Chihuly takes over Norfolk, Virginia, with garden installation and opera set

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

The glass artwork of Dale Chihuly is taking center stage this month in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, site of the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Pavillion. “Chihuly In The Garden” at the Chrysler Museum of Art, is an outdoor installation currently on view in the museum’s waterfront garden, where it showcases Chihuly’s "Reeds" and "Marlins" in natural lighting outside of the confines of the galleries. The second place to see Chihuly's work is onstage, where it will be featured in two performances of Bela Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” taking place as part of the Virginia Arts Festival (April 18th & 19th). The opera, which will be performed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and held in Chrysler Hall, will utilize six Chihuly sculptures as set pieces to the performance.

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Sunday April 12, 2015 | by Justyna Turek

OPENING: The touring “European Glass Experience” exhibit moves to Venice

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

On Saturday, April 18th, The Murano Glass Museum in Murano, Italy, will present the final international exhibition of the European Glass Experience project curated by director Chiara Squarcina. After two years of showcasing the artworks and sketches in Finland, Spain, and Portugal, the upcoming show is considered as the most important one due to larger number of artworks and the historic venue. Almost 80 international artists will present their works to the public. On a special note are the sketches, designed by the artists, which were selected by the scientific committee to be produced by Consorzio Promovetro’s Murano glass masters.The exhibition will run through June 7, 2015, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 17th, starting at 6.30 PM with special conference with remarks by Milan Hlaveš, curator at the Museum of decorative arts in Prague, and Gabriella Belli, director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and it will continues to the official opening at 7.30 PM. (Disclosure: The author Justyna Turek is one of the artists whose work will be exhibted.)

Tuesday April 7, 2015 | by Emily Ma-Luongo

OPENING: Pittsburgh gallery mounts ninth annual “Teapots!” exhibit, celebrating a timeless form

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Opening

“Teapots! 9,” an exhibition opening in Pittsburgh this Friday, will be both a celebration of the myriad ways the timeless form can be interpreted. For each of the past nine years, Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery has held an annual exhibit of teapots that broadens their material focus to include fiber, ceramics, wood, and metal. Over 60 artists' work will be featured in the upcoming exhibit that runs through June 13, 2015. For director Amy Morgan, who has arranged it and invited the artists herself, the iconic shape is a platform ready to burst with adventurous narratives. The works of several glass artists’ reimagine spouts and handles as a lamp, a chandelier, or even an octopus. “All artists are challenged to explore the teapot form literally, metaphorically, narratively or abstractly, while keeping true to their own aesthetic,” reads an exhibition statement on the Morgan website.

Friday April 3, 2015 | by Justyna Turek

OPENING: Ione Thorkelssohn’s dual exhibitions in Ottowa engage biologies synthetic and natural

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

On Saturday, April 11th, the L.A. Pai Gallery in Ottowa, Ontario, will present the work of glass sculptor Ione Thorkelssohn at “Emerge Establish Emerge,” a group exhibition showcasing the work of four artists working in two distinct styles: glass sculpture and art jewelry (the other glass artist featured is the kiln-cast work of Cheryl Wilson Smith). An older marine-biology-inspired work by Thorkelssohn, mD31704: partial reconstruction of marine avifauna, will provide an excellent example of her probing of organic forms for universal truths, celebrating the wonder and complexity of the natural world. A concurrent solo exhibition of the Manitoba-based artist's work provides a fascinating counterpoint. Since 2012, when she heard news of a new life form being created in a science lab, Thorkelssohn has wrestled with the implications of this watershed event, one she saw far less debate or discussion of than she expected. Her concerns are given physical form in her solo exhibition "Synthia's Closet," which will be on view at the Ottowa School of Art from April 9 through May 14, 2015.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | by Andrew Page

Susie Silbert to deliver Metropolitan Glass Club lecture linking Tiffany to Studio Glass

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, News

Meeting the first Tuesday of the month, from Fall through the Spring, the New York Metropolitan Glass Club brings together historic and contemporary glass collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts for a monthly lecture presented at an Upper West Side church that features a number of significant Tiffany windows. The setting will be especially appropriate for the upcoming April 7th meeting, in which design historian, GLASS magazine contributor, and educator Susie Silbert discusses the relationship between the legendary designer Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Studio Glass movement.

Tuesday March 31, 2015 | by Emily Ma-Luongo

OPENING: Susan Glasgow Taylor exhibit at PS Gallery to include live modeling of chandelier dress

FILED UNDER: Events, Exhibition, New Work

On Thursday, April 2, artist Susan Taylor Glasgow will give a talk about her new exhibition at the PS Gallery in Columbia, Missouri. The next day, her ideas will come to life as a live model exhibits one of her signature chandelier dresses for the opening reception on Friday evening. With a focus on her wearable work, Glasgow's talk will explore how she transfers her “domestic” skills of dressmaking into glass pieces that appropriate 1950s imagery. Several of her "Spring 2015" pieces are sewn, fitted glass components stitched together with nylon ribbon, resulting in compact, dressy handbags and colorful slices of cakes. They will be on view through May 30, 2015.

Rob Stern doing a demo. photo: cesty skla

Friday March 27, 2015 | by Justyna Turek

New Czech glass center announces 2015 summer program

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, Events, News

UPDATED 4/8/2015

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Anne Peabody, For Kelly, 2015. Drawing on 14k gold leaf on glass, hand turned and finished wooden frame. D 9 in. courtesy: the artist

Thursday March 26, 2015 | by Justyna Turek

OPENING: Anne Peabody’s glass memorial for a homeless man debuts in group exhibition in Brooklyn

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Events, Exhibition, News, Opening

A group exhibition curated by artist and arts organizer Megan Suttles presents work created by 14 artists during the MOREart’s Engaging Artists Residency Show “Artwork inspired by working with the homeless," which opens this Saturday, March 28th, at the Hot Wood Arts Center in Brooklyn, New York. Of special note is artist Anne Peabody's painted glass portrait, which grew out of her friendship with a man with no fixed address who she befriended. Like the other artists during this project, Peabody volunteered for six weeks with homeless advocacy organizations in the summer of 2014. In 14K-gold-leaf on glass, Peabody memorializes “Gilbert Kelly,” who was shot to death by a teenager in a random act of violence. The exhibition, will run through April 19, 2015, with an opening reception on Saturday, March 28th from 7 to 10 PM.

Stacked (2015) by Stig Persson

Wednesday March 25, 2015 | by Emily Ma-Luongo

OPENING: The history and future of Danish glass art and design explored in museum exhibit

FILED UNDER: Events, Exhibition, Museums, Opening

On Saturday, March 28th, the Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, will premier “DG15,” a two-part show that covers a 40-year timeline of Danish glass. "Part I" is a historical narrative curated by a former Holmegaard glass factory designer. "Part II," a juried selection, cuts to a contemporary focus of glass as art, expanding on genres and different practices of the material by showing the works of present and emerging artists. A follow-up to two exhibitions at this museum dedicated to contemporary glass art worldwide, one in 1994 (“Danish Glass 94” ) and one in 2004 (“What’s New?...Danish Glass 2004”), "DG15" is a continuing project to document current glass works and compare as well as contrast them with the designs of an earlier era. With over 100 works by 53 glass artists, the exhibition will run through September 27, 2015.

Tuesday March 24, 2015 | by Andrew Page

The glorious new Corning wing pioneers the use of Gorilla Glass to make display cases disappear

FILED UNDER: Architecture, Design, Exhibition, Museums, News, Opening

As readers of the Spring 2015 edition of GLASS (#138) know, the design of the new Contemporary Art + Design wing at The Corning Museum of Glass is based on the power of natural light to allow artwork in glass to come alive. The issue's feature article ("A New Frame for Contemporary Glass") and back-page essay by the wing's architect Thomas Phifer ("Designing the New Contemporary Wing of The Corning Museum of Glass") reveal a single-minded focus on bathing glass in indirect natural daylight to provide optimal viewing conditions. With architect Phifer viewing the museum wing itself as a vitrine, how to approach protecting the work without interfering with the visual effects so painstakingly achieved? The answer came when the architect, together with the Corning team and exhibit designer Kubik Maltbie, hit upon using the museum's corporate parent's specialty-glass known as "Corning Gorilla Glass," which is widely used in smart phones and tablet computers for its strength, lightness, and optical clarity.

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.