The cover of GLASS #129, Winter 2012-13
The new issue of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes over the next few days. On the cover of the Winter 2012 – 13 edition is a recent work by John Kiley entitled Stalling Angel. GLASS contributing editor Victoria Josslin writes: “Kiley belongs to the tribe of minimalist artists who know how to bring emotional richness out of reticence.” She considers his works as balancing acts, both literally in their carefully considered geometries, but also as points of equilibrium between geometric abstraction and organic form. In an article that journeys back to seminal moments in Kiley’s life experience, the article charts the evolution of an artist who learned glassblowing as an assistant to some of its most florid decorative practitioners (Chihuly and Tagliapietra) and yet developed a voice of powerful restraint.
Elsewhere in GLASS #129, artist and critic Annie Buckley considers the polyglot powerhouses Einar and Jamex de La Torre, as their explosive iconographic works take on a more philosophical tone in recent works including El Cakeito (2012), a triptych with photographs, graffiti, and glass, among other materials. “The de la Torres’ ornate and playful cultural fusions over the past two decades have established them as two of the most intriguing contemporary artists with in glass today,” she writes.
Frequent contributor and artist John Drury weighs in with an expansive look at the career of Jean-Michel Othoniel, the subject of a recent retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Beneath the exuberant allure of Othoniel’s work that features glass as large-scale jewelry elements, Drury finds scars of the glassmaking process, intentionally left as part of the finished work, “painful reminders of loss and absence.” In a wide-ranging article considering the many shades of meaning in the French artist’s career, Drury mines this duality in a high-profile contemporary artist frequently employing glass.
In the issue’s fourth feature article, GLASS managing editor Grace Duggan considers the work of jeweler Axel Russmeyer, who works on a far smaller scale yet finds intensity in poignant breaks from strict parameters he sets for himself in the work.
Four reviews round out this issue, including Josiah McElheny at the ICA, Boston; Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary at Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe; Wayne Strattman at the Charles river Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts; and two group shows at Ken Saunders Gallery.
Not a subscriber yet? Don’t miss out. Subscribe to the print edition of GLASS here.