Thursday January 23, 2020 | by Pamela Koss

IN MEMORIAM: Francesco “Checco” Ongaro (1929 - 2020)

Maestro Checco Ongaro, who passed away this week in Murano, was among the first Muranese glassblowers willing to work with American artists. Born in Murano in 1929, Ongaro was the eldest son in a family of seven children. A strong and compassionate man, he married his wife Rina Dalla Valentina and raised his family there, living his life on the island known for glass. He worked a nearly 40 years at Venini, the famed design glass factory, and in many ways his career following the path of a traditional Muranese worker’s life. He learned his craft well moving up through the ranks on the hot shop floor, and became one of the youngest maestros at Venini working with a team to produce for the factory. But there was one key difference that would have a major impact on the arc of American glass art.

Anjali Srinivasan, Chocolate-Dipped Pebbles, 2019. Glass + Flour = Puffy Glass, tempered semi-sweet chocolate, food-safe plastic bags with clear label, satin ribbon, kiln-cast glass, dipped in chocolate. 1 oz bags, dimensions variable. courtesy: the artist

Thursday January 23, 2020 | by Lindsay von Hagn

OPENING: Alfred University gallery group exhibition references Roni Horn and celebrates the material in cast and kiln-formed glass sculptures

In honor of Michael Rogers being named "artistic associate" of Alfred University's School of Art and Design, as well as the renovation of the school's National Casting Center, an exhibition of cast and kiln-formed glass titled "Saying Glass,” features work by artists affiliated with Alfred University. The group exhibition borrows its title from artist Roni Horn’s monologue Saying Water, a meditation on the element of water and its almost endless range of properties.

Judith Schaechter, Lo, the Cow-Faced Maiden, 2019. Stained glass lightbox. H 26, W 29, D 3 in. courtesy: claire oliver gallery, new york

Tuesday January 14, 2020 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: Judith Schaechter exhibition opens in New York City on January 18th

Judith Schaechter's upcoming exhibition at New York City's Claire Oliver Gallery, which opens on Saturday, January 18th, borrows its title — "Almost Better Angels" — from a chapter in the 2017 Robert Sapolsky book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, a bestseller that dissects and analyzes the latest science on human behavior. The title reveals that Schaechter, a pioneer of contemporary stained-glass art and its most accomplished practitioner, is in a philosophical mood. No doubt this is because Schaechter will enjoy a major museum retrospective of her career that opens in Feburary 2020 at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York.

Charlotte Potter Kasic returned to the Hampton Roads area in January 2020 after three years in Vermont.

Saturday January 11, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Charlotte Potter Kasic returning to Virginia to take on newly created position at the Barry Art Museum

Charlotte Potter Kasic, the founding manager of the Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio, left Norfolk, Virginia, in 2017 to move back to her native Vermont and start her family. Now she's returning to the Hampton Roads area to take a newly created position of manager of museum education and engagement at the Barry Art Museum, which is part of Old Dominion University, and houses the collection of Richard and Carolyn Barry, longtime benefactors of the Chrysler Museum.

Lino Tagliapietra pictured in front of his new "Totem" series works that debuted at the Schantz Galleries display at Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary.

Friday January 10, 2020 | by Andrew Page

Lino debuts two new freestanding "Totem" works at Palm Beach art fair this weekend

Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, a Florida art fair that kicked off on the evening of January 9th and continues through the 12th, is the venue where Lino Tagliapietra chose to debut a radically different type of glass sculpture. Known for his unique fusion of Muranese tradition and American innovation, Lino has spent his long career pushing the boundaries of glass forms. Recent decades have seen his boat assemblages, large kiln-formed wall panels, rows of brightly colored and richly textured shield elements, and installations of falling glass leaves, to name just a few of the new directions he's taken beyond his myriad blown-vessel forms. Though well into his 80th decade, Lino's new "Totem" series marks fresh terrain, as it uses a metal armature to create tubes of abstractly patterned glass elements rising into graphically striking vertical tubes that clearly reference Native American totemic forms, but in an entirely Muranese visual language.

Wednesday January 8, 2020 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Northeastern glass artists invited to submit to regional competition juried by Corning's Amy Schwartz

A community art center in the middle of coastal Connecticut is hosting an exhibition of contemporary explorations in glass juried by Amy Schwartz, director of The Studio at Corning. The Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut, will host the event from March 13 through April 5, 2020; and seeks submissions by artists who work in glass to create functional and non-functional works.

James Akers, Electric Blue Tumbleweed, 2019. Neon bending, 3D printing.

Friday January 3, 2020 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: A tribute to David Bowie in glass and other materials in Philadelphia

Every year since the cultural icon's death in 2016, Philadelphia has set aside a week to honor David Bowie, the persona-shifting rock star with a series of key connections to the City of Brotherly Love. Bowie's first concert album, titled David Live," was recorded at the area's live-music mecca known as the Tower Theater in 1974, and much of his seminal Young Americans album was recorded at Philadelphia's Sigma Studios. Timed to Bowie's January 8th birthday, the "Philly Loves Bowie" annual event ranges from musical concerts to art events, and this year, the National Liberty Museum has organized an entire exhibition in honor of the icon.

An aerial view of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the buildings nestled in the trees and overlooking the Atlantic ocean.

Thursday December 19, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Haystack wins $4 million Windgate gift to endow its campus preservation

An architectural landmark perched on a granite cliff on Deer Island, Maine, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts has played an outsize role in the history of glass art, hosting classes and workshops by Harvey Littleton in the early stages of Studio Glass. Dale Chihuly both studied and taught here, and clearly was inspired by the dramatic and rugged surroundings to start Pilchuck in the forests of Washington state. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, the Haystack campus was designed in 1960 by noted architect Edward Larrabee Barnes. Using local materials such as cedar shingles, and with an extensive wooden walkway fostering a sense of connection, the design won the Twenty Five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1994, a rare honor shared by less than 50 buildings. Recognizing both the importance and the challenge of preserving the landmark campus in a wind-swept coastal environment, Haystack was recently gifted a $4-million grant by the Windgate Foundation. The largest gift in the school's history, the money will be "permanently restricted, generating operating support of the ongoing preservation" of the unique Haystack campus, according to the official announcement of the gift.

Dan Dailey, Dubious (from the "Individuals" series), 2011. Blown, sandblasted, and acid-polished glass; metal. collection: the artist. photo: bill truslow. © Dan Dailey

Wednesday December 18, 2019 | by Andrew Page

EXHIBITION: Figurative works by Dan Dailey the focus of upcoming exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art

For an exhibition aptly titled "Character Sketch," the Chrysler Museum of Art has assembled 33 of Dan Dailey's figurative sculptures that span the prolific pioneering artist's four-decade career. Blown and hot-worked figures will share the exhibition with cane murals as well as wall reliefs made from Vitrolite, a structural glass used in the first half of the 20th-century, most notably for Art Deco facades. A dedicated draftsman, Dailey's attraction to liquid glass stems, in part, from its parallels to the flow of ink from a pen. Several of Dailey's original drawings will be on view to demonstrate the close connection between finished objects and the sketches that guided their creation.

Tuesday December 10, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Deborah Czeresko and "Blown Away" make critics' Top Ten lists for 2019

'Tis the season for annual Top Ten lists, when magazines and newspapers release their critics' picks for the most important works of the year. While the previous 12 months' output of everything from books to movies to albums is distilled down to a year-end roundup of the best of the best, the much-discussed glassblowing reality show Blown Away has recently found its way onto two prominent lists.

Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly, a glossy art magazine published four times a year by UrbanGlass has provided a critical context to the most important artwork being done in the medium of glass for more than 40 years.