Editor's Letter
by Andrew Page
A riot of blooming flowers engulfs a woman’s face on the cover of this issue, a close-up of a work by Layo Bright, a Nigerian artist who left behind her successful law career to study art in New York City, where she discovered glass was uniquely suited to give shape to her ideas. Many of the blooms are glass renditions of Nigerian species, others American, and Bright uses the blend of the two to reference migration and resilience. Curator and critic Jabari Owens-Bailey was already familiar with Bright’s work, having included her in his Museum of Glass survey of Black artists, but he eagerly accepted the assignment to engage with her latest bodies of work, many done in preparation for her first solo museum exhibition, which opened at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut earlier this year. As Owens-Bailey points out, Bright’s kiln-formed heads reference the kingdoms of Nigeria’s precolonial past as well as the personal story of the artist’s close relationship with her wise grandmother. Bright’s work bridges the personal and the universal, and her work, like her flower arrangements, reflects a cross-pollination of African and American cultures.
Speaking of crossing oceans, what are the chances a recently graduated British ceramicist would seek work across the Atlantic, and just happened to sign up for a glass class taught by one of Harvey Littleton’s original Toledo Workshop participants? Even less likely would be if this same Brit would become so smitten, he would return home and become one of the foundational figures in glass art in the U.K. The story contributing editor Emma Park relates as part of her feature profile of Layton (“A Man in a Hurry,”p. 38) also covers great distances (Layton was actually born in Prague to Jewish parents who fled to England just before World War II), but then the saga becomes rooted in the British capital, where Layton set up London Glassblowing in the 1970s. Now in his 80s, Layton’s gallery and studio have sustained over the rise and potential fall (see “Saving the National Glass Centre” in the Summer 2024 edition, Glass #175) of British glass. As the arts reel from funding cuts, Layton’s long-running apprenticeship program is more necessary than ever, and London Glassblowing gives up-and-coming glass artists a way to earn money as they develop their skills, providing them a place to develop their own young art practices in the process.
This issue features an even more dramatic tale of perseverance in our feature on Lonnie Holley, a self-taught found-object artist who has become a major figure in American art as well as a widely regarded recording artist. Contributing editor John Drury co-taught a Pilchuck course with Holley in the summer of 2023, and he was taking notes and marveling at Holley’s ability to dive into an entirely new medium without hesitation. Holley’s resilience is legendary, having overcome grueling setbacks in his impoverished childhood, and his success is a testament to the power of art to connect across great distances, be they geographic, social, or economic.
Elsewhere in this issue, Alicia Eggert’s neon word-art installations call attention to the passage of time, provoking viewers to contemplate matters sweepingly philosophical and political. To cover her first solo museum exhibition, contributor Justin Ginsberg traveled across much of Texas to get to Beaumont. Ginsberg recounts his highly attuned experience, documenting and illuminating this important milestone in Eggert’s expansive career.
And finally, contributing editor Samantha De Tillio reflects on the ethereal work of Chinese artist Jinya Zhao, a graduate student at the Royal College of Art in London, who has already attracted major gallery representation for work that captures the ephemeral state of being in between.
Special Bonus: This issue can be bundled with New Glass Review 44, part of a long-standing relationship between UrbanGlass and The Corning Museum of Glass.