Viewing:

Hirofumi Isoya, We only live, only breathe 2（detail), 2014. Glass. H 67, W 39 1/4, D 1/4 in.

Thursday June 26, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

OPENING: Artists in glass and other media take on a post-Fukushima Japan in New York exhibition

FILED UNDER: New Work, News, Opening

Opening tonight in New York City is a group exhibition of Japanese artists whose work in various media including glass wrestles with a new reality in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that unleashed their destruction on the Japanese coast in spring of 2011 and led to one of the world's worst nuclear accidents. The redefined landscape of the post-Fukushima era is the subject of the show entitled “Duality of Existence — Post Fukushima” and debuting this evening at Freidman Benda. Japan has a uniquely complex relationship with nuclear power as the only nation to have endured a nuclear attack (with the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagisaki in the waning days of WWII in 1945). Following the nuclear disaster and radiation release in 2011, the country struggled to understand the truth of the extent of the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which is considered a combination of natural and human factors, and the government control of information about safety created a firestorm of discontent and soul-searching.

Artifact. Cast glass.

Thursday June 26, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

EXHIBITION: Katerina Ganchak elicits emotion in “Just Feel” exhibit in Brooklyn

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work

Artists and designers often expend a lot of energy developing a strong concept to depict through their work, but Katerina Ganchak’s work in her current solo exhibition, “Just Feel: Glass Sculptures and Paintings”, shies away from establishing a concept and focuses instead on eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. Her work intends to appeal to people with strong imagery that all human beings can intuitively relate to, and in “Just Feel”, on display at Java Studios Art Gallery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, visitors are free to have their own individualized experience.

Barbara Heisler will become the organization's permanent executive director on July 1, 2014.

Thursday June 26, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

GlassRoots interim executive director Barbara Heisler promoted to permanent position

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

GlassRoots, the Newark, New Jersey, not-for-profit organization that uses glass to teach life lessons to at-risk youth, has a new executive director. The Board of Trustees announced on Monday that Barbara Heisler, who has been acting as Interim Executive Director since July 1, 2013, will be promoted to full executive director effective July 1, 2014.

The Alastair Pilkington Studio at North Lands Glass in Scotland was expanded this year with a new workshop space.

Wednesday June 25, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

Expanded North Lands Creative Glass campus will host international conference in September

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

North Lands Creative Glass, located on the coast of Northeastern Scotland in the former fishing town of Lybster, has offered Master Class glass workshops to a growing number of international students since 2002. It also hosts an annual International Conference revolving around relevant themes in the contemporary art world. This year’s conference, titled “The Place and the Work”, will take place on the weekend of September 6th and 7th, 2014, and aims to explore the role of the artists’ surroundings in the work they create.

Christian B. Singer, current curator at the Clay and Glass Gallery, has decided to step down.

Tuesday June 24, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

Curator for Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery steps down, leaving behind impressive exhibition record

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

Having spent the past five years invigorating the exhibition program at the Canadian Glass and Clay Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario (just under 2 hours drive from Toronto), Christian Bernard Singer will step down as curator, moving to Montreal with his spouse. The Gallery seeks a candidate to replace Singer by the end of November 2014.

Detail from Light Drift, a 2013 installation by Justin Ginsberg. Images of his Berlin residency performance were not available by press time.

Tuesday June 24, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

PERFORMANCE: Justin Ginsberg challenges the traditional in Berlin residency

FILED UNDER: Events, Exhibition, New Work, News

Art is communication: the transfer of nonphysical ideas from the artist to viewer through a physical medium. It is an exchange that has long preoccupied American artist Justin Ginsberg, who presented his work to the public during an evening performance at Berlin Glas e.V. on June 19, 2014. Ginsberg’s work “Decadence” was the culmination of his five-day residency at the nonprofit art center in Berlin, Germany.

Lino Tagliapietra, Angel Tear, 2011, Blown glass. H 33 3/4, W 22, D 5 1/2 in. collection: henry and sharon martin

Monday June 23, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

OPENING: Survey of contemporary glass debuts at Connecticut art museum

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, News

A survey exhibition taking stock of the myriad approaches to glass as a medium for contemporary art opened over the weekend at a contemporary art museum in Connecticut. Entitled "Glass Today: 21st Century Innovations" and running through September 21st, 2014, the exhibition at the New Britain Museum of American Art explores where the material is going in terms of approaches to technique, concept, and aesthetics. The current exhibition is allso a follow-up to a 2008 exhibition at the same institution that examined the first 50 years of studio glass, getting a jump on the raft of 2012 exhibitions that covered the same territory.

Detail of Richard Jolley's "Sky" and "Desire," sections of a larger permanent installation at the Knoxville Museum of Art entitled Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity, 2009 - 2014.

Thursday June 19, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

Schantz Galleries’ Collectors Weekend to Feature Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events

The 2014 edition of the Schantz Galleries Annual Collectors Weekend will be held on Friday, June 27th and Saturday, June 28th, 2014, and will feature artists Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush. The artists, husband and wife, recently opened the large-scale glass and steel installation entitled the Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and the Wonder of Infinity at the Knoxville Museum of Art in their home state of Tennessee, and both have many of their individual works on view at Schantz Galleries. Attendees of the Collectors Weekend will have the opportunity to watch a glassblowing demonstration by Richard Jolley on Saturday.

Students will explore the idea of glass as a liquid in the workshop "Liquid Fusion."

Wednesday June 18, 2014 | by Elena Tafone

Boisbuchet Summer Design Workshop in France offers students hands-on hot glass

FILED UNDER: Education, Events, News

Harkening back to the salons that characterized 17th and 18th century France, Boisbuchet's Summer of Design workshops will run from June 15th through September 13th, bringing together students and teachers from the fields of architecture and design to share share ideas, inspiration, and techniques. Though, instead of the crowded drawing rooms of Enlightenment Paris, this annual series of workshops will be held at Domaine de Boisbuchet, an historic estate in the south-west of France.

Liebold Susan Liola Glu Gruen Violett 2014

Susan Liebold, "LIOLA.GLS", 2014. Under UV light, the photoluminescent glass glows, yet appears clear under white light.

Tuesday June 17, 2014 | by Lindsay von Hagn

EXHIBITION: “Glass Creatures” exhibit features studies of form by Susan Leibold and Mari Meszaros

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

Many glass artists are driven by the subject of water and the worlds encompassed inside of its bodies. In the 19th century, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka studied and made extensive drawings of specimens they wanted to recreate for university study, and in addition to fruits and flowers, made realistic marine invertebrates from glass. A collection of their invertebrates is housed at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and these extraordinary sculptures can also be seen on a 37-page online gallery on the Cornell website. Years ago, I had the rare opportunity to flamework on the Corning Museum of Glass’s functional replica of the Blaschka’s bellows-operated torch and workbench, managing to only create a small leaf or flower petal with its alcohol-burning flame. The size of the fire the Blaschkas worked with is much smaller than the gas and oxygen burning flame contemporary flameworkers are accustomed to, so I can attest that perfecting this process and completing the collection was no small accomplishment. Assembling these lifelike pieces with that technology in the late 1800s was certainly a labor of love. Though the Blaschkas were eventually contracted to make glass specimen for universities, the initial motivation to make these pieces must have been fueled by relentless inspiration.

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.