A new generation of U.K. glassblowers confronts a new set of considerations

Joanna Manousis created Reaching an Ulterior Realm using Mylar balloons and bronze arrows in addition to blown glass. photo: the artist

In an essay accompanying the gallery guide for the traveling exhibition “Breath Taking: Revealing a New Wave in British Glass Blowing,” glass artist and curator Matt Durran reflects on the glass art world 40 years after Harvey Littleton first published Glassblowing: A Search for Form. Entitled “So where are we today?,” the essay touches on why, according to Durran, “the artistic life seems more complicated today.” He points to technological advances providing more technical choice and a need to share studios, the high demands for maintaining a viable working space through teaching and renting their studio space, the increased competition for dwindling funding, and intensifying questions about sustainability and the environmental impact of creating glass art. “These,” he writes, “are the issues that will define the next generation of glass makers.”

Jessica Lloyd Jones, Fresh Air, 2005. Mold-blown and lamp-worked, ground, polished, UV bonded glass and plastic. courtesy: Jessica Lloyd Jones

The “Breath Taking” exhibition aims to explore these trends by highlighting the work of 17 contemporary, up-and-coming artists in the United Kingdom, including Carrie Fertig, Shelley James, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, James Maskrey, and Kate Williams. In a nod to Studio Glass and previous generations of artists, the exhibition showcases five important pieces of glass art from the Crafts Council Collection, including Christopher Williams‘ Bum Bowl, Emma Woffenden‘s Swollen, and Stephen Procter‘s Momentum. On the other end of the spectrum, the Crafts Council looks to the multimedia future in commissioning two short films about glassblowing, one by filmmaker Federico Urdaneta that follows the collaboration between artists Elaine Sheldon and Dominic Cooney, and another by Neil Wessink inspired by the dancelike movements of glassblowers at work. Both films can be viewed online here.

Carl Nordbruch, Untitled, 2004. Handmade, free blown glass with double color inlay. courtesy: Heini Schneebeli

While the exhibition claims to feature a new wave of British glass artists, some artists remain more rooted in the Studio Glass movement than some of their more experimental American counterparts. A Retorti – Blanco and A Retorti – Nero, whose names emphasize the ancient cane-work technique Cooney experimented with for several years, are two such examples. Similarly, Black and Silver African Stripe Vase, Anna Dickinson’s West Africa-inspired vase, and Odd One Out, Stewart Hearn‘s colorful family of anthropomorphic glass vessels, emphasize form and technique over conceptual works from Lloyd Jones, Maskrey, and Williams. Carl Nordbruch is intent on falling somewhere in the middle, quoted in the gallery guide as creating works that are “‘firmly rooted in ideas rather than function…where the craftsmanship is still a strong element, but no longer the backbone.’” Still, his untitled work of gleaming white glass that looks like a plastic top coming to rest or a flying saucer, seems more technique-driven than anything else.

El Ultimo Grito, Apartments, 2009. Glass. courtesy: Michael Tolke.

Durran also notes the increased use of glass by artists and designers who typically work in other media. El Ultimo Grito is one such example, a design collective who collaborated with master glassblowers in Germany to create Apartments, a lighthearted reflection on the ingrained aspects of architecture. Glass’ prominence in 20th-century architecture makes it an ideal medium for a fine arts approach to the subject; Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo’s use of glass to construct stairways and living spaces conjures up images of a reinterpretation of Philip Johnson’s Glass House while countering the blandness of many glass-heavy International-style structures. The stacked bubbles and staircase tubes push the piece into the realm of Futurism – or a Jetsons cartoon.

Visitors on the wrong side of the pond can check out the impressive gallery guide, complete with essays and large photos of the works, here.

— Grace Duggan