Layla Walter

Layla Walter is a New Zealand glass artist who has gained recognition for her distinctive works in cast glass.  “The visual simplicity of Layla Walter’s forms belie complex conversations around New Zealand’s history, our environment and the importance of people and place”. Her work is held in distinguished private collections (Sir Elton John, Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Peter Gordon at The Sugar Club); and significant public institutions (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Museum). Walter’s work represents New Zealand in museums, galleries and cultural embassies around the world.

She continues a tradition of cast glass, using techniques which are highly skilled and complex, employing internal and external carving often using very personal representations of weaving or native flora and fauna carved in bas-relief. There has been much critical acclaim for her detailed work. Walter’s work was awarded Best In Show at the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass conference, 2016. Of her glass casting, Australian critic Noris Ioannou wrote “Layla Walter’s Magnolia Vase is a tour-de-force…”²

Walter is represented by Traver Gallery, Seattle, USA. She was one of seven chosen for Luminaries ‘a selection of work from New Zealand’s foremost glass casters’ at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2009). In New Zealand, Layla Walter is represented by Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, Avid Gallery, Wellington and Milford Galleries in Queenstown and Dunedin. She has been invited to teach, demonstrate and talk about glass casting and New Zealand glass in New Zealand, Australia, America, Canada, and Germany.