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Phillip is a Calgary-based queer artist whose practice explores identity, community, and the intersections of craft and contemporary art. Working primarily in glass, Bandura transforms the material’s fragility and brilliance into metaphors for queer experience—resilience, visibility, and transformation.
A founding member of Bee Kingdom Glass Collective (2005–2020), Bandura helped pioneer a collaborative approach to glassmaking that merged performance, design, and storytelling. His work has been exhibited internationally, with pieces held in major collections including that of Sir Elton John. Bandura’s practice often embraces humor and camp aesthetics, challenging traditional hierarchies within craft and questioning what it means for glass—and those who work with it—to be “queer.”
He holds an MFA from the Alberta University of the Arts, where he studied under Natali Rodrigues, and spent formative years at Pilchuck Glass School between 2003 and 2011. His recent body of work and lecture series, “IS GLASS QUEER? OR IS IT JUST ME?”, examines the role of materiality, performance, and aesthetics in shaping queer identity within the glass community. Presented internationally, including at the Glass Art Society Conference in Berlin and at the Glass Art Association of Canada Conference in Whitehorse, this project blends personal narrative, theory, and humor to open conversations about queerness in craft.
Bandura’s recent accomplishments include a feature in New Glass Review 44, participation in the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery’s exhibition Beyond the Threshold, and his appointment to the Glass Art Society Board of Directors in 2024.