The Fall 2011 edition of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly features the work of Vladimira Klumpar on its cover.
The new issue of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly hits newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. On the cover of the Fall 2011 edition: Vladimira Klumpar’s 2010 work Ryder, a 15-3/4-inch-tall complex form that appears to be a sphere until you notice it’s folded and cut away thick plane of cast glass with a textured surface. John Drury, in his feature article on Klumpar’s life and work, writes that Ryder: “exemplifies the bridge between Klumpar’s previous flowing creations and the newer, geometrically inspired body of work.” Drury traces the artist’s shift from the organic forms inspired by her gardens and travels to Mexico and Tibet, to her newest sculptures that evoke the “discipline of urban architecture” which she reacquainted herself with upon her return to the Czech Republic and frequent visits to Prague. A former student of Stanislav Libensky, Klumpar brings a precise formal vocabulary to her highly contemporary works that though based on hand-drawn studies, reference the molecular explorations of science and computer-aided design of our technological moment.
Elsewhere in this issue, contributing editor James Yood travels to Venice to take in the second iteration of “GLASSTRESS,” Adriano Berengo’s lavish showcase of contemporary art made from glass during the Venice Biennale. With some of the biggest names from the international art scene employing Berengo’s Muranese hot-shop resources, a new approach to the material as a medium for sculpture and installations comes to the fore.
Also in Europe, gallerist Nadania Idriss shares a diary that chronicles the events leading up to the imminent unveiling of Berlin Glas, the first nonprofit open-access glass center in this European capital of contemporary art. Home to tens of thousands of artists, drawn by the cheap rents available after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city did not offer a place to pursue hot glass as a sculptural medium outside of a few art programs. Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Idriss was surprised by this deficit and set about correcting it, sharing her experiences along the way.
On the design and architecture side, GLASS managing editor Grace Duggan examines the wildly successful Apple stores, not for their record-breaking sales per square foot, but for their breakthrough use of glass as a structural material that has customers walking up glass staircases that defy expectations of how a breakable material can be used to support large amounts of weight. Duggan examines the boundary-breaking application of glass treads supported by glass walls as an elegant interplay between customer and merchant to shed light on why these stores nurture an unusual degree of personal connection to a brand.
Contributing editor William Warmus shares his thoughts on the passing of Frantisek Vizner (1936 – 2011) in a poignant back-page Reflection essay. The latest news, reviews of recent exhibitions of work by Theresa Batty, Michael Reigelman, Therman Statom, Jay Macdonell, and Mel Munsen round out this issue.
To order this copy, or subscribe, visit us at www.glassquarterly.com, or call 718.625.3685, ext 222.