Viewing: Museums

Matthew Szösz, untitled (inflatable) no.73, 2017. H 12 1/2 W 7 D 8 in. Glass. courtesy: Wheaton Arts

Monday May 29, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

OPENING: Second “Emanation” at WheatonArts harnesses synergy between fabrication and concept

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, Exhibition, Museums, New Work, News, Opening

WheatonArts in Millville, New Jersey, is preparing to unveil its second “Emanation” exhibition during its long-running GlassWeekend event, a biennial gathering of collectors and artists to celebrate, discuss, buy and sell glass artwork coming up on June 9, 10 and 11, 2017. WheatonArts is a multi-dimensional nonprofit in Southern New Jersey, with programs ranging from a museum of American glass history to programming celebrating regional folk culture. But “Emanation,” initiated in 2015, is focused on the contemporary moment in art through an ambitious program to break down the barriers between fabricators and contemporary artists, something that other programs such as the high-profile Glasstress program by Berengo Studio in Venice don't directly address. Unlike that program, which brings well-known artists to Venice to have their ideas realized by glass masters, the "Emanation" project is based in the studios of WheatonArts' Creative Glass Center of America, best-known for its long-running fellowship program that allows artists free rein to realize experimental ideas at this unique facility. The New Jersey project is careful to avoid the one-way street of becoming a fabrication station. There are multiple efforts to create synergy between the artists and the facility, including during the installation of the exhibition component. The artists chosen for the second iteration of "Emanation" -- Emily Brown, Vanessa German, Michael Joo, Lorna Simpson, Therman Statom, Matthew Szösz, and the group Flock the Optic -- reveal varying levels of technical expertise working with glass, which creates interactions that cross-pollinate between artists approaching the project with different perspectives.

Erwin Eisch and his wife, Gretel, at the opening of "Erwin Eisch zum 90. Geburtstag”.

Thursday May 4, 2017 | by Gabi Gimson

OPENING: Erwin Eisch celebrated his 90th birthday with museum opening in Frauenau, Germany

FILED UNDER: Museums, News

The gallery at Glasmuseum Frauenau in Frauenau, Germany, is celebrating the life and work of seminal glass artist, Erwin Eisch with an exhibition that runs through June 30th. It opened on April 17th, on the eve of the artist’s 90th birthday. Glasmuseum Frauenau is a public museum founded by Eisch and former Frauenau mayor, Alfons Hannes in 1975, but the small Alpine town boasts a 500-year-old glassblowing tradition. Inspired by the international Studio Glass movement, of which he had been a pioneer, Eisch established the museum in his hometown to showcase the possibilities of glass technology and design.

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."

Monday April 17, 2017 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Moving on, Susan Warner reflects on the glass museum she joined in 2001

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, News

In her 16-year-tenure at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, Susan Warner has served as executive director, artistic director, and director of public programs. Last week, she announced she'll be leaving her current position as the institution's artistic director and major gifts officer next month to once again assume the title of "executive director" but at a very different arts organization. The Vashon Center for the Arts is located on the largest island in the Puget Sound, which sits almost midway between Tacoma and Seattle. Unlike the glass museum, the Vashon is primarily focused on performing arts, and grew out of an arts league established in 1949. It currently has a staff of eight full-time employees, offers 120 classes a year, and puts on over 40 events per year, both exhibitions in its galleries and performances in its newly built theater. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently spoke with Susan by phone about her impressive tenure at the Museum of Glass, her reflections on how the institution has changed over the years, and the accomplishments she's most proud of.

The cover of the upcoming edition of New Glass Review features work by Thaddeus Wolfe.

Tuesday April 11, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Summer issue of GLASS Quarterly will again include bonus of latest edition of New Glass Review

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Museums, New Work, Print Edition

As a special bonus, current subscribers to GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly will once again receive the latest version of The Corning Museum of Glass's annual exhibition in print of notable new work for no extra charge. Overseen for the first time by Corning's new curator of modern glass, Susie Silbert, New Glass Review 38 will identify the 100 most important new works in glass from over 1,000 submissions from around the world. Subscriber copies will arrive in mailboxes on June 1st, 2017, poly-bagged with the extra bonus of the beautifully printed 2017 edition of New Glass Review. Newsstand copies will also include the extra bonus issue, but the retail cover price will be higher than the typical $11/copy. Subscribers, who already enjoy a discount off the cover price, pay nothing extra to receive this definitive publication that has successfully picked some of the most important new artists to emerge in its nearly two-decade run.

Bob Snodgrass, Skull Pipe, 2016. 6 in. courtesy: apexart.

Tuesday April 4, 2017 | by Awura Barnie-Duah

OPENING: Gaining acceptance, glass pipes being shown at larger art venues

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, Opening

Apexart, a downtown Manhattan non-profit arts venue for independent curators and emerging and established artists, is currently showing an exhibition of glass pipes unabashedly celebrated by the show's organizer David Bienenstock, who is the former head of content at High Times magazine and a self-described "cannabis consultant." Despite the growing support for the decriminalization of marijuana (the most recent Gallup poll on the subject found 60-percent of Americans support legalization), Bienenstock has titled the exhibition "Outlaw Glass," and it gathers a wide range of work by a new generation of artists following in the footsteps of pioneering flameworker Bob Snodgrass, whose legacy the exhibition is designed to honor. Not just a showcase of the best work by contemporary glass, the exhibition also delves into the "authentic underground cannabis culture," examining the sometimes shadowy aspects of pipemaking, which has endured targeted law enforcement crackdowns as recently as in 2003's Operation Pipedreams. Bienenstock notes that the fine art world's embrace of pipemaking may be "following the trajectory of graffiti culture, which started literally in the streets amid serious and sustained official repression, only to break through into galleries and then put its stamp on both high art and popular culture."

Monir Farmanfarmaian, Third Family - Heptagon (Detail), 2011. Mirror, reverse-glass painting, and acrylic. photo: robert divers herrick. courtesy: the artist and haines gallery

Thursday March 16, 2017 | by Awura Barnie-Duah

OPENING: Iranian contemporary artist’s richly mirrored work featured at Chrysler Museum of Art

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, Opening

Kandinsky and Mondrian are two Western painters credited with pioneering the form of geometric abstraction. But artwork that focuses on patterns of color and shape rather than figuration goes back to ancient art forms, especially in Islamic Art, where depiction of religious figures has been carefully avoided in respect for the faith's ban on idolatry. The mirror sculptures of Monir Farmanfarmaian, an Iranian artist, bring together influences of Western avant-garde painting and centuries-old Islamic art in works of refraction and geometric abstraction. An opening reception this evening at The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, will kick off an exhibition of Farmanfarmaian's work that will continue through July 30, 2017.

James Mongrain with his 2016 Arcobaleno Series.

Thursday March 2, 2017 | by Awura Barnie-Duah

EXHIBITION: James Mongrain celebrates the glory of Venetian glassblowing at the Museum of Glass

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, Museums, News

Towering, taut, and ornate, 130 exquisitely blown glass works are currently on view at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, where they will remain through October 15, 2017. These are the fruits of a four-year collaboration between master glassblower James Mongrain and patron and prominent collector George R. Stroemple. Organized into four groupings entitled the Adriatico, Atlantis, Poseidon, and Arcobaleno series, the works result from Mongrain's extremely disciplined approach to traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques, and represent his response to the more than one hundred 19th-century Venetian glass objects in Stroemple's collection, which are also displayed in the exhibition. This show is an homage to the traditions that inspired Mongrain to devote his career to mastery of the techniques and aesthetic rules of this historic high-water mark for glassblowing skill.

The glass art museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark, will showcase emerging talent in juried exhibition. courtesy: museum website

Friday February 17, 2017 | by Gabi Gimson

Danish glass museum exhibit to feature “Young Glass” competition finalists

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Exhibition, Museums, News

On June 10, 2017, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark will open an exhibit of work by the finalists in its fourth Young Glass competition. Since it was initiated by this museum of glass art in 1987, the juried once-a-decade competition has strived to promote and reward emerging talent in the medium. Four cash prizes totaling €42,000 (approx. $45,000 US) and two artist residencies will be awarded to the winners.

Black Iris Vase, 1909. Porcelaneous earthenware. collection: newark museum

Wednesday February 15, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

OPENING: The Newark Museum explores art boundaries with upcoming exhibit

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Museums, Opening

On February 22, 2017, the Newark Museum will open a provocative exhibition titled "When Objects Became Art," which presents early twentieth-century glass and ceramic works from its private collection to foster a new understanding of the dividing line between decorative and fine art.

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.