SEEN: Kait Rhoads' sinewy monumental work at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art celebrates oceanic forms

Until February 3, 2019, drivers coming off the Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry are enjoying a visual feast in the windows of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Every four months the museum has to find an artist who can bring that 15-foot tall, two-story space to life. Kait Rhoads’s Bloom, a sculptural representation of bull kelp, enlivens the entire space – there is no emptiness, only the sculpture and the ocean that you imagine. What else would surround the kelp and keep it insubtle motion?

Thursday October 18, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Memorial service for the late art critic James Yood to be held on November 1st at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

The late art critic James Yood (1952 - 2018) was a regular presence at the annual Sculptural Objects Functional Art Fair in Chicago, where, if he wasn't giving a public lecture or leading a panel discussion, he could be found walking the show in search of compelling artists to write about for Glass or the many other important art publications to which he regularly contributed. It is fitting, then, that his memorial service will take place on the opening night of the big art fair. On the evening of Thursday, November 1st, Yood will be remembered by the many people whose lives he touched at the ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught for some three decades.

Video still from Yixuan Pan's film "How to Clean a Window -- at Fishers Island," one of several works in a group exhibition at the Hicks Art Center Gallery.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Artist Megan Biddle discusses the "Solid States/Fluid Language" exhibition she curated

An exhibition at the Hicks Art Center Gallery at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, brings together the diverse work of six artists under the title "Solid States/Fluid Language." Guest curated by artist Megan Biddle, the exhibition is organized around the idea of testing the boundaries of glass, and features a range of approaches from sculpture to video, from installation to performance art by Jessica Jane Julius, Amy Lemaire, Yixuan Pan, Nate Ricciuto, Esther Ruiz, and Kristen Neville. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with Biddle for an email interview about her goals for the exhibition which runs through this evening.

Tuesday October 2, 2018 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Kim Harty, the curator of the StreetKraft exhibition at Habatat, on the genesis of this atypical gallery exhibition

Artist Kim Harty is an assistant professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, where she is the section chair of the glass program. In addition to her regular schedule of exhibitions and writing projects (Harty edited GAS News after serving as the managing editor of Glass Quarterly for several years), she has also done a number of curatorial projects dating back to her Cirque du Verre performance-art project in the late 2000s. Currently, Harty has an unusual exhibition on view at Habatat Galleries in Royal Oak, Michigan, a commercial gallery in a affluent suburb of Detroit. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently spoke with Harty about this exhibition, which remains on view through October 17, 2018.Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: First of all, how did this exhibition come about? It doesn't seem to be a typical exhibition that Habatat would hold. Kim Harty: About a year ago, Habatat invited me to curate an exhibition and gave me a lot of creative freedom in how to approach it. When I was thinking about the show, I wanted to do something that would be a good fit for the gallery, that took on a subject matter that was relevant to Detroit, and that would contextualize glass in a new way. One thing I knew about Corey Hampson, one of the owners of Habatat, is that he has a passion for street art and has a small collection of it. That, married with many of the shows and street art projects I had seen around Detroit, as well as some of the work I had been paying attention to in glass, came together as the impetus for StreetKraft. I also felt that StreetKraft could be a visually compelling exhibition and could draw people in through the rich surfaces, colors, and imagery.

Tuesday September 11, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Her studio destroyed in a massive fire, Christina Bothwell looks ahead to rebuilding and recovery

First came the raging fire that obliterated her studio building on August 8th, and then, just four days later, the flood that extinguished the smoldering embers but went on to inundate her basement, washing away a nearby bridge and the long dirt driveway to her home. Because the studio structure in rural Pennsylvania wasn't insured as a commercial property, Christina Bothwell was told she'd get no compensation for the total loss of her workspace and all the work she and her husband had stored there. Though the summer of 2018 was one of disaster at an almost biblical scale, Bothwell has emerged, a month later, ready to rebuild and get back to work to overcome the significant financial challenges ahead. As the main earner in her family of five, her loss of her longtime studio is a devastating blow. But being Bothwell, an artist whose glass and ceramic figures populate a dreamworld of her own personal mythologies, she prefers to look at it with gratitude. None of her family were injured in the inferno, and the artwork she lost gives her an opportunity to remake the pieces with all the improvements she thought about as they emerged from the kiln. Even in the intensity of the fire, and the desperate wait for the volunteer fire brigade, she never lost her appreciation for aesthetics, awestruck by the vision of her oldest daughter framed against the backdrop of angry flames, berating the late-arriving firemen in profanity-laden curses as a marvelous and breathtaking moment of beautiful intensity she will never forget.

Tuesday September 4, 2018 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Dan Clayman talks about his new faculty appointment at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia

In accepting a faculty position at the University of the Arts last month, artist Dan Clayman became the first endowed chair of glass in the history of the Philadelphia institution that has one of the oldest glass programs in the U.S. (Harvey Littleton's student Roland Jahn built the first glass furnace there with the help of then-student Dan Dailey in the 1960s when it was called The Philadelphia College of Art). The program has a reputation for being under-resourced, but glass seems to be enjoying a renewed focus there. The hiring of Clayman as the newly created "Effron Family Endowed Chair in Glass" seems to be part of that larger initiative. Though this will be his first full-time faculty position, Clayman has of late been increasingly involved with education as a visiting instructor at the Masachusetts College of Art and also at Tyler, which happens to also be in Philadelphia. (Disclosure: Clayman is also a key advisor to the biannual Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass.) The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with the busy artist who now divides his time between Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island, where he maintains a large studio, to talk about his latest move.

Sold for $24,500: Tim Tate, 8 Bats, 4 Seasons. Wood, mirrors, cast objects, LEDs. H 36, W 36, D 6 in. courtesy: penland.

Thursday August 30, 2018 | by Chelsea Liu

Penland fundraising auction and gala, its first under new director Mia Hall, raised a total of over $600,000

Earlier this month, the Penland School of Crafts held its 33rd Annual Benefit Auction, the first under new director Mia Hall. The gala weekend on August 10th and 11th at its historic North Carolina campus featured the sale of over 240 works in clay, drawing, glass, iron, letterpress, painting, photography, printmaking, textiles, and wood. All works for sale were donated by current and former Penland instructors, resident artists, and core fellows, with all proceeds benefiting Penland’s educational programs. Sales of art generated $336,622 with a total revenue of $614,026.

courtesy: james carpenter design associates, nic lehoux.

Thursday August 23, 2018 | by Chelsea Liu

ARCHITECTURE: James Carpenter opens up the Eero Saarinen-designed Museum of Westward Expansion at the foot of the iconic Gateway Arch of St. Louis

In addition to holding the honor of being the tallest arch in the world, the Gateway Arch of St. Louis is widely celebrated as an icon of the city. Recently, the spotlight has been trained on the small yet robust museum that lies at its feet, also designed by the arch's famed architect Eero Saarinen. Named "The Museum of Westward Expansion," the subterranean circular structure is devoted to presenting the stories of the explorers and colonists who pushed farther west and expanded the U.S. territory to the Pacific. Thanks to a five-year renovation, this once-modest museum has been expanded and opened up to natural light through the strategic use of glass by James Carpenter. New, expanded entrance spaces make the museum more inviting, as does a newly constructed landscape bridge leading to it. The freshly animated site now features a new West Entry and public Arrivals Hall, adding a total of 40,000-square-feet to the original Saarinen Hall.

4 Office 52 Architecture La Foe And Campbell Dichroic Light Scott Hall Cmu 2018

Jeremy Bittermann, Scott Hall at Carnegie Mellon University, 2018. courtesy: office 52 architecture.

Wednesday August 22, 2018 | by Olivia Ryder

ARCHITECTURE: A Portland, Oregon, architect harnessed her love of glass art to win a competition to design a striking new building at Carnegie-Mellon

When she's not in her Portland, Oregon, architecture studio, Michelle LaFoe can often be found at Bullseye Glass Co., where she takes classes, attends visiting artist lectures, and indulges her general fascination with glass. LaFoe’s passion was sparked by Chagall’s iconic glass work American Windows (1976) a painting in which metallic oxide paints were permanently fused to the glass with heat. When, in 2011, LaFoe was asked to submit a proposal for a new building at a prominent university, she was able to bring together her glass interests with her professional practice. For what would become her and partner Isaac Campbell's largest project to date, she proposed a glass building that is alive chromatically as the dynamic scientific research taking place inside its walls at Carnegie-Mellon University's Pittsburgh campus.

Clare Belfrage, Quiet Shifting, Pink and Green, 2018. H 19, W 13, D 9 1/2 in. courtesy: pippy mount.

Tuesday August 21, 2018 | by Chelsea Liu

OPENING: Clare Belfrage reflects, meditates on rhythm in a new monograph, short film, and two solo exhibitions

Ever since she was a child, Australian artist Clare Belfrage has been uniquely attuned to rhythm. From listening to nature's pulse to immersing herself in the tempo of glass-making, she has made rhythm a continual focal point of her life and practice, finding in it a serenity and yet restlessness returned to time and again. “The industry in nature, its rhythm and energy, dramatic and delicate still holds my fascination as does the language and processes of glass," Belfrage writes in her artist statement. A similar industriousness is manifest in her own work: especially her series of delicately colored, evocative vessels that express a movement and vitality within themselves, and have evolved over the years in theme and technique. Marked by Belfrage’s mastery of fine cane drawing and stringers, the work is quietly impressive, and has recently been recognized in a new book and a short film. In addition to the publishing and film projects, Belfrage is also going to be showing in exhibitions in both Australia and the U.S.

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