A new source for cullet offers glass studios another post-Spectrum choice

In the Spring 2019 edition of Glass (#154), I wrote about the impact of Spectrum's decision to stop producing their nuggets (Reflection: "Back to Batch," p. 64). After the last of the backstock of Spectrum nuggets shipped in Summer 2018, the effects were felt across the industry, with one small Midwest studio shutting down and university hotshops retooling to melt batch instead. I briefly discussed Cristalica, an alternative source of cullet from Germany, but the international shipping costs and different chemical composition that affected its compatibility and performance seemed to be keeping it from being a replacement for Spectrum. Now a new product is hitting the market, one that promises Spectrum-like qualities, though the pricing is more on par with its fellow European producer Cristalica. This new cullet is being offered from Bomma, a Czech company that designs a variety of glass products, like Cristalica, so it has the existing infrastructure to produce bulk quantities of cullet. Working with American artist and entreprenur Charlie Parriott, Bomma has developed a recipe for a cullet with a low melting temperature that is compatible with Reichenbach Colors as well as other color manufacturers. We spoke with Bomma marketing director Eva Kozarová to get some more information.

Thursday May 23, 2019 | by Andrew Page

HOT OFF THE PRESSES: The Summer 2019 edition of Glass (#155)

The Summer 2019 edition of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (#155) is hitting newsstands and subscriber mailboxes this week. On the cover is a collage of images from Mary Van Cline's "Documenta Project," an ongoing photographic quest to capture the images (and personalities) of the unique community of artists, dealers, and collectors who coalesced around glass as an art medium. In her cover article, critic and curator Patricia Grieve Watkinson writes: "Perhaps it says something about those involved in the Studio Glass movement that they are willing and used to collaborating with a fellow artist in a way that might expose their vulnerability, and that there are so many -- artists and collectors -- who are willing to ham it up in front of the camera for a slice of posterity."

Jeroen Verhoeven, "Bubble" Cabinet, 2017. Iridized borosilicate glass. H 102, W 92, D 72 in. photo: prudence cuming associates, 2017. courtesy: blain southern

Thursday May 9, 2019 | by Eve Aaron

CONVERSATION: Susie Silbert talks about the revamped New Glass Review 40, the catalog for Corning's "New Glass Now" landmark exhibit set to open this weekend

On Saturday, May 11, 2019, the landmark museum survey exhibition "New Glass Now" will kick off at The Corning Museum of Glass with a museum-members' premier, artist talks, and an evening party to celebrate the long awaited launch. Featuring work made over the last three years, the exhibition includes work by 100 artists of 32 nationalities, hailing from more than 25 countries. The show is being framed as the third in a series of era-defining glass-art exhibitions at Corning that began with "Glass 1959," followed 20 years later by "New Glass: A Worldwide Survey" in 1979. The effort to reconnect with these important predecessor exhibitions after a 40-year break is explicit in the introduction by curator of modern glass Susie J. Silbert, who cites both in detail in her introductory essay titled "New Glass is not New," which seeks to place this forward-facing exhibition in historic context.

Tuesday May 7, 2019 | by Andrew Page

Tale of Two Chandelier Dresses: Susan Taylor Glasgow responds to Katy Perry's Met Gala showstopper

The theme of last night's 2019 Met Costume Institute Gala was tied to its current exhibition on "camp," so the celebrity red carpet this year featured even more outrageous outfits than the usual star-studded fashion show. Pop singer Katy Perry, a self-professed fan of camp who has dressed up as a hamburger in the past, knew this was a special opportunity to pull out all the stops. In a New York Post interview leading up to the big event on Monday evening, Perry's longtime fashion guru Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott said "there probably isn’t a performer in pop history that’s used camp and humor more than she has. I have guesses at what people expect from us, but I’m trying to outdo those expectations. It’s going to be an eleganza extravaganza.“

Friday May 3, 2019 | by Lindsay von Hagn

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Six-week artist residency in Japan seeks applications

The Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (TIGA) in Toyama, Japan invites international glass artists to apply for its Artist-in-Residence program, now in its ninth year. The residency, which will last six weeks from October 17 through November 27, 2019, grants the artist access to the facilities of the Toyama Glass Studio, including the hot shop, kiln shop, and cold shop, to create new work. Works made during the residency will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Toyama Glass Museum at the end of the six weeks.

Amber Cowan, Dance of the Pacific Coast Highway at Sunset, 2019. Flameworked American pressed glass/mixed media. H 34, W 46, D 12 1/2 in. courtesy: heller gallery

Thursday May 2, 2019 | by Eve Aaron

CONVERSATION: Amber Cowan discusses her newest work debuting at Heller Gallery this evening

For her third solo show at Heller Gallery, opening this evening, Amber Cowan will present the latest iterations of her reimagining and reconstruction of vintage pressed glassware, which she remakes through painstaking cutting and fusing at her flameworking torch. Cowan's unique artistic process invovles travel, scavenging, and an ability to map out new landscapes of detail and decoration, elevating industrially produced decorative products into singular works.

Wednesday May 1, 2019 | by Eve Aaron

HELP WANTED: Glass Art Society is seeking a permanent Executive Director

Recently wrapping up a successful conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, in March under the leadership of interim executive director Brandi Clark, the Glass Art Society is turning its attention to the future, and has launched a search for a permanent Executive Director who will report to, and act on behalf of the Board of Directors. The incoming Executive Director will support the board, and have a strong and authoritative hand in the management of programs such as scouting and developing yearly conferences, event planning, and marketing. The successful candidate will also act as the chief fundraiser for the organization.

Tuesday April 30, 2019 | by Andrew Page

CALL FOR PROPOSALS (updated): The 2019 UrbanGlass Academic Symposium will focus on criticism, critique, and critical thinking

The 2019 UrbanGlass Academic Symposium will take place on the updated dates of October 24th, 25th, and 26th in venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The jury has also been updated to include artist and educator Alli Hoag. In addition, the deadline for proposals on the expanded theme of "criticism, critique, and critical thinking" has been extended to June 1, 2019.

Monday April 29, 2019 | by Eve Aaron

HELP WANTED: Urban Glass announces search for director of education

Urban Glass has launched a search for a director of education to lead its successful teaching programs that reach over 3,000 students a year at this leading Brooklyn, New York, nonprofit arts center. The UrbanGlass studios accommodate a wide-range of glassmaking techniques, and feature a dedicated educational hotshop, flame working studio, extensive kilnworking facilities, as well as areas for mosaics and neon.

The glassblowing reality show included (at left) Pilchuck executive director Christopher Taylor as a guest judge, and artist and educator Katherine Gray as the show's "resident glass master." Also pictured is Blown Away host Nick Uhas (at right).

Thursday April 25, 2019 | by Eve Aaron

CONVERSATION: Two insiders share their thoughts on the soon-to-stream Netflix reality show

More than most other art-making processes, working in the glass hotshop lends itself to spectacle with the attendant smoke, fire, and heat. It's surprising then that it's taken so long for a reality television show to be themed around the practice. Blown Away, which has wrapped up shooting but is not yet available for streaming on Netflix, is tentatively set to debut in the U.S. in July 2019. (It had its world premier on the newly launched Makeful satellite channel in Canada in February).

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.