Tuesday August 30, 2016 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: A conversation with Judith Schaechter on her upcoming New York City exhibition

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

Judith Schaechter, who employs the radiance of stained glass to present human figures arranged against lushly patterned color fields in poses of transcendence or anguish, will open a solo exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery in the Chelsea area of New York City on September 8th, 2016. Entitled "The Life Ecstatic" the exhibition does not present radical shifts in Schaechter's approach as did her previous exhibition "Dark Matter," which saw a foray into three-dimensional sculpture, or her preceding site-specific architectural installation at the Eastern State Penitentary in Philadelphia, where she installed her works in narrow prison-cell windows. Instead, the upcoming exhibition, which runs through October 15, 2016, represents a return to her career-long project of updating the Gothic tradition of stained glass to plumb the intersection of spiritual longing and psychological torment from a contemporary perspective. Evident in the latest work is how her meticulous craft and expanding ability to render complex narrative works continues evolving in her most intricate and nuanced works to date. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently caught up with Schaechter for an email interview about her upcoming exhibition.

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Saturday August 27, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Glass survey exhibition spanning 2,000 years set to debut in The Hague

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

A sizable sampling of the holdings of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag’s two-millennia-spanning glass collection will be showcased in "Look! Glass," an exhibit of 400 glass objects from across history. A single, long table will tell the history of the drinking glass through some 200 objects, from Ancient Roman glass to contemporary vessels. The massive survey will be complemented by a selection of contemporary Dutch glass, a gallery of works by Italian glass maestro Lino Tagliapietra, and a display comparing and contrasting the forms across time.

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Tuesday August 16, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Glass art on the rise in Asheville as nonprofit buys private facility, plans new studios in 2017

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News, Opening

North Carolina has multiple connections to glass art, from the remarkable residencies and classes at Penland to the glass supplier Spruce Pine Batch, run by the son of Studio Glass pioneer Harvey Littleton, who relocated to the state in 1977. Now the city of Asheville, North Carolina, which the state art council cites as home to "the third-largest number of craft artists in the United States," will get a boost for glass artists with the recently formed North Carolina Glass Center, a nonprofit art center gearing up to move into a brand-new facility in spring of 2017. NCGC will occupy state-of-the-art studios at River Arts Makers Place (known as RAMP), a multi-use 50,000-square-foot facility that will house facilities from a variety of institutions, including the University of North Carolina Asheville. The new glass center aims to offer studio rentals, glass classes and workshops, as well as gallery space. But even before the new building comes online next year, the new nonprofit is already in business, having purchased the assets of the privately-held Asheville Glass Center as of June 1, 2016. NCGC's executive director Kari Rinn, formerly the director of creative arts at Haywood Community College, told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet that the nonprofit plans to vastly expand the glass education programs while keeping the public access that Asheville Glass Center offered.

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Monday August 1, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

OPENING: In an experimental mood, Traver features new work by John Kiley and Justin Ginsberg

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Opening

On the evening of Wednesday, August 3rd, Traver Gallery will debut two new solo exhibitions and one new permanent one. John Kiley will be unveiling "10,000 MPH," a radical departure for this seasoned glassblower and cutter. Also opening is the work of up-and-coming conceptual artist Justin Ginsberg, who will exhibit his work in an exhibit entitled  "What is Known is Uknown." The two are working to "push the (glass) medium to absolute extremes" in their new works, according to the exhibition announcement. Kiley is known for his colorful and imposing sculptures of geometric works strategically bisected to interrupt symmetry yet create another kind of logic. In his latest sculptures, the dissonance is stronger, with the dense shatter-pattern bringing forth the idea that "beauty is revealed in the broken," as cited in the announcement. Ginsberg is known for his willingness to push glass into uncharted territory. His latest work features handmade coils of glass displayed seemingly in motion, with minimal lighting to give his pieces a dark, compelling feel. The two combined solo exhibitions are working to challenge their audience, and make them appreciate glass artworks that are atypical, or "other," in their style and ideas. Both exhibitions are described as experimental. 

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Thursday July 28, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend’s new group exhibition more than a family affair

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Opening

Curators will sometimes put together a group of artists who explore similar territory as a way to present varied takes on an individual theme. A new exhibition at the Studio Channel Islands' Blackboard Gallery this August groups works allied not only by subject matter but by blood ties. Glass artist Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend will join her husband, painter Richard Amend, and son, ceramic sculptor Wyatt Amend, in the wittily-titled exhibit "Making Amends," which will run from August 4th through the 27th. Individual works as well as cross-media collaborations will reveal shared artistic methods and concerns that take the exhibit's rationale well beyond simple familial ties.

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Friday July 15, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

OPENING: “Strike While the Iron’s Hot” with newly minted Dr. Richard Meitner

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

Richard Meitner's "thesis exhibition" just opened in the Gallery at the University of Lisboa, where he has been a visiting professor since 2008. His employer is also now his alma mater, thanks to Meitner's pursuit of a doctorate in glass. In his PhD exhibition, Meitner "sets out to define what he believes art really is and is about, and how we should be teaching it and thinking about it", as he explained in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. It's Meitner's personal belief that there are "quite a few glaring and highly consequential mistakes in how we currently think about and discuss art, and how we teach young people what art is and how to make it". The exhibition is tied in with his thesis for his newly achieved doctorate in art, specifically focused, unsurprisingly, on sculpture.  

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Wednesday July 6, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Glass figures prominently into monumental new public artwork unveiled in Taiwan

FILED UNDER: Announcements, New Work, Opening, Public Art

A 72-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide public sculpture designed by architectural installation artist Ed Carpenter was unveiled in June 2016 in Taichung, Taiwan. Made from stainless steel and laminated glass, the sculpture stands at the intersection of two public parks outside of the Taichung City Council building.

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Thursday June 23, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Beth Lipman leaves glass behind in newest body of work

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Opening

Of the thirteen new works Beth Lipman will unveil Saturday, June 25th, at an opening at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City, none include the material of glass with which she made her career. Instead, the works in the exhibition entitled "Distill" are primarily cast iron. For this body of work, Lipman made dioramas by arranging ancient flora, such as conifer and ginkgo, alongside pieces of miniature furniture in cardboard boxes, which were then filled with molten iron. The result is a series of fossil-like tableaus, where seemingly ancient pieces of modern furniture are overtaken by organic matter.

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Thursday June 23, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

Annual outdoor contemporary sculpture exhibition turns focus to glass for the first time

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

When art dealer Jim Schantz was given the opportunity to curate the first all-glass exhibition at the annual contemporary and experimental sculpture show at the grounds of the historic Chesterwood, a Stockbridge, Massachussets, landmark, he saw an opportunity to push some of the leading glass artists he represents into new territory — environmental artwork. “It was an opportunity for them to realize their visions and perhaps work outside their comfort zone,” Schantz says in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. He reached out to artists Martin Blank, Peter Bremers, Nancy Callan, William Carlson, Daniel Clayman, Sidney Hutter, Richard Jolley, John Kiley, Thomas Patti, Kait Rhoads, Richard Royal, and Thomas Scoon, some of whom were well-acquainted with the challenges of exhibiting work outdoors, while others had never done so before. The result is the exhibiton "The Nature of Glass," which will remain on view through September 18, 2016.

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Thursday June 23, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Opulent Dale Chihuly installations take over at The Royal Ontario Museum

FILED UNDER: Architecture, Museums, Opening

Opening this Saturday, and on view for six months, the Royal Ontario Museum's "CHIHULY" exhibition features 11 installations by the most-famous artist working in glass. Among the works on display is the popular Persian Ceiling, which puts viewers underneath a glass-plate layered with Chihuly’s vividly colored Persian rondels. Also on view is Laguna Torcello, a vibrant, lagoon-inspired garden of glass objects. The artist has also created a new work specifically for the exhibition, Persian Trellis — an arbor adorned with Persian rondels, inviting viewers to not only walk under, but through the colorful light-gathering works.

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