Iittala launches limited-edition “City Bird” series with an eye on social media

FILED UNDER: Design, New Work, News

In a bid to update its 40-year-old line of Tokkia birds, and to give the series a little cutting-edge social media juice, the 135-year-old Finnish glass house Iittala is launching a limited edition of its famous blown-glass birds only available in select markets for which they were named. Only 200 numbered examples of the blown-glass "City Bird" collection will be hand-made, and obsessive collectors must travel to Shanghai, Toyko, Paris, New York, and Helsinki to buy them all.

Thursday October 1, 2015 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: Dante Marioni, Rik Allen at Traver Gallery

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Opening

New work by Dante Marioni and Rik Allen is being unveiled at Traver Gallery in Seattle this evening. Marioni is continuing to push scale and precision in his newest work that features bravura canework patterning rendered at unforvingly large scale. A 39-inch-tall blue leaf, titled Standing Reticello Leaf (2015) is a further exploration of his attempts to push traditional technique to new levels, marrying it to a decidedly contemporary color scheme. The outsized scale takes this work out of the realm of design in a bid to make a monumental statement on technical skill and skills passed down for centuries.

Thursday September 24, 2015 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: North Lands Creative Glass accepting applications for next Artistic Director

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Help Wanted, News

British artist Emma Woffenden's three-year term as artistic director of North Lands Creative Glass will expire in 2016, and so this art center located on the rugged Northeastern coast of Scotland is accepting applications for Woffenden's successor, who will start on October 1, 2016. The Artistic Director advises the North Lands board of directors regarding the organization's artistic direction, and directs and plans its annual master class and conference programs. The artistic director also serves as an advisor on the artists chosen for the residency program.

Thursday September 24, 2015 | by Andrew Page

UrbanGlass to celebrate local handmade whiskey in early October

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, News

UrbanGlass, in partnership with the Kings County Distillery, will host BourbonGlass on Wednesday, October 7th from 7 PM to 9 PM. A fundraising cocktail party for the arts nonprofit that publishes GLASS Quarterly and the Hot Sheet, the event will take place in the 17,000-square-foot studios of UrbanGlass. Guests will be able taste the distillery's line of small-batch whiskeys and learn about the history of whiskey production in Brooklyn, as well as specifics about the five-year-old distillery from master blender Nicole Austin. Austin helped design a custom whiskey glass being made for the occasion by artist and designer William Couig. Each guest will take his or her tasting glass home as a gift.

Wednesday September 16, 2015 | by Andrew Page

Chrysler Museum of Art officially announced as site of 2017 Glass Art Society Conference

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, Museums, News

The Glass Art Society has announced that the Chrysler Museum of Art, the main building and neighboring glass studio, will host the 46th annual gathering of the glass art world. With the theme: "Reflections from the Edge: Glass, Art, and Performance," the 2017 conference will run from June 1st through 3rd, 2017, and will be co-chaired by Diane Wright, the glass curator at the Chrysler Museum; Charlotte Potter, manager and program director of the museum's glass studio; and community members Virginia Hitch and Colin McKinnon. Performance art using glass, a focus of the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio under Potter's leadership, will be a central focus of the 2017 event, according to today's announcement. The event will follow the 2016 conference taking place in Corning, New York.

Wednesday September 16, 2015 | by Andrew Page

Full Program Released for the 2015 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, Events, News

The full schedule for the 2015 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass — complete with times, dates, and maps — has just been released. Among the highlights of this year's symposium, which has the theme of "New Technologies in Practice," is a Chelsea gallery tour that includes stops at Andrea Rosen Gallery to discuss Josiah McElheny's latest work, Sean Kelly Gallery to hear about Idris Khan's recent work in glass, and Heller Gallery for a presentation of new work by April Surgent as well as a panel discussion on the challenges of taking over a glass program and inheriting its technology. Panelists include glass program heads Helen Lee (UWisconsin, Madison), Kim Harty (CCA, Detroit), Marc Petrovic (CIA, Cleveland), and Sharyn O'Mara (Tyler, Philadelphia). A reception at the loft of a downtown art collector will cap off the first day's activities.

Thursday August 27, 2015 | by Andrew Page

Hot Off the Presses: GLASS #140, Fall 2015

FILED UNDER: Announcements, New Work, News, Print Edition

The Fall 2015 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#140) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes over the next few days. On the cover is a work by French installation artist Baptiste Debombourg, a room with massive windows collapsing inward. For her article, contributing editor Victoria Josslin presents a mediation on Debombourg’s grand catastrophe in Aerial (a 2012 site-specific installation at the Brauweiler Abbey near Cologne, Germany), considering the scene as a frozen moment just after the impact of some cataclysmic explosion outside.

Tuesday August 25, 2015 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: Toledo Museum of Art Glass Studio seeks Assistant Manager

FILED UNDER: Help Wanted

The Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, is seeking an assistant manager who will work with the Glass Studio manager in the daily operations of the multi-use, state-of-the-art facility that is a major site for the museum's programming, education, and special events. The successful applicant will be responsible for leading the technical staff in maintaining studio operations, which include hot glass, flame working, kiln forming and stained glass studios as well as a mold-making and cold-working shop. "The position will be lead on all maintenance related activity and assist in planning long-term projects taking place in the Glass Studio," reads the official job announcement.

Rachel Owens, "Smile Always" exhibition at Zieher Smith & Horton in 2015.

Saturday August 8, 2015 | by Andrew Page

On Tuesday, artist Rachel Owens to lecture about her glass-and-resin work that critiques consumerism

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Artist Interviews, Events, News

On the evening of August 11th, internationally-exhibiting artist Rachel Owens will speak about her work and process during an evening lecture at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn (UrbanGlass publishes the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet). The artist, whose work graced the cover of the Summer 2015 edition of GLASS (#139), explores the corrosive effects of consumer culture driven to unsustainable levels of desire by retail mercandising and marketing. Ownes makes sculptures of molded broken glass and resin, which she employs for its seductive and repulsive push-puil.

Wednesday June 10, 2015 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Stanislav Libenský Award invites recent grads to submit

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Call for Submissions, Exhibition

The Prague Gallery of Czech Glass has announced a call for entries to the seventh Stanislav Libenský Award. Designed as an international juried exhibition for glass art, the award is open to recent grads of B.F.A. or M.F.A programs around the world, as long as they used glass as an element in their final thesis project.

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.