CONVERSATION: Alex Krueger on his search for truth in his Street Art paintings

Alex Krueger, a Chicago-based educator and mixed-media artist, is opening his first solo show at Vertical Gallery, where the exhibition entitled "Cadaver one" will remain on view through March 27, 2021. Though he uses a handle -- "AKA Crop" -- he is not a pipemaker, instead blowing and hotworking his glass sculptures at the furnace before adding to them with acrylic paints. His alias is a relatively new development that came about when Krueger submitted to a sticker competition at Vertical and wanted to remain anonymous during the judging (he got into the show and is now represented as a gallery artist). Vertical Gallery shows an international roster of Street Artists, a term that is used to try and capture various modes of expressive resistance to the prevailing culture that encompasses graffiti and mural-making among other approaches. This type of artwork has an uneasy relationship to the contemporary art gallery scene (see Banksy, Basquiat, et al), though it is a growing sub-niche of the Outsider Art field. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently caught up with Krueger to talk about his unique approach to adding paint to the glass objects he creates.

Monday March 1, 2021 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Spring 2021 edition of Glass (#162)

The Spring edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#162) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a radiant neon work by Amy Palms, one of the artists discussed in our cover article by Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez tracking how, despite decades of predicted obsolescence, neon endures, fueled by the shared interest of a diverse group of artists and archivists and their love of this unique form of glassmaking.

Thursday February 18, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Christina Bothwell, who rebuilt after fire destroyed her studio, discusses "Luminous Dreams in Cataclysmic Times"

Christina Bothwell, whose ruminations about making it through challenging times were featured in the Spring 2020 edition of Glass (#159, our special "Survival" issue), has unveiled the artworks she's been inspired to create through the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant anxieties and uncertainty that have shaped our tumultuous political and economic times. Bothwell will discuss the new work and what it responds to in real time during a special online conversation Thursday, February 18, 2021, at 5:30 PM (Free with registration via this link). The presentation serves as an opening event for her Heller Gallery exhibition entitled "Luminous Dreams in Cataclysmic Times," which runs through April 3, 2021, and includes works in glass and ceramic, some with their textured surfaces heightened with oil paint.

Wednesday February 3, 2021 | by Andrew Page

AWARD: Amber Cowan named a 2021 USA Fellow, will receive $50,000 unrestricted award

United States Artists, a unique funding organization formed in 2006 "to illuminate the value of artists to American society and address their economic challenges," announced its list of 2021 USA Fellows today. With an unrestricted $50,000 cash award, the fellowship recognizes artists from every media for their "bold artistic vision and their contributions to the field." Artist and educator Amber Cowan is among this year's 60 fellows, and she joins an illustrious list of glass artists that have previously been recognized that includes Beth Lipman, Einar de la Torre & Jamex de la Torre, Sibylle Peretti, Judith Schaechter, Joyce J. Scott, Mary Shaffer, Therman Statom and April Surgent.

Friday January 22, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Artist, educator, and now, curator, Caitlin Vitalo discusses her museum exhibition "Glass in the Expanded Field" opening at the Hunterdon

When the exhibitions committee at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, met to discuss how they might showcase new trends and developments in contemporary glass art, they turned to their very own education coordinator Caitlin Vitalo, who not only holds a BFA (2010, Alfred) and MFA (2018, Tyler) in glass, but also serves as secretary of the Glass Art Society. Vitalo brought in copies of New Glass Review, Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, and the British Glass Biennale catalog from 2019 to back up her argument that glass is undergoing a period of transformation of everything from how it's used in art to the new communities accessing it. Not long after her presentation to the committee, Vitalo received an offer from the Hunterdon's executive director Marjorie Frankel Nathanson to curate an exhibition exploring these significant changes, and "Glass In the Expanded Field," debuting Saturday, January 23, 2021, is the result.

Thursday January 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR ENTRIES: To grace its entryway, the New York Hall of Science seeks proposals for a large-scale glass sculpture with $45,000 budget

"Inspire an openness for exploration, discovery, and making." This is one of the goals officials from the New York Hall of Science and UrbanGlass are looking for from a long-term commission to be installed and exhibited in the Corona, Queens, science museum's dramatic two-story entrance rotunda. Hoping to have a visually striking piece of glass art on view prior to the New York Hall of Science's scheduled summer 2021 re-opening, there is a short deadline for proposals. Entries must be received before midnight, February 8, 2021. The successful proposal will unlock a budget of $45,000, and, to qualify, the selected artist must live in the Northeastern U.S.

Thursday January 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

VIRTUAL: The Speed Museum, reviving its online programming, will feature Norwood Viviano discussing his curatorial project

Reviving its "Virtual After Dark" programming series, the Louisville, Kentucky-based Speed Museum will feature a discussion this Friday, January 15, of its upcoming exhibition "Collecting – A Love Story: Glass from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection" by its co-curators. The exhibition, which opens February 5 and will run through June 20, 2021, was organized by Speed curator of decorative arts and design Scott Erbes and artist and educator Norwood Viviano, who developed the exhibition's concept and made the selection of more than 60 works from the promised art collection from the noted Louisville arts patrons.

Monday January 11, 2021 | by Andrew Page

VIRTUAL: Curator Samantha De Tillio discusses Beth Lipman's exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design via Zoom

Museum of Arts and Design curator of collections Samantha De Tillio -- who organized the mid-career retrospective exhibition of the work of Beth Lipman entitled "Collective Elegy" on view at MAD through April 4, 2021 -- will discuss the artist's inspirations and technical challenges in a Zoom lecture on the evening of Tuesday, January 12, 2021, at 6:30 PM. The event is being presented as the first of the year by the New York City-based Art Glass Forum. De Tillio (who is a contributing editor at Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, will discuss the rich symbolism in Lipman's works that explore excess consumption, environmental overexploitation, and human mortality.

Tuesday January 5, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Youth-nonprofit GlassRoots seeks executive director as long-time leader Barbara Heisler steps back after eight years

As it embarks on its 20th year, the Newark, New Jersey-based nonprofit GlassRoots has announced a search for a new executive director to take over as its longtime leader Barbara Heisler steps back. Dedicated to using the unique power of glass art to reach young people, and help them develop the skills and confidence to succeed in life, the organization is poised for a year of major changes. It is preparing to move into a brand-new facility later this year, growing its footprint from a 5,700-square-foot facility to a 25,000-square-foot location in a newly created center called the Newark Arts Commons, and broadening its offerings to include a coffee shop and a worker space to support emerging craft artists in multiple media.

Thursday December 31, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Without crowds, the six-ton Waterford Crystal ball will descend in New York's Times Square this evening, marking the transition to a more-hopeful new year

Each year since the turn of the millennium, the Waterford Crystal brand has been involved in the famous ball drop in Times Square. It unveiled a totally updated all-crystal design in 2009, and has been renewing its 12-foot "New Year's Eve Times Square" ball, made up of more than 2,500 individual crystals and weighing almost six tons, around a new theme every year. When the team chose for 2020, the pandemic hadn't hit yet, but the "happiness" theme they arrived at could not be a more perfect reminder as the calendar turns to 2021. With vaccines and promising treatments, there is reason to hope for an improvement and, eventually, a resolution to the Covid-19 virus that has killed more Americans this year than soldiers who died in battle in all of World War II. When the ball descends 70-feet this midnight, it will be to an empty Times Square save for a few celebrity performers. But the event, like so much in 2020, will be experienced virtually through live broadcast on television and via this link, to an estimated 1-billion-person live audience.

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.