Virtual Glassblowing becomes a reality (sort of) at Pittsburgh Glass Center through a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University

The Pittsburgh Glass Center is billing a brand-new interactive program as "the first virtual glassblowing experience," which the arts nonprofit developed in partnership with Carnegie Mellon graduate students from the university's Entertainment Technology Center, which teaches gaming design and digital animation. The result of the 15-week collaborative project, which saw the Carnegie Mellon students coming to study the glassblowing process, is a simplified first-person simulation of some of the basic steps of glassblowing, which immerses a single user in a virtual glass studio where gathering, picking up frit, blowing through a hose, and knocking off are pictures on screen, and apparently controlled by motion-capture technology that tracks the headset-wearer's movements.

Saturday April 22, 2023 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Matt Szösz on blowing up and scaling up

Having won both the Jutta-Cuny Franz Prize (2009) and a Tiffany Foundation Grant (2011), Matthew Szösz has been widely recognized in the U.S. and Europe for his innovative approach to glass sculpture in the years since he graduated with an MFA from RISD in 2007. So it is surprising it is only in 2023 that he is having his first solo exhibition at Heller Gallery in New York, a show currently on view and entitled "Air Craft". The work in the exhibition is from Szösz's long-running "Inflatables" series in which he pushes the limits of glassblowing by using extreme heat and compressed air to turn found industrial float glass into vessels of singular sculptural forms. The work in this debut exhibition spans the pandemic years and those just prior, with a few works dated 2023. In their range and variety, embodying a tension between buoyant and leaden, between durable and delicate, the "Inflatables" stand as testament to the fervent curiosity that fuels Szösz's career filled with inquiries as to what is possible and ways around seemingly intractable limitations. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently caught up with Szösz to discuss the work on view and the artist's next steps.

A 2012 collaborative work entitled Deerman of the Cahokia by Marcus Amerman and Preston Singletary greets visitors to the Seattle Traver exhibition.

Friday April 14, 2023 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Exhibition curator explains how a chance meeting at Pilchuck became the catalyst for a wide embrace of glass by Indigenous artists

Through the end of April, Seattle's Traver Gallery is hosting "Native Influence: Tony Jojola’s Life of Impact" a group exhibition of work in glass by Indigenous artists Larry Ahvakana, Marcus Amerman, Ryan! (sic) Feddersen, Dan Friday, Raya Friday, Tony Jojola, Ramson Lomatewama, Ira Lujan, Robert “Spooner” Marcus, and Raven Skyriver. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke with guest curator John Drury (who is also a contributing editor to Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly) about how he identified a 1984 chance encounter at the Pilchuck Glass School between Ahvakana, Singletary, and the late Tony Jojola (1958 - 2022) as a seminal event that would "usher in new creative possibilities to Indigenous artists" and exponentially expand the voices speaking through the material of glass.

Wednesday April 5, 2023 | by Andrew Page

Michael Endo will be Pilchuck's next artistic director

The Pilchuck Glass School has announced its next artistic director will be Portland, Oregon, native Michael Endo, a long-time curator for Bullseye Projects. In 1999, Endo co-founded the High Desert Observatory arts nonprofit in Yucca Valley, California, where he has been director while also running a fabrication business and continuing as a curatorial consultant to Bullseye. Endo will bring a wealth of international connections he helped develop while at Bullseye, as well as in his own artistic practice.

Tuesday April 4, 2023 | by Kinshasa Peterson

Pittsburgh Glass Center pours "a translucent foundation" as it breaks ground for $15 million expansion.

The Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC), an anchoring presence in the Penn Avenue Arts district in the city’s East End, recently broke ground on a new, $15 million expansion that will nearly double its size and allow for additional glassmaking studios, exhibition space, and artist housing to support and engage the community.

Thursday March 23, 2023 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: VCU fellowship aimed at recent graduates of MFA programs is a 9-month paid opportunity to teach and work

If you've graduated from an MFA program and are looking for an opportunity to advance your career and get teaching experience along the way, you might be interested in The VCUarts Emerging Artist Fellowship in Craft/Material Studies, but the deadline is fast approaching. This 9-month residency begins Aug 16, 2023 and continues through May 15, 2024, and offers not only access to studio facilities at the VCU Craft and Materials Study program, but a teaching stipend, research grant, and housing. In exchange, Fellows will teach two courses each semester, present a lecture, and serve as a special guest critic and/or speaker.

Monday March 6, 2023 | by Andrew Page

CONVERSATION: Catching up with artist and former Pilchuck artistic director Ben Wright

The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet recently checked in with artist Benjamin Wright, who served as the Pilchuck Glass School's artistic director from 2019 through 2022, to check in about his tenure at the Northwest Coast outpost of glass art, and to find out about his future plans. Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: It sounds like the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit before the Summer 2020 Pilchuck sessions began, really defined your tenure at Pilchuck in some ways, would you agree? Ben Wright: Well, yes, but not entirely. I came on in the Spring of 2019, arriving right before the Summer program, which was entirely designed and organized by my predecessor as artistic director, Tina Aufiero. In addition to helping to run that session, I was working to put together the program for Summer 2020, which unfortunately ended up pretty much getting canceled entirely due to the lockdowns. At first it looked feasible that there would be a full summer program in 2021, but in the end, we had to pivot to an intensive residency program for that summer. I am very proud of the programs we put together for 2022, which we ran during the summer of the various Omicron variants rising and falling. It was an intense experience in terms of our staff and students all dealing with people in isolation. It was challenging but also hugely rewarding, having worked on three different programs over three years, and finally getting to see all the magic happen for everybody who works there. Having that put off year after year and finally seeing it run, it was phenomenal to see it actually happening at last in the Summer of 2022 and I can’t wait to see my last season of programs unfold this coming summer.

Thursday February 23, 2023 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Spring 2023 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#170)

The Spring 2023 (#170) edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly is on its way to subscriber mailboxes and newsstands. On the cover is a striking portrait of John Littleton and Kate Vogel as photographed by Lucy Plato Clark, who captured them refracted through a piece of optical crystal they are holding up together. It was chosen as it perfectly illustrates the cover article by contributing editor Emma Park on the phenomenon of two artists who have merged their individual approaches into a single shared practice.

Wednesday February 15, 2023 | by Sadia Tasnim

The Corning Studio announces 2023 residencies including collaborative, BIPOC, and research opportunities

The Studio at The Corning Museum of Glass has announced its roster of artists in residence for 2023. Comprising the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Residency, the Instructor Collaborative Residency, and nine more residencies, the museum has awarded 16 artists from around the world the opportunity to work out of the Corning studio for one month. Residency slots are spread throughout the year, ensuring that The Studio will always have at least one artist in residence at any given time.

Sunday January 1, 2023 | by Andrew Page

The Year in Review, 2022 edition, with a Happy New Year to all our subscribers and supporters!

As 2022 gives way to 2023, we present the Year in Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly.

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.