Viewing articles by Andrew Page

Thursday October 6, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Uroboros announces plans to close in early 2017

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

In a letter posted under the News section of its website, and sent to customers last week, Uroboros founder and president Eric Lovell announced plans to close his nearly 44-year-old glass production facility in Portland, Oregon. Though Lovell stated that he hopes to sell the business to allow for continued employment and product supply, he made it clear that the company in its current incarnation will "discontinue operations in early 2017." He cited the high costs of meeting new city and state regulations, as well as the gentrification of the Portland area where Uroboros operates, and his own advancing age. Though the company has been under intense scruitiny from environmental regulators for its use of cadmium and arsenic as well as other chemicals, like its Portland neighbor Bullseye Glass, Lovell says: "It is not any one of these factors, but a combination of all of them," that led to the decision to close.

Rui Sasaki, Object Lessons "Residue" (overview), 2014. Glass, ash (from plants in Awashima), fluorescent light, mineral oil. H 31 1/2, W 23 1/2, D 47 1/4 in. Project at the Awashima Artist Village, Kagawa, Japan.

Thursday October 6, 2016 | by Andrew Page

AWARD: Rui Sasaki receives $5,000 UArts Borowsky Prize for 2016

FILED UNDER: Award, Events, News

Japanese native Rui Sasaki has been named the 2016 Borowsky Prize winner, a $5,000 award named for the late University of the Arts trustee Irvin J. Borowsky, and awarded by the Philadelphia arts institution each year. The prize seeks to identify "an artist whose work is conceptually daring, exemplifies technical skill and innovation, and advances the field of contemporary glass," and includes the invitation for the winning artist to present a lecture. Sasaki, who is currently based in Toyama, Japan, will deliver her lecture on November 10, 2016. In addition to the top prize, juror's awards have been given to prize finalists David King (who also won a juror's award in 2015) and Sean Salstrom.

Between Fragment and Whole: Ellipse, 2016. Glass. H 13 3/4, W 21 5/8, D 21 5/8 in. courtesy: heller gallery, new york

Tuesday October 4, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Speaking Volumes: A conversation with Jeannet Iskandar on her Heller opening tomorrow

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, Opening

Danish artist Jeannet Iskandar makes things complicated, but you wouldn't know that at first glance. From across the room, her ongoing series of deceptively simple spheres appear to be minimalist objects with perfect symmetry. But upon closer examination the cool exteriors give way to an internal world of engrossing intricacy, complex assemblages of individual blown glass elements deformed by gravity and glassblowing tools, and then further transformed by repeated heating in a kiln. Iskandar was once employed by fellow Dane Tobias Mohl, and his influence shows in her appreciation of patterning, which is formed in her work by the selection of individual elements and the jigsaw puzzle of putting them together. Splashes of subdued color — inky blues and somber blacks —punctuate her newest work, which brings new elliptical forms and a larger scale than Iskandar's earlier objects. On the eve of her solo exhibition at New York City's Heller Gallery, the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke by phone with Iskandar from her studio in the seaside city of Ebeltoft, which is an outpost of international glass in Denmark.

The Glass Workshop circa 1986 (l to r): Richard Whiteley, Velta Vilmanis, Kirstie Rea, and Klaus Moje.

Thursday September 29, 2016 | by Andrew Page

FROM THE MAGAZINE: Looking back at Klaus Moje (1936 – 2016) and his founding of the Canberra program

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Education, In Memoriam, Print Edition

The recent passing of Klaus Moje (1936 - 2016), who died at the age of 79 on September 24, 2016, after a protracted illness, has unleashed a global outpouring of grief and appreciation. Honored for his disciplined approach to technique and visionary work taking kiln-forming into the fine-art realm, Moje's impact on the glass art field is immeasurable. Celebrated as an artist, Moje was also hugely influential as an educator, and created the glass program at the Canberra School of Art, which has since been incorporated into the Australian National University's College of Arts and Social Sciences. Consciously not opening with a hot glass furnace, Moje designed the program in 1982 with a radically different approach than most glass education facilities in the world. In honor of Moje's legacy, the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet is republishing an article from the Spring 2005 print edition (GLASS #98) that provides unique insight into the founding of the Canberra program. In the article below, Moje shares his singular perspective on not just education but what it takes to become an artist.

Cappy Thompson, Dandelion, 2013. Blown and engraved glass. H 13 1/4, W 13 1/3, D 6 1/2 in. courtesy: traver gallery, seattle

Thursday September 22, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Drawing with Light: A conversation with Cappy Thompson on her new engraved work

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, New Work, News

Cappy Thompson, known for her folk-art-inspired reverse paintings on glass that explore contemporary themes, has been experimenting with engraving for the past few years. It's been a departure for Thompson, who is an expert grisaille painter, a process where a first-layer of enamel in gray tones is followed by second firing of brightly colored enamels, to create figurative works. Though grisaille involves the removal of an initial coat of gray color, most of Thompson's work was based on layering enamels onto glass to create densely colored surfaces. But etching into glass had been on Thompson's mind since a 1990 trip to then-Czechoslovakia, during which she was intrigued by acid etching using a resist. "It looked like ice that had been melted," Thompson remembers. The dangers of working with highly corrosive and toxic etching acids kept her from ever pursuing this technique at home. However, while she was teaching at Corning in 2012 with master engraver Max Erlacher, she became entranced by the possibilities of wheel-cutting glass. Her friend and fellow artist Charlie Parriott helped her acquire a lathe from the Czech Republic, and she was able to learn from April Surgent and two Czech master engravers during a Pilchuck residency. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently caught up with Thompson for a telephone interview as she prepared an artist's talk at Traver Gallery scheduled for this evening to talk about this bold new direction for the work in her current exhibition "Bright Blue Light."

Joyce Scott at work in her studio. photo: john d. & catherine t. macarthur foundation

Thursday September 22, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Joyce J. Scott named as a 2016 MacArthur Fellow

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

Joyce J. Scott, a prominent artist working with glass beads and blown-glass to create works that probe the nature of violence and racial politics, and who was featured on the cover of the Fall 2014 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (# 136), has been named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow, one of the most prestigious annual prizes in the world of arts and sciences. Also known as "genius grants," the fellowship comes with a $625,000 award paid out over five years. The honor is bestowed upon between 20 to 30 recipients each year, irrespective of their field or media, who "are breaking new ground in areas of public concern, in the arts, and in the sciences, often in unexpected ways," according to MacArthur president Julia Stasch. Scott is one of 23 fellows named for 2016, ranging from scientists to playwrights to musicians to visual artists. "Scott upends conceptions of beadwork and jewelry as domestic or merely for adornment by creating exquisitely crafted objects that reveal, upon closer examination, stark representations of racism and sexism and the violence they engender," reads the MacArthur website about Scott's work in particular.

Laura Donefer's Blood Basket, is one of the works referencing the legacy of Canadian painter Tom Thomson, in this case, his environmental awareness.

Tuesday September 13, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Conversation with curator of glass exhibition in response to top Canadian painter

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Museums, New Work

Curator Christian Bernard Singer, formerly of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, has held the position of senior curator at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in West Owen Sound, Ontario, since October 2015. He recently spoke with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet about his current exhibition entitled "With a Destiny," which features work by Canadian glass artists Laura Donefer, Susan Edgerley, and Karina Guevin. Painter Tom Thomson (1877 – 1917) is arguably Canada's most renown artist, and he ushered in a new, raw style of landscape painting at the turn of the 20th century that continues to resonate through Canadian contemporary art today. The art gallery that bears his name houses one of the largest collections of Thomson's paintings, but its mission also includes connecting the artist's trail-blazing work to the latest contemporary art in a variety of media. The glass exhibition on view through September 18, 2016, finds a connection to Thomson's work in a frank exploration of the natural landscape, as well as meditations on the idea of destiny, according to the show's curator Singer.

New MAD director Jorge Daniel Veneciano, an Argentinian-born scholar and curator, served most recently as director of El Museuo del Barrio.

Tuesday September 6, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Museum of Arts and Design announces Glenn Adamson’s successor as director

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, News

The Museum of Arts and Design has announced that its next director will be Jorge Daniel Veneciano, an Argentinian-born scholar and curator who comes to the premier museum for art and design from craft materials from his position as executive director of another New York City institution, El Museuo del Barrio, which is dedicated to Latin American and Carribean art. Veneciano will succeed Glenn Adamson as the museum's Nanette L. Laitman Director, with a start date of October 3, 2016. In her comments, the museum's board chair cites Veneciano's experience and vision as keys to broadening MAD's ability to connect with a diverse population.

Judith Schaechter, The Life Ecstatic, 2016. Stained glass lightbox. H 31, W 29, D 4 in. courtesy: the artist

Tuesday August 30, 2016 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: A conversation with Judith Schaechter on her upcoming New York City exhibition

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Artist Interviews, Exhibition, New Work, Opening

Judith Schaechter, who employs the radiance of stained glass to present human figures arranged against lushly patterned color fields in poses of transcendence or anguish, will open a solo exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery in the Chelsea area of New York City on September 8th, 2016. Entitled "The Life Ecstatic" the exhibition does not present radical shifts in Schaechter's approach as did her previous exhibition "Dark Matter," which saw a foray into three-dimensional sculpture, or her preceding site-specific architectural installation at the Eastern State Penitentary in Philadelphia, where she installed her works in narrow prison-cell windows. Instead, the upcoming exhibition, which runs through October 15, 2016, represents a return to her career-long project of updating the Gothic tradition of stained glass to plumb the intersection of spiritual longing and psychological torment from a contemporary perspective. Evident in the latest work is how her meticulous craft and expanding ability to render complex narrative works continues evolving in her most intricate and nuanced works to date. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently caught up with Schaechter for an email interview about her upcoming exhibition.

Friday August 26, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Hot Off the Presses: GLASS #144, Fall 2016

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News, Print Edition

The Fall 2016 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#144) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes next week. On the cover is a work by Christina Bothwell who creates sculptural vignettes using cast glass and ceramic elements. In Bothwell's hands, the smooth, shiny aspects of glass are hidden by pocked surfaces or rubbing with oil paints to further dull the finishes. Undimmed is the ability of glass to capture and transmit light, creating a glowing effect that effective serves the work's central themes of transformation, dreams, and the passage of time.

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.