Matthew Day Perez, Crush: Big Blue, 2017. Broken, fused, silvered, and coldworked glass. H 19 1/2 W 32 D 3/4 in. courtesy: bullseye projects website

“I think of my work as being dichotomous,” said Matthew Day Perez in an interview with GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. And many opposing forces are indeed at work in Perez’s first U.S. solo exhibition, "Fractured": order and chaos, connectedness and brokenness, simplicity and detail. Fracture and repair are the backbone of Perez’s artistic concept. His wall pieces, historically gigantic but now of various dimensions as he explores scale feature broken sheets of glass either reassembled in a kiln to form scar lines where the fractures once were, or simply piled on to create a busier, more three-dimensional effect. “I’m interested in broken glass for the absurdity of breaking it and putting it back together,” he said.

Continue Reading

Justin Ginsberg, Spirit of Unrest, 2017. Found chair, glass. Dimensions vary. courtesy: the artist

A new show at S12 Gallery this month will see experimental glass artist Justin Ginsberg using household objects to explore a personal issue: the constraints of domesticity. Opening on August 4th, "Considerations and Ants" features a series of drawings, installations, videos, and objects created over the course of a summer-long residency at the Norwegian studio and gallery. Though this marks something of an aesthetic break from the artist's past work, the new exhibition continues his efforts to challenge viewers' assumptions about common structures by confronting the limitations the home can impose on freedom -- both as a physical cage and a source of financial confinement.

Continue Reading

Traver Gallery in Seattle is honoring its historical lineage with its 40th anniversary group exhibition this month, but the focus of its two upcoming exhibits in August is decidedly forward-looking. Straying from its long history as a premier gallery for top-tier glass artists such as Lino Tagliapietra, Traver Gallery will open two exhibits by experimental artists this evening, timed to the opening of the Seattle Art Fair. John Kiley, known for his intense style of breaking glass, will open alongside artist couple Matthew Szosz and Anna Mlasowsky, who push the limitations of the material through the unconventionality of their work. This is the couple's first exhibit at Traver Gallery. 

Continue Reading

Inna Babaeva, Men O’war, 2017, glass, H 36. W 36, D 36 in. courtesy: sarah thaw

Contemporary art is on display in unexpected spaces within New York City and beyond thanks to the Art-in-Buildings program, an initiative by real-estate company Time Equities, Inc. that is transforming windows into non-traditional exhibition spaces. The program was founded in 2001 by Time Equities, Inc. CEO Francis Greenburger, who, after walking into an empty lobby in one of his downtown Manhattan properties, decided that the space would be a perfect place to display art. Since that initial idea, the concept has grown to include building fronts in many different sites -- from the Financial District and other areas in New York City, to buildings across the United States and in three different countries -- and over 110 artists have been featured in its rotating exhibitions.Currently on view at the program's West 10th Window, a street-level storefront window located in Manhattan’s West Village that has featured unique artists in short-term exhibitions since 2012 is an installation by Ukraine-born, New York-based artist Inna Babaeva, who frequently employs glass in her work (Disclosure: The work was fabricated at the studios of UrbanGlass, the nonprofit arts center that published the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet as well as the print publication GLASS.). Eliana Blechman, the curatorial assistant and exhibitions coordinator of Time Equities’ Art-in-Buildings program, said that said she and her fellow curators “scour the internet, galleries and magazines” for unique artists to invite to display their work in the space.

Continue Reading

Montague Gallery from the street. courtesy: dani montague

Dani Montague first thought of opening a gallery devoted to glass art two decades ago, but it wasn't until her retirement from a career with March of Dimes, where she served as vice president of philanthropy, that she was able to realize her dream. This past February, Montague proudly unlocked the doors of Montague Gallery in San Francisco's Union Square area, home to many established galleries, for an opening reception that also served as a benefit for the Pilchuck Glass School. “I came from the nonprofit world, so I thought it would be great to launch my new business, my new art gallery, with a benefit,” she said in a telephone interview with GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet.

Continue Reading

Carried on Both Sides, research image, 2016. courtesy: the artist

New York-based artist Caroline Woolard set out to satisfy her curiosity about the links between an ancient container to transport liquids and a ubiquitous symbol of our contemporary digital moment. For good measure, she extends this inquiry into speculation on how this typographical element might further evolve. This journey into the past, present, and imagined future of the symbol for digital communication "@" is the subject of her project Carried on Both Sides, which she will be discussing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this Friday evening, July 28, 2017 with her collaborators present. To realize the project, Woolard partnered with glass artists Helen Lee and Alexander Rosenberg as well as textile artist Lika Volkova during residencies at the Pilchuck Glass School and UrbanGlass. She explained her intent for Carried on Both Sides in her proposal for the residency at Pilchuck as a project “that traces the transmutation of an ancient vessel into a common computer symbol -- the @ [at sign]. Our work links 6th-century terra cotta and glass amphorae to the handwritten @ of 16th century mercantile scripts to the ubiquitous contemporary vector graphic we use in email and in social media.”

Continue Reading

Jeff Zimmerman, Unique crystal vessel in hand-blown glass with mirrorized interior, 2017. L 14.5" W 9" H 8" courtesy: R & Company

Glass artist Jeff Zimmerman continues to skirt the line between art and design with his work included in a summer group exhibition at design gallery R & Company. The exhibit will remain on view through August 17 and is notable for some strikingly fresh geometric work for an artist known for fluid, kinetic forms.

Continue Reading

Verena Schatz, Bundle, 2015. borosilicate tubes, slumped. H 53 1/2, W 14, D 14 in. courtesy: Hans-Martin Lorch

Jens Gussek, an accomplished artist in his own right and a winner of the 2015 International Glass Prize in Lommel, Belgium, has also worked steadily as a university professor throughout his career. He currently holds the title of Head of the Institute of Ceramic and Glass Art (IKKG) at the University of Applied Science in Koblenz, Germany. A unique exhibition of work by 11 of his former students is opening at a commercial gallery in Berlin this summer, a testament to the caliber of work Gussek has helped his students achieve. Entitled “subtext glas(s),” the exhibition opens July 22 and will run through September 2, 2017, at the lorch+seidel contemporary gallery in Berlin, Germany.

Continue Reading

Cerith Wyn Evans' massive neon work in the Tate's Duveen Galleries engages with viewers and the architecture.

When Tate Britain unveiled a monumental neon installation by Welsh sculptor and filmmaker Cerith Wyn Evans in Spring 2017, the project was certain to have a massive impact on the field of light art for its sheer scale alone. Forms in Space...by Light (in Time) was produced for the 2017 Tate Britain Commission, which invites contemporary British artists to respond to the museum’s Duveen Galleries, the oldest galleries in England specifically designed to show sculpture. Made from over a mile of glass tubing, Wyn Evans’ bright white neon installation hangs just over museum-goers' heads, arranged to invite viewing from multiple angles, all the while redefining the space and activating the museum's high-ceilinged airy architecture. It remains on view through August 20, 2017.

Continue Reading

Angus Powers, Jon Clark, Jesse Daniels, Quantum, 2017. Glass, video projection, sound. Installation. courtesy: bergstrom-mahler museum

Think of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass and what might come to mind is the Neenah, Wisconsin, institution's wide array of historic glass paperweights and Germanic glass that make up the bulk of its permanent collection. That's why the museum's recently acquisition of Quantum, a contemporary installation by Angus Powers, Jon Clark and Jesse Daniels that incorporates glass with light, sound and video, was so significant. The installation, a gift of the artists to the museum, is currently on view through August 20, 2017, after which it will be stored and kept in the museum’s rotation dependent upon available space. The new work joining the mostly historic permanent collection signals the museum's expanded embrace of contemporary glass art, which is also reflected in its recent acquisition of a 2003 work by Alex Bernstein.

Continue Reading