OPENING: Marc Petrovic’s intricate bird sculptures coming to roost at Heller Gallery

Marc Petrovic, Avian Pair #2, 2011. Hot-sculpted and blown Bullseye murrini roll-up. H 9, W 15, D 10 in. courtesy: the artist

Marc Petrovic, the subject of a feature article in the upcoming Fall 2012 print edition of GLASS Quarterly, has employed hot-worked glass birds as stand-ins for human characters in his work for decades, positioning them in Joseph Cornell-like assemblages or under bell jars for highly metaphoric works dealing with changing identity through the stage of life. His newest body of work, which he calls “Avians,” represents a technical and conceptual breakthrough for the Essex, Connecticut-based artist, resulting in life-like bird sculptures in which the coloration and patterning are not applied but intrinsic to the forms themselves. His solo New York City exhibition opening at Heller Gallery on the evening of September 6th, will feature the winged creatures as well as the abstract tablet forms that Petrovic expertly sculpts into three-dimensions, presented as a duet of conceptual and figurative approaches to art. An afternoon demonstration of the groundbreaking techniques behind these works (and a fundraiser for UrbanGlass, which publishes GLASS Quarterly) will take place on Saturday, September 8th, at Brooklyn Glass.

Marc Petrovic earned his BFA in 1991 from the Cleveland Institute of Art. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York; Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, Massachusetts; Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, Florida, and the Niijima Glass Art Center in Niijima, Japan.

IF YOU GO: