The Corning Museum of Glass has released the line-up for its 2017 Artists-in-Residence program, and the list includes Martin Janecky, Judy Tuwaletstiwa & Michael Rogers, Claire Kelly, Karlyn Sutherland, Marina Hanser, Anna Riley, Mark Ditzler & Wayne Strattman, Elinor Portnoy, and Wendy Yothers & François Arnaud.
The Studio at Corning brings artists from around the world to its residency program, where the recipient spends a month at The Studio to continue or further develop bodies of work, while also having access to the collections and unique research resources of the world’s leading glass museum.
This year, The Studio at Corning will be partnering with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for a joint Artist-in-Residence. This new program will see an artist spend one month in Corning and two to six months at Kohler Co.'s foundry (casting iron or brass) or pottery (slip casting clay) in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Elinor Portnoy, an Israeli artist, whose work focuses on the fluidity of material, will be in collaboration with the Kohler Arts Center, where she will expand further into this line of work.
Martin Janecky, who began his career with glass at the age of 13, teaches and demonstrates around the world, including at The Studio. He was previously in the program in March 2016, where he experimented with opaline glass made at The Studio to further his sculptural work. Janecky will return to The Studio as an Artist-In-Residence to further explore his work with Mexican folk art.
Judy Tuwaletstiwa has worked with various forms of art media, including paint, sand, feathers, sticks, and other natural materials with acrylic on canvas, but glass captivated her. She previously had an 18-month residency at the Bullseye Glass Resource Center in Santa Fe, where she furthered her knowledge in concepts that she has dealt with for almost 50 years. Michael Rogers has taught in the glass program at the Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Crafts for the past 10 years. He was also co-chair for the 2016 Glass Art Society Conference at Corning. Together Tuwaletstiwa and Rogers will collaborate at The Studio in February and March, where their main focus during the residency will be combining the concrete and ephemeral.
Claire Kelly's work focuses on the connection between human beings and animals and how that affects our relationship with the world. She has learned from previous Specialty Glass Artist-in-Residence, Toots Zynsky.
Dr. Karlyn Sutherland takes her inspiration from the connection between people and places. Her goal is to construct a body of large-scale works for installation.
Marina Hanser, an Australian artist, whose work examines ideas of revealing and concealing, deconstruction and reconstruction, and states of transition, plans to further develop her body of work and do research, through the residency, while also gaining inspiration from various imagery and concepts and her own experiences.
Anna Riley’s work examines the historic narrative of decolorization, and emotional effects of material, and she will experiment with a variety of methods to transform brown bottle glass into clear glass. She says that, “By working towards converting it into clear material, the glass’s utility will be removed. What was once a glass engineered for a specific purpose is repurposed in service of "clarity."
Having first met in 2015, Mark Ditzler, an artist based in Seattle, Washington, specializes in kiln-fired glass, while Wayne Strattman is a recognized scholar and artist who combines forms of light such as neon into glass sculpture. In September, Ditzler and Strattman will collaborate at The Studio for the Instructor Collaborative Residency. The two intend on creating kiln-formed neon panels and glass sculpture, combining the techniques that brought them together in the first place.
Wendy Yothers, a natural silversmith, specializes in restoration, prototype making, and production smithing for Tiffany & Co. and Kirk Stieff & Co. For her residency, Yothers will make a suite of fine art, glass, and silver serving tools based on the theme of a dinner, while examining ways of combining traditional craftsmanship in silversmithing and glass in a 21st-century context.
François Arnaud, a French artist with over 20 years of experience in glassblowing, takes his inspiration from body movements and dancing. Through his residency, he will further develop this work and consider the idea of instability and asymmetry in the body, and how it contrasts with pragmatic glass objects.
According to the director of The Studio, Amy Schwartz, "We pair people based on trying to not allow resources to conflict so that everyone gets what they hope to get. For example, it is best for us if a kiln worker is here at the same time as a blower or cold worker, rather than hosting two kiln workers at once, because they will compete for resources if here at the same time."
By the end of the residency, each artist will present their work on specific dates and discuss the nature of their respective works. These presentations will be open to the public.
"A lot of times people seem to become good friends when they are here together for their residencies", Schwartz also said.
Listed below are the dates for each residency plus the date of each public lecture:
Martin Janecky
February 13-March 20; Public lecture on March 9
Judy Tuwaletstiwa & Michael Rogers
February 13-March 20; Public lecture on March 9
Claire Kelly & Karlyn Sutherland
March 20-April 24; Public lecture on April 13
Marina Hanser & Anna Riley
April 24-May 27; Public lecture on May 18
Mark Ditzler and Wayne Strattman
*Instructor Collaborative Residency
September 10-24, 2017
Elinor Portnoy
September 25-October 30; Public lecture on October 12
Wendy Yothers & François Arnaud
October 30-December 1; Public lecture on November 16