BIO

Jonathan Capps lives with his wife and two children in Columbus, OH. He works as a freelance glass artist and designer while teaching as an Associate Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Art at Ohio State University.

Raised in Knoxville, TN, Jonathan Capps spent much of his youth outdoors, camping, hiking, and playing baseball. After moving to Kentucky in 2001, Capps developed a passion for glassblowing during undergraduate school at Centre College (Danville, KY), where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2005. For the following decade, he worked as a freelance glassblower, artist, and designer, traveling extensively to learn, teach, and pursue the mastery of his craft. During this time, he received several residencies and scholarships, including Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, The Pittsburgh Glass Center, Corning Museum of Glass, Penland School of Crafts, and an International Artist Residency at Lasikompannia in Nuutajärvi, Finland.

After "thru-hiking" the Appalachian Trail in 2013, Capps attended graduate school at Ohio State University and, in 2016, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. He received several awards and scholarships, most notably a travel grant and fellowship as an Archaeological Illustrator in the remote Oğlanqala region of the Autonomous Republic of Naxçivan, Azerbaijan.

In 2018 and 2019, Capps was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Arts Grant to research Finnish glass and design for a year in Finland. In 2020, he was chosen to serve as an Alumni Ambassador to the U.S. Student Fulbright Program; today, he continues to engage in outreach and recruitment for the Fulbright Program and Finland's National Fulbright Foundation. Most recently, Capps was chosen to compete in Season 4 of the hit Netflix series Blown Away!

Capps has taught and exhibited extensively in the United States and Internationally. Throughout his career, he has worked with many glass artists and master craftspeople, developing a diverse practice that fluently moves between traditional techniques and experimental methods, pushing the boundaries and seeking new applications of the glass medium.