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Ruben Toledo, Summer Heat Wave, 2009. Screenprint with hand painting. courtesy: pilchuck glass school

Wednesday April 26, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

Chrysler exhibition celebrates Harvey Littleton’s lesser-known innovation: vitreography

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, News

In her tenure as director of marketing and communications at the Pilchuck Glass School, Diane Wright became enamored of the little-known print collection in the school's archive of work made through the glass plate printing process known as vitreography. These are works in paper that are printed using a cold-worked sheet of glass as the plate, offering a number of advantages over a metal plate, including that it can be laid over the paper it will eventually be printed on during its creation, and it doesn't break down during repeat uses. Since she was appointed curator of glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art in December 2013, Wright had been looking forward to giving a platform to highlight this less well-known artform. "I wanted to be able to show them here in an environment where we have a strong focus on glass, but we also show a lot of other work," Wright said in a telephone interview with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. "There's this wonderful marriage between 2-D work that uses glass as a printing matrix and it also illustrates an interesting range of artists who who have worked at Pilchuck."

Sibylle Peretti, Pearl River, 2017.

Tuesday April 25, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

OPENING: Sibylle Peretti plumbs intricate relationships in nature with new body of work

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

Sibylle Peretti a German-born artist who renders nature-inspired dreamscape will unveil a new body of work at her upcoming exhibition entitled "It Was Such a Beautiful Promise," where she explores a world of complex relationships and issues of survival. Exhibiting at Callan Contemporary in New Orleans from May 4 to June 25, 2017, Peretti’s glass panels are a continuation of her previous work, The Land Behind, where she explored the effects imagination has on creating space. Compared to her earlier work, which exhibits similar themes, the glass artist evolves her use of external symbols, (i.e., bees, vegetation, and crystals) to a different found object: pearls.

Artist and educator Katherine Gray, pictured with her installation "A Tree Grows," will be the keynote speaker at the 2017 conference.

Thursday April 20, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

Canadian glass artist association puts emphasis on community for upcoming “Re:Do” conference in May

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

From May 25th through 28th, 2017, the Glass Art Association of Canada will hold its member conference, this time with the theme of "Re:DO." The concept is to urge artists to "re:think, re:inspire and re:connect" with both their peers and glass art, according to the event website. The keynote speaker will be Canadian-born artist and educator Katherine Gray, who teaches at California State University, San Bernardino. The theme of "re:connect" will be especially apt because this will be the first time the organization has convened its full membership since 2010. The planned 2013 event, which would have taken place in Calgary, Alberta, had to be canceled because of low projected attendance by the organizers, who cited financial struggles of glass artist members.

Preston Singletary, Travels on Water, 2017. Blown and Sand Blasted Glass with Metal Oars. H 11 W 20 D 6 in. courtesy: the artist

Thursday March 30, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

OPENING: Preston Singletary engages politics, the environment, in new body of work

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, New Work

Preston Singletary, whose blown and sandblasted works in glass channel his Native American heritage, brings a political edge to a new body of work to be unveiled in his upcoming exhibition, Premonitions of Water, opening April 6, 2017, at the Traver Gallery in Seattle. Singletary has explored traditional Tlingit iconography for much of his artistic career. Working with images and narratives from Native American people from Alaska and British Columbia, Singletary weaves traditional figures usually carved into wood into blown-glass works. Interviewed for an upcoming episode of Nature, airing on PBS on April 21, 2017, Singletary discussed in depth his portrayal of the Tlingit myth The Raven.

Dale Chihuly, Rose Blush Macchia Studio Edition, 2017. Blown Glass. H 6, W 9, H 9 in. courtesy: schantz galleries

Tuesday March 28, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

Released in limited variety each year, Chihuly’s Studio Editions offer more accessible prices

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

Hand blown, smaller-scale, and created in multiples, each year's crop of Studio Editions reference some of the best-known unique works by Dale Chihuly, perhaps the best-known artist working with glass, whose signature adorns each one. Each season since 2012, the Chihuly Workshop has released four new studio editions, part of a series designed to offer Chihuly works at a more affordable price-point. These are available at galleries specializing in glass such as Schantz Galleries in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg, Boat People, 2016. Blown and carved glass, brass hammered hull. H 20 W 105 D 19 cm. photo: alex ramsay

Sunday March 26, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

New work by Baldwin and Guggisberg at Sandra Ainsley Gallery extends ongoing boat series

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

Husband and wife artistic collaborators Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg continue to explore the metaphor of journey in their exhibition Thinking in Glass that runs through May 6, 2017, at the Sandra Ainsley gallery in Toronto. Assemblages of blown forms gathered into water craft is not new to this artistic duo, who have been experimenting with boat vessels since their initial series, "Sentinel" in the mid-1990s.

Artist Sarah Mizer at work in the studio.

Wednesday March 22, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

3 Questions for ... Sarah Mizer

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

Glass artist, Sarah Mizer, explores polarization, overindulgence, and nostalgia in her exhibition "Of Most Excellent Fancy," on view through April 1, 2017 at a project space in Laurel Park, North Carolina, that is the contemporary art component of a novel retail wine market called the Crate Project. Drawing inspiration from Vanitas Dutch still life imagery, and dialog from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mizer created three groups of art forms that reside on individual walls. Each set of works evoke a sense of conflicting ideas, such as life and death, like Vanitas imagery, while incorporating her own experiences from her time as an artist residence at the Penland School of Crafts. In these three questions, Mizer expands on how her botanical studies mesh with 17th-century sources of inspiration.

Penland School of Crafts, Inspired: Life In Penland's Resident Artist and Core Fellowship Programs, cover. courtesy of Penland School of crafts

Wednesday March 8, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

BOOK REPORT: Penland publishes a lavish celebration of its unique residency program

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Book Report, Education

In many words and pictures, Penland School of Crafts' new book, entitled Inspired: Life In Penland’s Resident Artists and Core Fellowship Programs, tells the story of this North Carolina craft center's mission and artist outcomes through the voices of its staff and 32 of the artist residents. These voices share their positive experiences during their time in residency, whether it was for 8 months or the uniquely long 3 year fellowship, and how they benefited from the institution's educational and residency programs. Over the course of 192 pages, this new coffeetable book delves into the history of Penland, first founded in the 1920s (it established its first glass program in 1965), and the core reason for its existence: to provide the perfect balance of solidarity and isolation for upmost creative growth. This hardcover book, according to Penland executive director Jean McLaughlin on page 8, "aim[s] to acknowledge the remarkable near-fifty-year history of these two programs and begin to document this history through the stories of participating artists."

Kazuki Takizawa, The Minimalist, 2015-2017. Blown glass sculpture. courtesy: the artist

Thursday February 23, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

OPENING: Kazuki Takizawa takes on weighty topic in upcoming solo exhibition at major craft gallery

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, New Work, Opening

UPDATED: 05/16/2017

Tobias Klein, Virtual Sunset II, 2013. Installation. courtesy: the artist

Tuesday February 21, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

The 2017 lineup of Pilchuck artists in residence links up with the theme of each summer session

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

A mix of artists, designers, and new-technology innovators have been invited to travel to the remote Stanwood, Washington, campus of Pilchuck this summer as part of the glass school's annual artists-in-residence program. These residents will explore how glass might dovetail with their own artistic vision, and will be assisted by highly-skilled glass gaffers. In the process, their presence is designed to act as a creative catalyst for the unique mix of students who come together each summer, drawn by this legendary school's unique approach to exploring expression and artistic exchange through the material of glass. Since being named permanent artistic director of the program in 2013, visual artist and educator Tina Aufiero has designed each summer's program, and she selected this year's artists in residence and instructors. (For an in-depth profile of Aufiero, see the Winter 2016-17 edition of GLASS (#145).)

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.