Viewing articles by Andrew Page

In appreciation for her 14 years of service to the Glass Art Society, board vice president Stephen Rolfe Powell presents outgoing executive director Pam Koss with a Veronese Vase by Cesare Toffolo at the Murano conference. photo: manuel silvestri

Thursday June 28, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Longtime executive director of the Glass Art Society Pam Koss reflects on her 14-year tenure and her marvelous Murano send-off

One thing the outgoing executive director of the Glass Art Society wants everyone to know is that she is not retiring. On Friday, June 29th, after 14 years at the helm of the artists' organization whose annual conference is a must-attend event for artists, collectors, and suppliers to the field, Pamela Koss is moving on, eagerly looking forward to starting the next chapter of her career. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with her during the closing night party of the 2018 conference, a historic event in Murano, Italy — a longtime dream Koss finally realized last month. Still keeping a vigilant eye on the proceedings around us, and occasionally breaking away to direct staff and volunteers, Koss was able to sit down for a chat after the fashion show, in which artists wearing heavy glass costumes had all safely disembarked from gondolas. A raucous Italian party band was playing note-for-note renditions of American R&B dance classics while the attendees danced away in a historic churchyard that had been outfitted with a high powered sound system and massive video screens. The shiny new technology was a sharp contrast with old world architecture and this mix of old and new permeated the historic conference and seemed to help break through some of the centuries-old traditions of secrecy about glass process and technique.

Laura Donefer and Dave Hickie wear designs by Nancy de Du Bois.

Wednesday June 6, 2018 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Images and a conversation with Laura Donefer on the historic Murano Glass Art Society fashion show

In 2017, artist Laura Donefer's phone rang. It was the executive director of the Glass Art Society gushing about the idea of having one of Donefer's signature glass fashion shows on boats during the 2018 Murano conference. She loved it, a definite "yes!" There was only one problem: Donefer says she'd never proposed it. The concept had been pitched by the artist and conference steering committee member Lucio Bubacco. "I was like WHAAA?" Donefer said in an exclusive interview with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. "It usually takes me three years to organize one of my big events, and this gave me very little time. And I was totally unsure of how this all would unfold…."

The cover of the new issue of Glass.

Tuesday May 29, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2018 edition of Glass (#151)

The Summer 2018 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#151) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. Bundled with the summer 2018 edition of GLASS is a copy of the completely redesigned exhibition-in-print, New Glass Review (#39), which is produced by The Corning Museum of Glassand bundled with each summer issue of GLASS magazine at no extra charge to subscribers (newsstand copies carry an increased cover price for the special bonus issue)

Wednesday May 23, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: UrbanGlass seeks education coordinator

UrbanGlass, the Brooklyn, New York, non-profit art center that publishes the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, is seeking a full-time education coordinator to be responsible for the day-to-day logistics of the various types of education programs. The successful applicant will work in close coordination with the director of education, the registrar, and the youth coordinator, and will be responsible for logistics for workshop, youth, and university programs at UrbanGlass.

Pam Koss pictured during the 2016 Glass Art Society Conference in Corning, New York.

Tuesday May 8, 2018 | by Andrew Page

After 14 years, Pam Koss will step down as executive director of the Glass Art Society

Following next week's ambitious 2018 Glass Art Society annual conference in Murano, Italy, the artist organization's long-serving executive director Pam Figenshow Koss has announced that she will step down. Though she plans on staying on through the end of June 2018, the announcement issued late last night brings the curtain down on her 14-year tenure.

In Chicago, James Yood delivered the 2014 Glass Art Society Conference Strattman Lecture entitled “W(h)ither Glass? The Next 50 Years.” photo: heather ahrens. courtesy: glass art society

Tuesday April 24, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: James Yood (1952 - 2018)

An important critical voice on visual art fell silent last weekend with the sudden death of James Yood, who regularly penned articles for Artforum, art ltd., and Aperture in addition to Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, the print magazine which produces the Hot Sheet. Yood's first article as a contributing editor to Glass was a Spring 2001 review of a Jim Dine exhibition in Chicago, where Yood immediately revealed his keen eye not only for sculpture, but sensitivity to the unique nature of glass and the commitment required to unlock its unique material properties. Calling the exhibition at Richard Gray Gallery "more of a roller coaster experience than one might have expected going in," he pointed out how Dine's embedding of found tools contrasted with Mary Shaffer's exploration of similar terrain. Unintimidated by Dine's art-star reputation, Yood drew a pointed contrast with another artist's richer approach: "Dine seems to use glass as some kind of silicon paint, as colored or clear substance that is optically penetrable and an excellent sheathing for his tools, while Shaffer sees glass as volumetric and weighty, often using slumping as a device to emphasize gravity and process."

Jeremy Lepisto in the studio. photo: adam mcgrath

Wednesday April 18, 2018 | by Andrew Page

3 Questions for ... Jeremy Lepisto

GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What have you been working on? Jeremy Lepisto: Currently, my time is divided between my full-time position at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design as a Technical Officer in the Sculpture Workshop as well as the School’s Work Health and Safety Officer, completing a long-overdue PhD degree, fabricating for others. and making new gallery work. As part of my PhD research, I'm creating a collection of stacking sculptures that compile together (physically and metaphorically) into a mixed-media series of sculptures. The shape and structure of these sculptures are based on the form of a common shipping container. This research looks to explore the duality of effects delivered to the agencies of people/places/objects through the utilization of the modern shipping container. …

Attendees at Expanding Horizons 2017 included (L to R) mentor Mark Morris with student Jeremiah Brown from YAYA, New Orleans; student Dantrell Blake with mentor Alex Krueger from Project Fire, Chicago; student Santiago Aquilera with mentor Josh Laabs from Ignite, Chicago; student Nia Fairley with mentor Joe Waropay from Ignite, Chicago; student Taquita Pendelton with mentor Tracy Kirchmann from After School Matters Program, Chicago; and student Tanner Martin with mentor Trenton Quicho from Hilltop, Tacoma.

Wednesday April 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Deadline Extended: Week-long, expenses-paid program for under-served glass students accepting applications through April 15th

Offering talented high-school-student artists from under-served communities the opportunity to experience glass art at a new level, the Expanding Horizons program will return in 2018. Applications will now be accepted through April 15th, 2018, for the expenses-paid week-long program designed to give high-school-aged students in after-school glass-art programs around the U.S. a chance to experience the wide world of glass art in greater depth. The project is a partnership between the Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass and the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation. (Disclosure: Glass Hot Sheet editor Andrew Page is also the Minkoff Foundation director)

Tuesday April 3, 2018 | by Andrew Page

The Museum of Arts and Design announces its new director will be Cranbrook's Christopher Scoates

The Museum of Arts and Design has selected Christopher Scoates as its next Nanette L. Laitman Director. Currently leading the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, Scoates will bring a diverse range of accomplishments in his four years at the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, art college including building an experimental media department, recruiting a more diverse board, and proven proficiency in fundraising, all of which were cited as highlights of his track record in the official announcement by the New York institution that has seen a parade of directors come and go. Glenn Adamson took over from MAD's long-serving director Holly Hotchner in 2013. He was replaced in 2016 by Jorge Daniel Veneciano, who served only five months at the post before resigning in January 2017. As a new search was underway, MAD board president Michele Cohen served as interim director, and she will be succeeded by Scoates when he officially takes the reins on July 1, 2018.

Thursday March 22, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: Ulrica Hydman Vallien (March 24, 1938 - March 21, 2018)

Prominent Swedish artist and designer Ulrica Hydman Vallien, whose dramatic painted glass designs of intertwined snakes and floral imagery, as well as expressive animal and human faces, became synonymous with the identity of the Kosta-Boda glass company for the past four decades, died suddenly just days before her 80th birthday, which would have been this coming Saturday. The news broke via her husband Bertil Vallien's brief but poignant Facebook posting yesterday: "My beloved ulricas warm heart stopped beating Tonight. An incomprehensible loss. Bertil"

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.