Thursday March 15, 2018 | by Allison Adler

OPENING: Sibylle Peretti's exhibit, debuting tonight at the Chrysler Museum, explores the human yearning for connection to nature

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Today, the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, unveils the simultaneously somber and captivating works of Sibylle Peretti in "Promise and Perception: The Enchanted Landscapes of Sibylle Peretti," organized by the museum's former curator of glass Diane Wright, who left recently to become curator of glass at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. Wright describes Peretti as composing "poetic narratives about the relationship between humans and the natural world." Peretti herself, in a YouTube video, expands on this idea, describing her work as dealing with human failings and our inability to find harmony and unity with nature. "Promise and Perception" combines new and old works to introduce audience members to Peretti's immersive and poetic narratives while encouraging contemplation on the potential of achieving harmony with the natural world.

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Thursday March 15, 2018 | by Allison Adler

CONVERSATION: Clay artist Sharif Bey discusses his oversized necklace sculptures that incorporate glass

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Artist Sharif Bey began our telephone conversation by describing an image he had seen of a young Berber girl in North Africa wearing a series of amber-beaded necklaces. Though beautiful, the necklaces “didn’t look comfortable,” he said; there was something precarious and heavy about them. Why wear them, then? “She’s wearing this for some reason,” Bey said, conveying the sense that these necklaces and the beads of which they are composed have power and resonance, something that allows them to be more than objects of personal adornment. The large-scale glass and clay necklaces currently on view at the Pittsburgh Glass Center exhibition entitled "Sharif Bey: Dialogues in Clay and Glass" are the products of Bey’s inquiry into this resonance -- something he creates through both size and the combination of particular materials -- as well as his interest in the symbolism of beads and their relationship to collective identity.

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Tuesday March 13, 2018 | by Allison Adler

EXHIBITION: In Berlin, mixed-media glass works by Dafna Kaffeman and Wilken Skurk offer differing takes on a dangerous world

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

A new exhibition If I Had a Home, on view at Berlin's lorch + seidel contemporary through April 14th, juxtaposes what initially seem like widely different works by Dafna Kaffeman and Wilken Skurk. Kaffeman’s wolves, formed of spiky, flame-worked glass fixed to aluminum with silicone, adhere to the walls beside Wilken Skurk’s glass and bronze sculptures Home (2009), Nest (2007), and Tressor (2006). In general, both artists create works that are more than what they seem. What appears to be a simple portrait of a wolf or a sculpture that resembles an architectural model of a building actually contains layers of political and personal meaning. In bringing these two artists’ works together, lorch + seidel suggest that there is a conversation going on here, one that is related to the concept of home, and, perhaps, its stability. Upon closer examination of individual works, an even more-poignant contrast emerges between the two artists and their respective views on safety in an insecure environment.

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Saturday January 20, 2018 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Steven Durow confronts personal childhood trauma as artistic inspiration for "Heartland" decades later

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Do vivid recreations of traumatic events help us to recover from them? Artist Steven Durow contemplated this for about 20 years prior to the debut of his exhibition “Heartland” now at Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Each piece serves as specific testimony to abuse suffered by the artist during his developmental years.…

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Tuesday December 12, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Julius Weiland juxtaposes paint and glass in latest gallery show entitled "Cluster and Contour"

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Julius Weiland combines his expertise in glass and paint with his newest exhibition “Cluster and Contour,” on view at Berlin's lorch + seidel gallery through February 3rd, 2018. Despite the contrast between not only paint and glass but the figures depicted in adjacent works, Weiland manages to make disparate subjects and media complement one another. When looking at the sculptures, the viewer can assume the original, individual pieces of glass were in the midst of a complex fusing process before they were frozen in this moment. The same goes for the paintings; they depict humans that appear to have been undergoing deep thought or contemplation. Weiland’s creations all seem to be represent a single, unique moment when motion is arrested.

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Thursday November 9, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Jim Butler's New York solo painting show is all about his fascination with glass

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

“Mercurial and fixed,” “familiar albeit fantastical.” Paradoxical terms such as these came up repeatedly in conversations with painter Jim Butler as he discussed his new "Synaptic Reverb" series on view at New York's Tibor de Nagy Gallery​​ through December 22, 2017. The five glass-inspired large-scale canvases were created over the past two years, and each represents a detailed investigation of the behavior of light passing through glass. The oil on canvas images will tempt you to reach out and touch their intricate detailing and labyrinthine extensions of the glass sculptures, testament to Butler's skill with a brush, but also his keen insights into the qualities that distinguish glass from any other medium.…

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Wednesday October 25, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Lou Lynn explores tools as extensions of the hand, touchstones connecting to the past

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Lou Lynn's latest exhibition, entitled "Envisioned/Revisioned," opened recently at the Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, British Columbia. Running through January 7th, 2018, the exhibition features works drawn from three ongoing series: "Utensils," "Tools as Artifacts," and "Implements and Objects." The gallery's curator and artistic director George Harris collaborated with Lynn in selecting the final pieces, and in his curatorial statement, he describes the exhibit as “playful deception” through “juxtaposing versions of historically rooted objects alongside those of fabricated origin that nevertheless masquerade as real.”…

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Wednesday October 18, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Site of historic 1962 workshop, the Toledo Museum of Art celebrates women in glass with "Fired Up" exhibit

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

When Harvey Littleton held the first of his historic glass workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962, there were nine male participants, and only four female. Littleton would go on to start the first academic program in glass art and be heralded as the father of Studio Glass, while participant Norm Schulman would go on to found RISD's glass department. Much less recognition would go to the female participants in the workshop. Much has been written about the quest of 20th-century female artists to achieve equal recognition, but an exhibition now on view at the Toledo Museum of Art celebrates the impact and accomplishments of women glass artists since the early days of this once male-dominated field. An exhibition entitled "Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists," which was shown at the Mint Museum in North Carolina, opened at the site of the 1962 Toledo Workshops, where it will remain on view through March 18, 2018. …

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Thursday September 28, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

OPENING: In Berlin exhibition, Julius Weiland challenges boundaries in a new approach to glass

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Julius Weiland will be debuting his new work in an exhibition entitled “Decoration and Deformation.” Opening on October 1st at 3 PM, it will remain on view through December 22nd. The show’s location played a role in the creation of the art; it will be held in a former country house built by Mies van der Rohe. …

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Tuesday September 12, 2017 | by Joseph Modica

EXHIBITION: Notable design collaboration among the over-140 events at first-ever Venice Glass Week

FILED UNDER: Design, Exhibition, New Work, News

Lending their shape and form, insects are the basis of a new collection by two Italian designers who seek to capture the marriage between design and nature in glass objects. The “Metamorphosis“ collection is a result of the collaboration between two artists, Camilla Brunelli and Simone Crestani. Using delicately blown glass vessels, the artists sought to capture the rigidity and translucence of shed insect exoskeletons. Running through September 17, the exhibition is taking place as part of Venice Glass Week, where it is being shown at the T Fondaco dei Tedeschi on Venice's Grand Canal. The event is the first iteration of a brand-new international glass event with a focus on Murano glassmaking. Opening September 10, 2017, and running through the 17th, the week includes over 140 events paying tribute to Venice and Murano's rich history involving glass. including conferences, exhibits, and educational activities. The "Metamorphosis" exhibition is part of this much-larger festival of Italian glass art, design and history which celebrates one of Venice's most influential artistic exports.

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