OPENING: “Concepts in Glass” features work by MassArt faculty members

Christopher G. Watts, There But for the Love of God Go Us All. Found Blown Glass.

“Concepts in Glass,” opening this evening, April 15th, at the New Art Center in Newton, Massachusetts, will feature the work of Alan Klein, James McLeod, and Christopher G. Watts, all of whom are faculty members at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, as well as that of curator Hillary Faccio. “Glass is a traditional material usually associated [with] tableware, vessels, stained glass windows, and other decorative arts,” writes Faccio in her curatorial statement. “This show will exhibit glass as a rich and viable sculptural medium.” While the works do move beyond the Studio Glass movement, they do not seem to push the boundaries of the medium as much as other contemporary glass artists.

The strongest piece in the exhibition is There But for the Love of God Go Us All, a glass skull described as being made from “found blown glass taken from neighborhoods experiencing extreme fluctuations in real estate value.” Watts often focuses on the issue of agreed value, creating works that explore his latest interests in material history, appearance as identity, the role looking and appraising plays in creation, and the relationship between value and perception. He made the skull with glass from windows in properties experiencing real estate fluctuations. The piece is Watts’ response to Damien Hirst‘s For the Love of God, a platinum human skull that the artist covered with 8,601 diamonds and priced at almost $100 million.

James MacLeod, Memory Container 6, 2003. Glass, wire. H 25, W 40, D 9 in. courtesy: James MacLeod

Faccio, McLeod, and Klein each approach time differently in their work. Faccio draws her inspiration from petroglyphs, or rock carvings. She creates freestanding abstract sculptures as explorations of the connections between petroglyphs and the nature of language. McLeod reflects on the past by focusing instead on the source of memories and how they can decay or evolve. Memory Container (6 or 12) includes cloudy blue bottles of varying shapes and sizes, each with a unique stopper design (the most distinctive is a thin loop of glass on a tall bottle). The piece puts a physical spin on the notion of how we store memories. Klein’s interests lie more in time and the actions frozen in it, explains Faccio in her curatorial statement. “He uses the properties of glass, from molten to solid, to demonstrate this frozen plastic moment,” she writes. “His form language [sic] is meant to reference body parts or tools.”

“Concepts in Glass” is one of three exhibitions in the Curatorial Opportunity Program this year, which allows first-time and established curators to pursue more experimental approached toward curating contemporary art exhibitions. Also on exhibit at The New Art Center is “Themes and Variations in Print and Glass,” showcasing works by Bonnie Mineo and glass artist Michel L’Huillier.

— Grace Duggan