HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Spring 2018 edition of Glass (#150)

The Spring 2018 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#150) has hit newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. The cover article is devoted to the work of Hiromi Takizawa, who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years but remains in close contact with her family and friends in her native Japan. Teaching full-time at Cal State Fullerton, she is overseeing a complete rebuild of the glass studio as she continues to explore the metaphorical concept of distance. Contributing editor Victoria Josslin cites Takizawa's 2010 dissertation title from her MFA studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, which was "Duality and Parallel Lives," as the artist's primary preoccupation which "she has continued to explore, expand, and deepen" in the eight years since completing her degree.

Christopher Taylor led the Philadelphia-based Clay Studio for over seven years before accepting the position as Pilchuck's new executive director.

Wednesday February 21, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Pilchuck's new executive director, Christopher Taylor, is former head of prominent ceramics nonprofit

In the months since James Baker announced he'd step down as Pilchuck's executive director last August after eight years at its helm, the board of Pilchuck Glass School have been searching for a replacement to lead this international glass center. Tonight, Baker's replacement has been announced: Christopher Taylor, who has been leading The Clay Studio based in Philadelphia since 2011, will be relocating to Washington State. The official announcement by Pilchuck cites Taylor's success growing the ceramics organization, expanding its audience, and boosting fundraising power, as well as his potential in helping to grow the glass center's outreach to youth and underserved youth in the Northwest Coast area.

Thursday January 11, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass seeks full-time assistant curator

FILED UNDER: Help Wanted, Museums

The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Neenah, Wisconsin, is seeking a graduate-degreed candidate with museum experience to fill the open position of assistant curator. With a wide range of responsibilities -- from maintaining exhibit records to assisting in their organization, from overseeing exhibit installation to managing the museum's collections database, from maintaining donor records to engaging visitors through tours and written materials -- this full-time position that reports to the museum's executive director, Jan Smith, requires a masters degree in art, art history, museum studies, or related experience, as well as demonstrated ability in the Past Perfect museum collection management software.

A sought-after instructor, Signoretto was a regular at Pilchuck, and also taught in Japan. Here he is at Corning, where he was filmed for a documentary by Robin Lehman for his "Glass Masters at Work" series.

Thursday January 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: Pino Signoretto (1944 - 2017)

FILED UNDER: In Memoriam

One of the most famous and widely hailed glass masters in the world, Pino Signoretto, known for his incredible facility in sculpting from hot glass, died at the age of 74 on December 30th, 2017. Equally comfortable fabricating for international artists such as Salvatore Dali, Kiki Smith, and Jeff Koons, he never abandoned the traditional clowns and other classic Murano figures, which he rendered at larger scale and with greater fluidity than anybody else. A funeral service was held at the church of Santa Maria e San Donato, one of the oldest churches in Venice, on January 3rd, 2018, to honor the man Alfredo Barbini once called the rare type of maestro who comes along once in a century.

Tuesday November 28, 2017 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Winter 2017-18 edition of Glass (#149)

The Winter 2017-18 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#149) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. In the cover article, contributing editor William Warmus considers the provocative work of Matthew Szösz, who has refined his experimental inquiries to create glass objects that function as artifacts of a dual nature that values raw spontaneity when executed after meticulous research and disciplined technical execution. To understand what Szösz is up to, Warmus cites Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and silent-film anti-hero Buster Keaton, before presenting a detailed catalog of the artist's most important series.

Clifford Rainey among the heat-twisted remains of his former Napa, California, studio.

Thursday November 2, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Clifford Rainey, who lost everything in Northern California wildfires, to make drawings out of a charred landscape

On Sunday night, October 8th, at 10:30 PM, artist and former chair of the glass program at the California College of Art Clifford Rainey and his partner, Rachel Riser, were awakened by a neighbor's frantic telephone call warning them that a wind-driven wildfire had kicked up and was blazing toward their shared Napa, California, residence. They needed to get out immediately. "We were very close to where the fires started so there had been no warning. We could see the wall of flames on the next hillside so we just threw whatever we had into the car to get out of there," Rainey told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview from the hotel room he was staying in the weeks after evacuating. "The next day we found out the house had gone totally but were still hoping my studio would survive, which was down the hill a bit from the house. A couple days later, a neighbor called to tell us it was gone."

Tuesday October 17, 2017 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Images from the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass

The 2017 edition of the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass concluded on Sunday, October 15th, with a field trip to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, that included an exclusive advance preview of the largest retrospective to date of the glass and fiber work of MacArthur Fellow Joyce J. Scott, as well as an artist-led tour of Dan Clayman's "Radiant Landscape" exhibition. But the main events took place on Friday and Saturday, with a program of 18 lectures and panel discussions by leading glass faculty from around the world. The keynote presentation was delivered by Rachel Berwick (RISD Glass). Among the highlights were presentations by other heads of glass programs such as Helen Lee (UWisc, Madison), Justin Ginsberg (UTexas, Arlington), Kim Harty (College of Creative Studies, Detroit), Sharyn O'Mara (Tyler), and Li Wen (China Academy of Art). A panel discussion of contrasting international approaches to curriculum was moderated by UrbanGlass education director Ben Wright. Other highlights included a curator panel of Susie Silbert (Corning) and Samantha DeTillio (Museum of Arts and Design), and presentations y independent artist Dan Clayman ("Rainfield at MassArt"), writer Alexis Clements ("Myths of Success in the Arts"), and art history professor Mary Drach McInnes (Alfred). The event began with a Thursday night gallery tour on the Lower East Side that included a presentation by Betty Cunningham about Christopher Wilmarth.

Artist and professor Helen Lee at the 2015 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium.

Thursday September 7, 2017 | by Andrew Page

A salary survey seeks insights into compensation levels in the field of glass art and design

FILED UNDER: Art Market, News

What's the average starting salary for a glass professor at a private art college? How about someone starting at a state school? How much debt is incurred on average to earn an MFA in glass? Until now, these questions, and more basic ones such as the going rate for a glassblowing assistant in the hot shop, have simply been unavailable. Now, artist and assistant professor Helen Lee, who heads the Glass Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is trying to crunch these numbers as part of an ambitious confidential research project she is undertaking to collect and analyze data on how much people are paid for their work in the glass art arena. Lee will share a summary and analysis of the results of her survey at the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass. As an incentive to participate, those who take part and include an email address will receive a detailed report on the project's findings. Over 100 responses were received in the first two days, so this project promises to provide a significant sample size.

Julie Conway designed this pendant light, called "Tuffo" wth a clear crackle to cast a dramatic shadow pattern that has been incorporated into the Motif Seattle's logo for the 2017-18 artist residency period. courtesy: julie conway

Friday September 1, 2017 | by Andrew Page

DESIGN: Julie Conway wins visiting-artist competition at Seattle hotel

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Design, New Work, News

Seattle-based artist and designer Julie Conway has been named "visiting artist" for the Motif Seattle, a hotel that, true to its name, blends its identity to the vision of an area artist on a rotating basis. The recently redesigned hotel works with the artists to create a unique design "motif" that is incorporated into everything from the hotel's business cards to the room keys to elements of staff uniforms, and the collaboration is promoted on the hotel's social media presence. Conway was chosen from 20 applicants, and will receive a $2,000 honorarium. As part of her role as Motif Seattle's 2017-2018 visiting artist, Conway will be listed as the hotel's visiting artist throughout the hotel, and her work will be featured in the relaunched Website for the Motif Seattle later this month. She will also be running private glassblowing events for the hotel's clients throughout the term of the residency.

Friday August 25, 2017 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Fall 2017 edition of GLASS (#148)

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News, Print Edition

The Fall 2017 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#148) will hit newsstands and subscriber mailboxes next week. The issue marks a major upgrade in paper quality to better showcase our recent total redesign. The result is superior photo reproduction with richer colors, deeper saturation, and sharper details, all of which make the cover image of a tautly furled thread vessel by Toots Zynsky even more striking. In the featured article, regular magazine contributor Alexander Castro spends time in Zynsky's Providence, Rhode Island, studio, where he learns of the creative ferment spurred by the artist's recent Specialty Glass Residency at The Corning Museum of Glass and Corning Incorporated. Access to new materials have rekindled Zynsky's passionate interest in experimentation, which Castro investigates as he also considers her established, and much-coveted, sculptural vessels made through a process of fusing thousands of delicate glass fibers that are hand-formed into complex objects that display "tidal movement," which Castro writes "isn't superfluous but integral to their being."

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.