CONVERSATION: Deborah Czeresko, who won the Netflix glassblowing competition Blown Away, tells all

New York-based artist Deborah Czeresko has a foot in two glass camps. She was drawn to glass by the precision of Venetian glassblowing, which she studied at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop under the tutelage of William Gudenrath, now resident advisor at the Corning Studio. (Disclosure: Czeresko is currently a board member of UrbanGlass, the successor of NYEGW.) But she is also an accomplished conceptual and performance artist, and has fabricated work for Kiki Smith and Rob Wynne, among other prominent contemporary artists. When not making her own work, or fabricating for others, she is often at work on her lighting-design line that helps provide income. Surprisingly, despite her wide-ranging skill and high-level art-world connections, Czeresko is not presently represented by an art gallery, though that might change given her recent star performance (and victory) in the Netflix reality show Blown Away. If you've somehow missed the big debates about the program, think of the Great British Baking Show except, instead of fancy desserts, the contestants are asked to create on-demand glass artworks under time pressure. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with Czeresko to discuss her experience behind and in front of the Blown Away cameras in an exclusive interview with the show's winner.

Thursday May 30, 2019 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: Critic and Glass contributing editor Victoria Josslin (1946 - 2019)

Victoria Josslin, a critic and contributing editor to the print edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, died suddenly at her home in the desert Southwest on May 12, 2019. She would have turned 73 in December. Josslin divided her time between homes on Bainbridge Island outside of Seattle, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she began to live part of the year after she married her former high-school boyfriend David Margolin in 2011. She is survived by her husband, her two children from her first marriage, two of her younger siblings, her mother, and her granddaughter. Josslin was the author most recently of the Spring 2019 cover article "Intense Quiet" on the new series of glass-on-glass paintings by Dale Chihuly (Glass #154), and her insightful, clearly articulated articles and reviews had been a regular feature in Glass magazine since she began writing for us in 2007. Born in 1946 in Dunnigan, California, Josslin grew up in Washington State and later Arizona, where she played in a folk band in high school with her future second husband. Majoring in painting, she graduated from Occidental College in Pasadena, California in 1969, where she met her first husband, Richard Josslin. They had two children and moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1986. There, she would go on to earn her MA in art history from the University of Washington in 1995, and became a regular art reviewer for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She also founded the successful arts blog Artsdish.com, which she ran for five years. Josslin also spent a decade at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, an arts center where she served as director of education and information until 2013. Just last year she published her first novel, The Bookstore of Other Languages.

Thursday May 23, 2019 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2019 edition of Glass (#155)

The Summer 2019 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#155) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. On the cover is a collage of images from Mary Van Cline's "Documenta Project," an ongoing photographic quest to capture the images (and personalities) of the unique community of artists, dealers, and collectors who coalesced around glass as an art medium. In her cover article, critic and curator Patricia Grieve Watkinson writes: "Perhaps it says something about those involved in the Studio Glass movement that they are willing and used to collaborating with a fellow artist in a way that might expose their vulnerability, and that there are so many -- artists and collectors -- who are willing to ham it up in front of the camera for a slice of posterity."

Tuesday May 7, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Tale of Two Chandelier Dresses: Susan Taylor Glasgow responds to Katy Perry's Met Gala showstopper

The theme of last night's 2019 Met Costume Institute Gala was tied to its current exhibition on "camp," so the celebrity red carpet this year featured even more outrageous outfits than the usual star-studded fashion show. Pop singer Katy Perry, a self-professed fan of camp who has dressed up as a hamburger in the past, knew this was a special opportunity to pull out all the stops. In a New York Post interview leading up to the big event on Monday evening, Perry's longtime fashion guru Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott said "there probably isn’t a performer in pop history that’s used camp and humor more than she has. I have guesses at what people expect from us, but I’m trying to outdo those expectations. It’s going to be an eleganza extravaganza.“

Tuesday April 30, 2019 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR PROPOSALS (updated): The 2019 UrbanGlass Academic Symposium will focus on criticism, critique, and critical thinking

The 2019 UrbanGlass Academic Symposium will take place on the updated dates of October 24th, 25th, and 26th in venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The jury has also been updated to include artist and educator Alli Hoag. In addition, the deadline for proposals on the expanded theme of "criticism, critique, and critical thinking" has been extended to June 1, 2019.

R & Company principals Zesty Meyers (L) and Evan Snyderman.

Thursday April 18, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Upcoming UrbanGlass Gala to honor artists Tauba Auerbach and Keith Sonnier, as well as gallerists Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman

UrbanGlass, the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet, will celebrate its 2019 Gala + Auction on May 16, 2019. The event will honor UrbanGlass-affiliated contemporary artists Tauba Auerbach and Keith Sonnier as well as principals Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman of the design gallery R & Company. The annual gala is a critical fundraiser for the Brooklyn non-profit's year-round programs serving more than 12,000 people each year through exhibitions, studio demonstrations, performances, and the internationally distributed magazine Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly. Since its founding in 1977 as the New York Experimental Glass Workshop, UrbanGlass has been a resource for major artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Kiki Smith who have relied on its facilities and community to realize their ambitious projects in glass. This year's honorees continue that tradition:

Thursday April 4, 2019 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: Kim Harty's photographic and sculptural homage to historic Venetian glassmaking at Heller

Opening today at New York City's Heller Gallery is "Memoria Technica: Old Venetian Glass," a solo exhibition by artist Kim Harty who serves as the head of the glass department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. The title, "Memoria Technica," refers to a mnemonic device -- a system for remembering things -- which is appropriate as the works' main subject is object memory. The exhibition includes photographs and small-scale sculptures that extend upon Harty's 2013 project in which she made slow-exposure light drawings in total darkness to reproduce her impressions of 72 historical glass vessel forms she discovered in a book of the holdings of Czech collector Vojtech Lanna simply titled Old Venetian Glass. The resulting photos featured Harty's blurred body in the background with the lines of light a relic of her hand movements, which brought home the relationship between these glass vessels and the human body. The work in the Heller exhibition takes the translation one step further. Working with a expert in 3-D printing, Harty has created new objects based on the photographed light drawings which bring the project back to three dimensions.

Thursday March 21, 2019 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: UrbanGlass education director Ben Wright shares his thoughts about taking on the artistic director position at Pilchuck

A day after the official Pilchuck announcement that Ben Wright would succeed Tina Aufiero as artistic director, the outgoing UrbanGlass education director sat down with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet (which is published by UrbanGlass) to share his thoughts on taking on the new post, which he plans to do sometime in May. Ben has presided over the steady growth and expansion of the educational offerings of UrbanGlass since he took the position in January 2014, shortly after the Brooklyn non-profit reopened after an extensive renovation. Among his most proud accomplishments have been his institution of a scholarship program that allowed 300 people to take workshops in the past year, his work as a professional mentor with the students of the UrbanGlass Bead Project, the expansion of outreach programs to youth and seniors in the community, and expanding the education program to become "a significant source of support for working glass artists here in New York." We asked him about his relationship with Pilchuck, and his vision for what he hopes to accomplish in this new high-profile role at the leading residential glass-education program.

Wednesday March 20, 2019 | by Andrew Page

IN MEMORIAM: Stephen Rolfe Powell (1951 - 2019)

The glass art world is still reeling from the news that one of its leading artists and educators Stephen Rolfe Powell died suddenly last weekend at the age of 67. The sad event is even more shocking because of Stephen's vitality. Though he may have been old enough to retire, Stephen's possessed a legendary physical strength that allowed him to make his massive vessels festooned with colorful murrini plumage, as well as unfailingly upbeat energy that fueled his drive to make tiny Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, into an unlikely center for glass education. He exuded a youthful vigor and intensity that belied his years. Equally impressive was his warmth, generosity, and hospitality, a reflection of his Southern roots, which helped establish his prominence in the glass community. Until recently, he was vice-president of the Glass Art Society, and a highly visible presence at the landmark Murano conference in 2018.

Mark Eliott, Down at the Water Table (Detail), 2018. Blown and sculpted borosilicate glass, recycled Australian Red Cedar, water. H 22 3/4, W 27, D 6 1/4 in. photo: richard weinstein

Thursday March 14, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Flameworker Mark Eliott wins 2019 Tom Malone Prize, which comes with AU$ 15,000 cash award

Mark Eliott has been named the winner of the 2019 Tom Malone Prize, marking the first time a flameworker has been awarded this prestigious Australian award The multi-media artist and Canberra Glassworks instructor who works primarily with borosilicate glass joins previous awardees Clare Belfrage, Gabriella Bisetto, Charles Butcher, Cobi Cockburn, Brian Corr, Mel Douglas, Deirdre Feeney, Kevin Gordon, Marc Leib, Jessica Loughlin, Tom Moore, Nick Mount and Benjamin Sewell. Along with the winning work being acquired by The State Art Collection at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Eliott will also eceive a cash award of AU$ 15,000. The prize has been offered since 2003 and is supported by philanthropist Sheryl Grimwood, who recently increased the award amount from AU$ 12,000 to AU$ 15,000.