CONVERSATION: Alison Kinnaird on the expansive possibilities of the ancient art of glass engraving

Copper-wheel glass engraving, an ancient technique that has defied forecasts of its imminent obsolescence, is a highly-expressive type of shallow rendering in glass that dates back to Roman times. The technique reached its peak of popularity in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which it was eclipsed by less labor-intensive processes such as cutting or etching glass. Though not as widely practiced as it used to be, the contemporary art of glass engraving is not only proving to be continually relevant, its artistic potential continues to be expanded by artists such as Alison Kinnaird. Aspects of the copper-wheel technique, such as its limits in scale as the glass must be small enough to handle precisely under the engraving wheel, have continued to push Kinnaird to find innovative solutions to challenges she regularly encounters, even after her own 50 years of experience in the process.

Alison Grace Koehler in her Paris studio: photo: sabine dundure

Thursday June 17, 2021 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Paris-based Alison Grace Koehler searches for new ways of fusing poetry and stained-glass

Alison Grace Koehler, who's been seeking ways to fuse stained glass and poetry through innovative performances that use projected imagery during live readings, has recently published a book that brings together the word and ethereal image in printed form. An American expatriate, Koehler discovered stained-glass while walking along a winding street near the Gare du Nord in Paris and spotted a series of paintings and glass panels through a studio window. Out of curiosity, she knocked on the door and was invited in by the Kurdish artist, who for decades had been living in Paris, where he offered stained glass workshops. Koehler had experience cutting glass when she assisted an artist in Copenhagen, Denmark, after graduating with a BA from Macalester College in 2008, and so she signed up. She was so enamored by the stained-glass process, she would go on to get an advanced degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art, and would be admitted into a guild of emerging stained-glass artists. Based in Paris, Koehler now shares a studio space with another stained-glass artist from the guild. Since she began working with stained glass, she has sought ways to animate the form -- from manipulating glass components on an old-fashioned transparency projector to using a live video feed projected on her own figure as she reads her poems, using the sounds of breaking glass as rhythmic interludes of the performance. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently interviewed Koehler via email about her new book project, and her attempts to bring her various media together into a single work.

Monday June 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Prize-winning documentary, an epic tale of near-disaster in stained-glass fabrication, available for free screening and discussion

Holy Frit, a harrowing tale of the near-disaster when Judson Studios, artist/designer Tim Carey, and the famed Narcissus Quagliata teamed up to create a massive glass window. A fast-paced documentary by director Justin Monroe recreates the seat-of-the-pants story of how an extremely ambitious Carey took on the job of creating the world's largest stained-glass window for the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, and struggled to turn the concept into reality, eventually bringing in stained-glass maestro Quagliata for emergency assistance. With a lighthearted take on what was no doubt a gut-wrenching process, director Monroe follows Carey as he defies several potential disasters along the way of pioneering new fusing techniques to realize the outsized vision. The film's trailer captures the zany energy of a project repeatedly just missing going off the rails with a sense of humor only possible in hindsight, though much of it was filmed as it unfolded.

Thursday June 10, 2021 | by Andrew Page

New York's Museum of Arts and Design announces Tim Rodgers will take the helm as director in September 2021

Since Holly Hotchner's departure as director of the Museum of Arts and Design in 2013, three directors have come and gone -- Glenn Adamson (2013-2016), Jorge Daniel Veneciano (2016), and Christopher Scoates (2018 - 2020). Today, the New York City museum announced its next leader -- the seasoned director of the Phoenix Art Museum, Timothy R. Rogers, who will be moving to New York this fall to take over as MAD's Nanette L. Laitman Director starting September 15, 2021.

Saturday May 29, 2021 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2021 edition of Glass (#163)

The Summer 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#163) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes. On the cover is a public art installation by New York-based contemporary artist Jim Hodges -- his homage to the city that shaped him so profoundly, and the perfect image to acknowledge our emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic. When the MTA invited Hodges to create an an artwork for the stairwell leading down from the Grand Central's terminal to the utilitarian 4/5/6 subway platform, he set out to mediate the architectural whiplash from the soul-stirring Beaux Arts grandeur of the famous constellation ceiling to the gritty cacophonous underground below -- and Hodges turned to glass mirror to do it.

Thursday May 20, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The Glass Art Society kicks off second virtual conference (this time with tickets required)

The Covid-19 pandemic travel bans and widespread closures precipitated a massive shift to digital, and we're all still sifting through the explosion of content that resulted as gallery openings, art fairs, and gala fundraisers went virtual. One year ago, as the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 were unsuccessful and the cancellations spread like wildfire, the organizers of the annual Glass Art Society conference pivoted from their extensively planned in-person event in Småland, Sweden, to the artist organization's first-ever online conference in May 2020. In a generous and much-needed gesture of support in uncertain economic times, GAS threw open the gates and let people watch and participate online at no charge. Fast forward to 2021, and this morning's launch of the conference with a 5 AM (Pacific Time) demo by the British-based team of James Devereux and Katherine Huskie as part of Joseph Rosano's "Salmon SCHOOL Project". Unlike the 2020 virtual event, the price of admission to this year's three days of demos, lectures, panel discussions, and numerous online networking events is $100, or $50 if you are an active member of GAS.

Thursday May 13, 2021 | by Andrew Page

THE GLASS QUARTERLY CONVERSATION: Christopher Day discusses how his work engages historic racial brutality (from the pages of Glass #162)

For our second installment of the "Glass Quarterly Conversation" series, editor Andrew Page speaks with British glassblower Christopher Day, the subject of Emma Park's feature article in the Spring 2021 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#162). A relative newcomer to glass, Day turned his decades of experience as a tradesman to quickly gain a distinct vocabulary in hot glass -- and develop a powerful voice. Embedding copper pipe and wires into mottled and gnarled blown-glass forms, the artist explores his own racial identity and the brutal histories of slavery and lynchings of Black people in works of raw expressive power.

Friday May 7, 2021 | by Andrew Page

The UrbanGlass Gala, taking place May 12th, will showcase glass in a contemporary art frame

UrbanGlass, the nonprofit art center that publishes the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet, is holding its 2021 Gala and Auction on May 12th, where it will celebrate glass as a medium for contemporary art. A virtual event, this year's fundraising gala will be unique for its distinctly New York flavor with contemporary art stars such as Kiki Smith, a co-chair, and honorees such as arts philanthropist Barbara Tober and artist Deborah Czersko who will share their personal takes on the material and how it is used by contemporary artists.

Wednesday April 14, 2021 | by Andrew Page

"The Glass Quarterly Conversation" debuts with a discussion from the pages of the magazine on how the pandemic accelerated the digital shift in glass art

Monday April 12, 2021 | by Andrew Page

Curator, critic, and author Tina Oldknow will discuss the Venetian influence on American Studio Glass in virtual lecture April 13th

Fresh from co-curating the Stanze del Vetro exhibition "Venice and American Studio Glass," Tina Oldknow will be discussing the cross-pollination between two distinct glass cultures in her upcoming Art Glass Forum: New York lecture, which will be taking place on Zoom at 6:30 PM EST on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. Oldknow, a former curator of modern and contemporary glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, will trace the import of Venetian traditions and techniques to American glassblowers, who had been taking an experimental approach to freeing glass from the industrial facilities and ecosystems that defined the material. She and co-curator William Warmus assembled over 150 works by American and Venetian artists and designers to document how the creativity flowed both ways in the exchange as both Americans and Venetians benefited by the renewed creativity and vibrancy of a historic craft language.

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.