Tucked away in the Studio Arts Center at the University of Texas at Arlington, the artist Justin Ginsberg carefully fuses two panes of glass through a process known as optical contact bonding– an adhesive-free technique that permanently binds two objects.
In order to work, it requires perfection. The surfaces must be totally flat and clean, something hard to do outside of an industrial context, where optical contact bonding is usually employed. For now, Ginsberg has developed his own method and has been at work for hours wiping the glass with laboratory grade cleaner and an air compressor. After contacting the glass and despite his meticulous approach, tiny pockets of air form in the microscopic space between the two planes, producing iridescent rings that resemble lines found on a topographical map. The ability to see these rings shifts based on where you are looking from.
The meaning of touch
For Ginsberg, this visual phenomenon is a way to illustrate the question “What does it mean to touch?” To further explain his intention, Ginsberg calls forward an Ancient Greek paradox, Zeno’s Dichotomy, that suggests no two objects ever truly touch, that there will always remain a distance between them.
“There’s something nice about this idea of contacting, this process is used for optics to see things we can't, like look into stars [and] read meteorological environments...all through this kind of molecular connection between different types of material.”
The contradictions of glass
Ginsberg has spent nearly a quarter‑century exploring the limits of what glass can do. Informed by deep research and an obsession with repetition, much of Ginsberg’s art focuses on the contradictions of glass, liquid to solid, transparent yet capable of shaping light and compressing perceived space.
"Glass has these almost magical properties that allow us to access the micro to the macro and everything in between,” he says.
When applying pressure to the bonded glassto expose the rings,“you’re literally looking at light and air interacting, two things that are almost invisible.”
His eclectic body of work includes pieces like“Patterns of Chaos,”where he attached a diamond bit to a rotary tool and allowed it to harshly bounce off a plate of glass resulting in graceful circular patterns. Or “Sky Column,”a monumental installation commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in 2022. Over one summer, he pulled long strands of molten glass from a furnace to create a 30-foot-tall column composed of thin glass strings that required 150 miles of walking to produce. When viewed in the lobby of the museum, the tower of glass became not only a representation of labor and repetition, but also a mirror to the sky.
Creating opportunities
When Ginsberg isn’t making his own art, he’s helping others make theirs. Since 2013, he has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington where he encourages an environment that is less about chasing masterpieces and more about building creative problem-solvers.
That philosophy is evident in “Deep Ellum Windows,” a pop-up exhibition series Ginsberg and longtime collaborator Jeff Gibbons launched in 2012. The project transformed empty storefronts into temporary exhibition spaces, allowing dozens of North Texas creatives, including Arthur Pena and Hannah Hudson, artists who would go on to exhibit at a national level, the opportunity to exhibit work outside traditional gallery systems.
More recently, in 2025, he brought the Glass Art Society International Conference to Arlington. It was the first time the event was held in Texas in its 54-year history.Seeing an opportunity in the new space that houses the Arlington Museum of Art, Ginsberg curated a show featuring Mexican glass artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre and the North Texas artist Alicia Eggert.
Paying close attention
But Ginsberg resists the label of curator.
“I’ve always looked at it like if I have access to space or have an opportunity that would provide for a community or an artist then I kind of get excited...and actually just making connections you know and kind of being a middle person between the two, which feels really fulfilling.”
Ultimately, Ginsberg’s work asks us to slow down and give attention to what usually goes unseen.
"I want to engage people to think about these hidden structures that exist around us, the things we kind of take for granted or overlook...there’s an infinite amount of exploration to do.”
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