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Urban Glass

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Sunday January 19, 2014 | by Paulina Switniewska

OPENING: Color blooms at the Basch Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design
FILED UNDER: Exhibition, News
A piece by Dale Chihuly entitled The Blue Persian sold at a show in Tampa in 1993 and began Richard and Barbara Basch’s passion for collecting glass art pieces. They began with the work of American artists, and soon broadened their support of artists from all over the world. Since then, the Basches have amassed over 250 pieces for their collection, including 10 more works of art by Chihuly. The Richard and Barbara Basch Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida now houses much of the Basches’ collection, most of which has been donated and is now owned by the school. Its most recent exhibition, “Che Colore!” which runs through March 7, 2014, features 33 works that have been created by blowing, casting, and other methods by celebrated artists such as Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, and Lucio Bubacco, among others.

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Friday January 17, 2014 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: Two Brooklyn exhibits open this weekend featuring dangerously sharp glass
FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, Opening
Two exhibitions opening this weekend in the New York City borough of Brooklyn employ the sharp edges of glass in service of very different artistic visions. In her installation and performance work entitled Always on Our Plate (2014) at Bushwick's Slag Gallery, artist Alexandra Ben-Abba investigates her complex feelings about the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Using the table set for a dinner party, Ben-Abba embeds images into the tableware, which is set with dishes as well as glass shards, chunks of stone, and cement. On Friday, January 17th, there will be a 7 PM performance in which a group of artists, curators and art critics consume a meal using these dangerous table settings as the forum for a conversation about identity and place. The exhibition continues through January 22, 2014. Not far away in the DUMBO neighborhood, Smack Mellon gallery will unveil a 48-foot-long menacing glass wall work made up of 7,200 painstakingly cut triangles of mirrored glass arranged into dangerously sharp points. The work of Robert Hickman will debut on Saturday, January 18th, and remain on view through March 2, 2014. "Although the work is fragile, it will cut you if you get too close," writes Hickman in his artist's statement about the work, which he calls "a cautionary tale of human interaction.”

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Thursday January 16, 2014 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: GlassRoots seeks Program Director to lead at-risk youth program
FILED UNDER: Help Wanted
Since 2001, at-risk youth in and around Newark, New Jersey, have had a unique after-school option: glassblowing. GlassRoots has been offering educational programs for area teens since it was founded by Rutgers professor Pat Kettenring, who retired as executive director in 2010 after ten years leading the organization. Now, this leading at-risk youth program is seeking a new Program Director responsible for the planning, implementation and assessment of all educational and recreational programs. This includes the school-based, after-school, and public classes.

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Friday January 10, 2014 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: UrbanGlass spotlights work by recent graduates of M.F.A. programs
FILED UNDER: Events, Exhibition, Opening
Since 2004, UrbanGlass has been hosting a juried exhibition to highlight the best work by recent graduates of M.F.A. programs whose work features glass. The 2014 MFA exhibition will open on January 22nd in the Robert Lehman Gallery at the Agnes Varis Art Center at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York. The four artists whose work will be featured are Melissa Athey (Virginia Commonwealth University); Sarah Briland (VCU); Weston Lambert (Tulane University); and Wil Sideman (Rochester Institute of Technology).

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Thursday December 19, 2013 | by Paulina Switniewska

CALL FOR ENTRIES: David Dunlap Observatory in Ontario seeks proposals for glass award
FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Call for Submissions, Design, Education
The Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, as part of a public outreach effort of the David Dunlap Observatory in Ontario, will be awarding its inaugural Dunlap Prize to Neil deGrasse Tyson on March 21st, 2014 in recognition of his magnanimous efforts in public education, science engagement, and science advocacy.The Dunlap Institute has announced a call for expressions of interest in crafting the award component of the prize. Glass artists are sought out in particular for their choice of media, which evokes imagery of stars and starlight due to its refractive qualities. “A glass object reflects and refracts; it can act as a lens, a mirror, and a prism—all critical components in the telescopes and instruments astronomers use to study the Universe,” the announcement states.

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133 Cover Web
GLASS 133, Winter 2013 - 14

Tuesday December 17, 2013 | by Andrew Page

Hot off the Presses: GLASS 133, Winter 2013 - 14
FILED UNDER: Print Edition
The Winter 2013 - 14 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#133) hit newsstands and subscriber mailboxes earlier this month. On the cover is Kazushi Nakada's 2005 work De-Fragment from his "Study Period" series. Inside, GLASS editor Andrew Page discusses Nakada's geographic and artistic journey from his native Japan to Europe, where he is currently a senior lecturer at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. For Nakada, who grew up in a family of ceramicists in Japan, the move to glass was a break with his lineage, but one undertaken for his sense of glass as a material with global reach. As he says in the interview: "Ceramics was always a local world. ... I thought that through these glass works, I could connect to the larger world."

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Thursday December 12, 2013 | by Paulina Switniewska

Nikolas Weinstein Studios wins hospitality design award for hotel installation in Hong Kong
FILED UNDER: Announcements, Architecture, Award, Public Art
Nikolas Weinstein Studios, based in San Francisco, California, was awarded the grand prize in the “Judges’ So Cool” category for its sculptural glass installation in the Courtyard by Marriot, Hong Kong Sha Tin. The recognition was part of the 33rd annual Gold Key Awards for Excellence in Hospitality Design, centering specifically on hotel design and architecture.

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Tuesday December 3, 2013 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Scenes from the Jonathan Christie Memorial Event
FILED UNDER: Image Gallery, In Memoriam, News
Billed as "A Celebration of Jon's Life and Achievements," a memorial event took place at the Chihuly Boathouse on Sunday Oct 20th from 11 AM to 2 PM, where the Evelyn Room and Hot Shop were open to friends, family, and well-wishers honoring the memory of the late Jonathan Christie (1968 – 2013). Organized by Jonathan's father, David, the event also saw the launch of a 24-page book entitled Remembering Jon that includes a 9-minute DVD focusing on the evolution of Lyrical Light (2006). Weighing two tons, and made up of more than 300 individual glass horns, the large-scale public artwork is installed at a Jacksonville performing arts center and represents the pinacle of the late artist's output in terms of size and technical complexity. The video was edited down from the 60-minute documentary entitled "Glass Ceiling" that was produced by the local public television station in Florida.

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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.