Living in a small town in the prairie lands of Manitoba, nearly two hours from Winnipeg, sculptor Ione Thorkelsson has developed her own unique techniques of casting and her own subject matter — provocative glass skeletal forms that manage to be both organic and other-worldly. In her 2009 work Rex (pictured), a viewer is confronted with the familiar (is it a dinosaur?) and the unexpected (is it a little girl’s skeleton in a skirt?) as the artist plays with scale, form, and iconography to provocative effect. Yesterday it was announced that the Canada Council for the Arts had awarded Thorkelsson its Saidye Bronfman award for excellence in the crafts, which includes a $25,000-prize. Keep reading →
March 10, 2010
Canadian glass sculptor Ione Thorkelsson wins $25,000 Saidye Bronfman Award
March 8, 2010
Laura Donefer awarded week-long residency at the Toledo Museum
Laura Donefer, Urchin Bonnechance Basket, 2009. Blown glass. H 10, D 10 in. photo: steven wiid
On May 1st, Laura Donefer, the American-born Canadian glass artist, received a telephone call from Jutta Annette-Page, curator of glass and decorative arts at the Toledo Museum of Art, informing her that she’d been chosen for the museum’s Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP), now in its fourth year.
“I thought Jutta was playing a joke on me,” Donefer told the Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. “Once she finally convinced me that she was serious, I was speechless — even though I’m not often speechless.” Keep reading →
March 7, 2010
International Flameworking Conference celebrates 10 years by honoring one of its founders
Paul Stankard, a driving force behind the International Flameworkers Conference, will be honored during this year's event.
When the annual International Flameworking Conference takes place from March 19th to the 21st at Salem Community College in Carneys Point, New Jersey, the three-day gathering of devotees of the torch will be celebrating its own 10th anniversary. Keep reading →
March 6, 2010
Never leave Pilchuck: Island retreat complete with glass studio for sale
Room with a view (of the Puget Sound).
On Camano Island, Washington, less than 20 miles from the Pilchuck Glass School, a house is on the market that comes complete with a hot and cold shop, natural gas lines, and plenty of parking for visitors who already drive out each year on the Pilchuck tour of local glass studios. Keep reading →
March 5, 2010
3 Questions For … Michael Janis
Michael Janis at work in his Washington Glass School studio.
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Michael Janis: My artwork often deals with the complex questions of identity and patterns of behavior. I layer frit powder drawings of figures with elements of text or shapes to create a story. As a “lapsed architect,” I often find architectural elements working their way into the imagery that I layer and fuse together. Keep reading →
March 4, 2010
Opening: Environmental concerns take center stage in Pittsburgh
Jason Fork's Next Harvest (2010) presents a glass windmill as a plant to encourage thinking about harvesting wind power.
The exhibition “From the Earth to the Fire and Back“ opening this Friday evening at the Pittsburgh Glass Center is timed to coincide with United Nations World Environment Day on June 5th, for which Pittsburgh has been named the North American host city. The exhibition will feature 28 local artists’ recent work in sand, soda, and flux. These artists are of all ages (four are even high-school students) and many are creating their work from recycled materials. Keep reading →
March 3, 2010
Elliott Brown Gallery to close April 1st as Kate Elliott heads to Santa Fe
The Elliott Brown Gallery display at the 2008 SOFA CHICAGO.
Since Elliott Brown Gallery opened in 1993, it has represented such top-tier artists as Ann Robinson, Richard Marquis, Hank Adams, and Katherine Gray. Gallerist Kate Elliott was also a trendsetter when, in August of 2002, she closed down her retail gallery location in the Westlake section of Seattle but continued to represent artists at the major art fairs such as SOFA CHICAGO, and through her online gallery. Several other galleries specializing in glass, most recently Holsten Galleries, would follow her lead in the ensuing years.
On April 1st, however, Elliott Brown will close its virtual doors as its director moves out of Washington state and settles in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to run the new Bullseye Resource Center opening in the Southwest’s art capital on July 14th. Keep reading →
March 2, 2010
Opening: Sixth edition of “Finnish Glass Lives” documents end of glasshouse era but also the flowering of Studio Glass
Alma Jantunen, Bonsai, 2008.
On March 5th, the Finnish Glass Museum will open its “Finnish Glass Lives” exhibition, a regular event every five years that seeks to take the temperature of the glass industry in this country that has produced such design giants as Alvar Aalto and Tapio Wirkkala.
When the exhibition debuted in 1986, Finland was home to the Nuutajarvi, Iittala, Karhula, Riihimaki, Kumela and Humppila glasshouses. For the sixth installment of “Finnish Glass Lives,” only Iittala remains.
As William Geary, an appraiser, author, designer and speaker on Scandinavian, European and American Studio Glass explained in response to emailed questions from the Hot Sheet, behind the closures in Finland is “ …the ability of the Poles, Turks, and Chinese to produce stemware, tableware, and decorative art glass at substantial cost reductions.” Keep reading →
March 1, 2010
Opening: Mielle Riggie’s glass dresses at Winston Wachter Fine Art
Mielle Riggie, Patience, 2010. Kiln Formed Glass. H 14, D 13 in.
What is it about the dress? Is it its curves or how it falls on the body, the material used, or perhaps the personality underneath? What is it about the form that makes the dress both elusive and captivating? Perhaps that’s why artists such as Karen LaMonte, who creates life-size cast-glass dresses, have achieved such wide acclaim.
On March 3, at the Winston Wachter Fine Art in Seattle, Washington, a group show tackles the power of the form in an exhibition entitled “Dress Envy” by exploring the dress depicted in various materials, including glass. Keep reading →
March 1, 2010
Hot Off the Presses: GLASS 118, Spring 2010
Glass 118, Spring 2010
The new issue of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly hits newsstands and subscriber mailboxes today. On the cover: A detail of Beth Lipman’s Still Life with Grapes (2007), a C-print that measures 29-inches high by 36-inches wide. Lipman’s icy three-dimensional realizations of opulent tableware on overcrowded tabletops are a frosty take on the excesses of our pre-crash era and hold up well as a meditation on their larger theme of mortality. Keep reading →
February 28, 2010
3 Questions for … Mark Peiser
Mark Peiser mocking up Palomar 007. The glass casting weighs about 90 pounds and is replicated by blue styrofoam. photo: cassie floan
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Mark Peiser: I’m working on the seventh piece of the “Palomar” series I began in 2007. I’ve always considered thinking about my work to be part of it. Having been pretty much snowed in for the last two months, I’ve had opportunity to sort out some thoughts about the piece and series. Keep reading →
February 25, 2010
North Lands releases 2010 Conference and Master Class schedule
Click this image of the 2010 North Lands Creative Glass brochure to download a PDF guide to all the offerings.
Organized around the theme of “Form,” the North Lands Creative Glass 2010 Conference and Master Classes program will feature a diverse lineup of five artists working in glass and one in clay, whose technical and expressive abilities may well make the epic trek to the windswept Northeast coast of Scotland worth the flight and long drive to get to the former fishing village of Caithness. Keep reading →
February 24, 2010
Curator Kelly Conway to discuss Chrysler Museum’s glass collection in New York City lecture
The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. courtesy: the cma
The glass curator at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, will be in New York City next week to deliver a lecture entitled “What’s New in Glass at the Chrysler Museum.” On Tuesday, March 2, at 7 p.m. at the monthly meeting of the New York Metropolitan Glass Club, a group of collectors, dealers, and devotees of historic glass, curator Kelly Conway will discuss how this fine art institution is incorporating glass into its exhibitions. Keep reading →
February 23, 2010
Book Report: Keith Cummings surveys kiln-formed glass sculpture
By Keith Cummings
($55, University of Pennsylvania Press)
Following up on his 1997 book, Techniques of Kiln-Formed Glass, British artist and professor Keith Cummings sets out to go beyond technical matters and survey the full range of artwork being produced in glass from the kiln. Looking at everything from enameling to full-on casting, this volume keeps the finished artwork front and center. But, unlike the typical coffee-table tome, Cummings’ book includes plenty of information about process and technique, fitting for the man who led the glass department at Wolverhampton University in the U.K. for four decades. Keep reading →
February 22, 2010
3 Questions For … Gene Koss
Gene Koss at work in his studio.
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Gene Koss: I’m currently working on a monumental sculpture 13-by-10-by-30 feet titled Line Fence. It’s inspired by the feeling of a particular site in the Wisconsin landscape. I’m in the metal fabrication stage now working with the fabrication shop. I’ve already spent two years in research and engineering prior to beginning fabrication.
February 19, 2010
Opening: Roni Horn’s cast glass sculptures at Boston’s ICA
Roni Horn, Pink Tons, 2008. Solid cast glass. H 48, W 48, D 48 in. courtesy: the artist and hauser & wirth © roni horn. photo: john kennard
Conceptual artist Roni Horn is known for using sculptural materials to play with the viewer’s perception. Her current show “Roni Horn aka Roni Horn,” opens today at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and includes photography, drawing, and metals such as copper and gold. But the most dramatic pieces are her massive glass castings. Keep reading →
February 18, 2010
Cancer surivivor turns handblown votives into five-store retail success story
Now available in 300 hues, the glassybaby votives sell for $40 in Seattle, Bellevue, and Portland -- $44 in New York City.
What do you get when you combine an expertly-merchandised handmade product selling at an affordable price-point ($40), coming in a dizzying range of hues (collect them all!), boxed in environmentally conscious packaging, and offering a compelling story of survival and charity? The answer is the retail sensation known as glassybaby, a Seattle-based company that saw its store network grow to five locations and its sales increase by 25-percent in 2009 to reach $2.5 million. Keep reading →
February 17, 2010
Call for Donations: Dan Klein Memorial Fund accepting artworks
A fund set up in memory of Dan Klein (1938 - 2009) supports one of his most passionate causes: North Lands Creative Glass.
Artists looking for a way to donate to the Dan Klein Memorial Fund set up in 2009 to honor the life and work of Dan Klein (1938 – 2009) are encouraged to designate a single work of art that will be included in an upcoming exhibition. When this work is sold, the proceeds can be sent to North Lands Creative Glass, the nonprofit arts center on the northeast coast of Scotland.
Alan J. Poole, Klein’s partner who is continuing to run Dan Klein Glass, explained how the idea came about in a prepared statement. “Since Dan unexpectedly passed away at the end of June last year, numerous artists have said that they would be delighted to donate a piece of their work for sale, the proceeds from which to go to the Dan Klein Memorial Fund which has been set up to honour his memory and to further his much loved project, North Lands Creative Glass.”
February 16, 2010
Seen: Vividly colored panels made up of layers of glass elements redefine airport footbridge
Gordon Huether's newly installed glass panels along a connecting bridge at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport are based on aerial photographs.
The walkway between the ticketing area and the gates at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport has been enlivened by six massive glass panels installed along the windows of the connecting bridge in an installation entitled Over Houston (2009). The project, just the latest by prolific public artist Gordon Huether, employs 20-foot by 12-foot acid-etched and sand-blasted glass panes that feature brightly colored compositions based on aerial photographs of the topography of the area. Keep reading →
February 15, 2010
Guest Blogger: Glass as tourist attraction (Part II)
The hotshop at the Museum of Glass has become a tourist destination. It can also be watched via their live streaming webcam (click on photo).
Editor’s Note: This is the second posting by guest blogger Lauren Fujii who asks whether using Studio Glass to build tourism is ultimately good for the artists or the work they produce. Part I can be read here.
Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, director of the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery in Wanganui, New Zealand, and a prominent architecture and design writer, recently questioned his city’s desire to become known for glass in an article in the New Zealand Listener. He worried that Wanganui was promoting its glass festival primarily to attract tourists, and that this increase in visitors would result in a market flooded by glasswork without “long-term cultural significance.”
His argument leads to some interesting questions: What are the results of glass-oriented tourism on the market for glass? Who is concerned about protecting cultural heritage in cities with a history of glass manufacturing and preserving glassblowing jobs? In other words, how is glass tourism sustainable?
