gift, along with stories about the collection.
It is a part of FWMoA’s mission to always exhibit different aspects of our glass collection, especially their histories. When you walk through our museum, down our glass hallway, and into the glass wing, you will see donors and collectors credited on many of the labels as they are integral to our practice.
Early experiences inspired the Lowenbachs to collect a variety of art throughout their 62-year marriage. Dena regularly visited art museums during her childhood. She became a consummate community volunteer and briefly a realtor and librarian. Ralph, while studying to be a lawyer at Columbia University, took an art history course and was “immediately smitten.” The couple purchased a large pencil sketch just two weeks after they were married. While visiting family in Florida in the ‘80s, the Lowenbachs routinely visited the galleries on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue. There, they received their early education in glass from Holsten Galleries. They found further learning through membership with the Metropolitan Contemporary Glass Group. Ralph and Dena found the members to be warm and forthcoming with their knowledge; they quickly fell in love with the medium. The Lowenbachs were early supporters of glass artists and champions of the field. Ralph, who served on the board of UrbanGlass for 20 years, believes the arts can inspire the younger generation. Dena, who passed away in spring 2025, shared this conviction when she co-founded the non-profit organization GlassRoots in 2001. Located in Newark, the glass studio offers classes, presents community programs, and teaches business skills. Initially targeting underserved youths, it continues to grow in size and scope.
Two pieces highlighted from Ralph in this exhibition are works by Judith Schaechter and Mark Peiser. When first entering into the exhibition, Schaechter’s work is the first you see beside the introductory text, ushering the viewers into the bright and exciting works in the collection.
After the Lowenbachs met Judith Schaechter through a collector’s group studio visit, Dena spotted Rejects at SOFA, New York, and immediately put a hold on it.
Featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, Schaechter’s collage-like Rejects is a contemporary version of what stained-glass artist Tom Krepcio coined a “jumble,” referring to restored Medieval stained-glass windows in English churches that sustained damage during conflicts.
Artisans used surviving fragments and supplemented them with other window remnants or clear glass. In the spirit of jumbles, Schaechter combined unused elements from earlier works–essentially leftovers or rejects. Schaechter skillfully created smooth tonalities through her inventive methods using diamond files on flash glass (clear glass with a thin layer of color). Her pieces require repeated rounds of sandblasting, engraving, hand filing, and enameling.
Looking to Mark Peiser’s Satin Topaz Arabesque, the viewers are met with a gorgeous bowl made up of squiggly, organic glass, almost slightly resembling a brain or patterns created by bugs in wood. Peiser pioneered a variety of innovative glass processes over his long career, so it is unsurprising that the Lowenbachs were fascinated watching his cold stream casting process during a studio visit.
Developed in 2004, Peiser and his team formed the shape and pattern of the work through a continuous stream of hot glass flowing from a bottom pour furnace into a rotating bowl-shaped mold below. Peiser said the “dance of molten glass” was the inspiration for this series. Enjoying its elasticity and quick fusing nature, he viewed this largely as a collaboration between the artist and the medium.
One work I wished to highlight is Elizabeth Ryland Mears’ Voices from the Forest. Mears has been working in flameworked glass for years, creating many of these ‘bundles’ of what looks like twigs. She is inspired by northern Virginia’s nature, in all seasons, and relates it to both her inner and outer worlds.
Voices from the Forest is a unique piece of Mears’ as this bundle of twigs is created from clear borosilicate glass and is held up by kitted monofilament, whereas many of her other creations are filled with color. This piece in particular makes the viewer consider what it is that Mears is trying to relay. In my mind, it seems that the bundles recall past bundles or past twigs, like ghosts of the forest. They are held at the bottom of a clear, web-like scroll, open to the viewer to read what has been written. The title Voices from the Forest suggest the passage of time, knowledge passed down from generations, and the importance of ancestral connections.
A Life Reflected in Glass, The collection of Ralph and Dena Lowenbach, will be on display in the first gallery of the Glass Wing until mid-June.