The Spring 2023 (#170) edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly is on its way to subscriber mailboxes and newsstands. On the cover is a striking portrait of John Littleton and Kate Vogel as photographed by Lucy Plato Clark, who captured them refracted through a piece of optical crystal they are holding up together. It was chosen as it perfectly illustrates the cover article by contributing editor Emma Park on the phenomenon of two artists who have merged their individual approaches into a single shared practice.
A theme of the other articles in this issue is "Spotlight on a New Generation," in which we take stock of new curatorial initiatives by artists who are turning to curating exhibitions of their peers to bring attention to a type of work that is rarely seen in a commercial gallery context. Regular contributor Alexander Castro takes stock of Anna Mlasowsky's digital initiative she has titled Das Fernglas, which started during the pandemic. It has continued on, fueled by the unique opportunity she has given "artists who work with glass an alternative venue for their most alternative work," as Castro so aptly puts it.
We also take stock of a vast museum exhibition organized by curators Kristin Deady, Jenna Lucente, and Alexander Rosenberg, which took over the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art and surveyed a new generation of artists and their ambitious multimedia works in video, installation, and interactive installations that were organized into thematic areas of body, systems, ancestry, environment, and perspective. In all, 33 artists were given museum-quality installations in galleries large enougn to experience their work adjacent to work by contemporaries approaching similar themes.
The last feature was about The Chrysler Museum of Art's expansive plans for its highly successful Glass Studio as it enters its second decade. The $30 million expansion will see the facility that has transfixed Norfolk, Virginia residents with cutting-edge performance art involving glass. Started to bring to life the museum's extensive holdings of glass art, the studio has helped to turn Norfolk into a center for glass art, both attracting tourists and new artist residents through its studio assistant program. Managing editor Sadia Tasnim looks at the history and promising future of this important glass outpost.
All this plus five reviews, a memorial to the late indigenous glass artists Tony Jojola, and news from around the world of glass. Subscribe and don't miss a single issue!