The Corning Museum of Glass and Corning Inc. have announced that Karen LaMonte, the artist best known for her life-like dress sculptures made from glass, has been selected for their joint Specialty Glass Artist-in-Residency program, a much-sought-after opportunity that gives artists access to cutting-edge types of glass, scientists and technology. LaMonte, whose residency will start in early 2018, will follow artists such as Tom Patti, Anna Mlsaowsky, and Toots Zynsky, three of the artists who have been invited since the program was initiated in 2014.
LaMonte's mind is already running with ideas months before the residency begins. Exploring new technology in art is something she is no stranger to, as with her "Nocturnes" series where she collaborated with a German glass manufacturer to come up with a new formula to fit her pieces. "I have 100's of ideas of what I think I want to do, but I'm trying not to be close minded predetermined when I go through the door," said LaMonte in a telephone interview with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. In preparation for the residency, representatives from Corning will visit her studio and watch the artist at work, then scientists will meet with LaMonte and pinpoint a few particular areas they see opportunities to focus on. Using the scientist's input, she will explore new avenues of creation, and she plans to be "as mentally flexible as possible" to get the most out of the residency.
Growing up in New York, LaMonte graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked at UrbanGlass, the arts nonprofit that publishes GLASS magazine and the Hot Sheet. Lamonte had the opportunity to work in Czech Republic after receiving the Fulbright Fellowship in 1999. There, she began to explore the idea of the significance of clothing and drawing inspiration from the nude female body, in both its form and substance, and how the nude body contours shape and life into her sculptures. The clothing in her pieces is meant to show the link between private and public life. Her idea matured into a series of sculptures over the years from different cultures, becoming her most famous examples of her work.
One recent alumna of the specialty glass residency, Toots Zynsky, was featured on the cover of the Fall 2017 edition of GLASS (#148), and she credited her experiences at Corning with spurring new ideas which spurred a "rapid synthesis" as she put it.
LaMonte will begin her residency on Jan. 1, 2018 . ”Whatever I learn and start to understand will extend my ability to perceive and understand as an artist,” she said in a prepared statement.
Photo Caption: Nocturnes Installation in white bronze. Photography: Martin Polak. Provided by Karen LaMonte.
Photo Caption: Karen LaMonte, Zelezny Brod, Evening Dress with Shawl Czech Republic, 2004, cast glass H 60" x W 51" x D 21". Gift, in part, of the Ennion Society. 2005.3.21.