EXHIBITION: "Sharper Edges" at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass honors the artform's female voices

Celebrating female artists working with glass, the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass in Wisconsin has opened a new exhibition, "Sharper Edges: Women Working on the Edge of Glass." The artists in this exhibition grapple with social issues through their work, expressing their views on politics, gender biases and the environment. An art form largely dominated by male protagonists, glass has a somewhat hidden female history of subtly powerful influence. For more insight into the background of this exhibition, The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke with the museum's director, Jan Smith, and with exhibiting artist Audrey Handler. Handler is a former student of renowned glass artist and teacher Harvey Littleton, and is referred to by Smith as the "grande dame of contemporary glass."Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: What was the impetus for this exhibition?Jan Smith: Although there is some concern in the arts community about identifying women artists in a way that seems to segregate them further, there is also reason to emulate their accomplishments in a year that has focused on women's initiatives and wellbeing. About two years ago, Audrey Handler mentioned an inquiry she began with the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. about glass representation by women in their collection. Apparently, women were under represented and the broad spectrum of their work by women in this medium was lacking. Audrey Handler felt compelled to do something about it and asked if I would consider helping with an exhibition proposal.

Joshua Bernbaum Fraunhofer Rectangle White

Joshua Bernbaum, Fraunhofer Lines (Horizontal Pane), 2017. H 12, W 25 in.

Thursday November 22, 2018 | by Eve Aaron

CONVERSATION: Artist Joshua Bernbaum and Dealer Simon Abrahms talk optics, color, and glass art

The Chesterfield Gallery in New York City is curently featuring new work by Vermont-based glass artist Joshua Bernbaum that stretches outside of the artist's usual signature aesthetic, departing from design and moving into a much more conceptual, abstract realm. Bernbaum is deepening his focus on color and gesturing towards science as he does so. The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet spoke with both Bernbaum and the owner of the Chesterfield Gallery, Simon Abrahms, to learn more about this new exhibition.

Sunday November 18, 2018 | by Eve Aaron

HELP WANTED: Pilchuck announces search for a new artistic director, a redefined position likely with less operational duties

The Pilchuck School is seeking a new artistic director to bring the institution into its next phase of educational and artistic programming. The official job posting for the position states that the artistic director will "Set and lead the organization's programmatic vision; represent the organization to its past, present, and prospective constituents; and manage interactions with an array of creative professionals on and off campus." The deadline to apply is December 21, 2018.

A nighttime exterior of the Barry Art Museum, designed by Saunders + Crouse Architects, the same firm behind the renovation of Norfolk's Glass Wheel Studio. courtesy: old dominion university

Wednesday November 14, 2018 | by Andrew Page

OPENING: The Barry Art Museum, a brand-new institution in Norfolk, Virginia, displays glass and other collections

Following a lunchtime reception, Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, will officially open the doors of its brand-new Barry Art Museum to the public during an open house from 4 to 7 PM today, November 14th. The newly constructed 24,000-square-foot museum was funded by art collectors and philanthropists Richard and Carolyn Barry, who also donated the art collection that will be exhibited in the two-story building on the Old Dominion University Campus. Their total gift of their collections and the money to build the museum is valued at $35 million, and considered the largest gift in the university's history. Less than three miles from the Chrysler Museum of Art and its glass studio, the Barry Art Museum, with its substantial contemporary glass art holdings, will bolster the importance of Norfolk as a center for art in the material.

From the RISD Glass website, a picture of a student performance featuring now-alumna Anna Riley.

Tuesday November 13, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: RISD seeks a full-time assistant professor of glass

The glass department at the Rhode Island School of Design, which is within the division of fine arts, is looking to fill a full-time faculty position of assistant professor that will start in the fall of 2019. The job posting states that it's "essential that applicants are conversant with contemporary art history, critical theory, and both traditional and nontraditional approaches to glass," and that applicants' "studio practice and teaching must show a solid commitment to innovative research, investigation and experimentation." In addition, demonstrated technical ability and conceptual problem solving are necessary, as is an active studio practice and "facility with a broad range of critical discourses, writing, and contemporary social and cultural dialogues." The deadline to apply is January 11, 2019.

Photo: Courtesy of Kyle J. Mickelson

Friday November 9, 2018 | by Eve Aaron

Reclaiming words that hurt, an edgy New York City venture seeks to defuse language by recontextualization

Artist Matthew Day Perez, has stepped away from his usual methodical and material-focused work style and is endeavoring in a new project that sits heavily in the world of social politics. Perez and his collaborator, neon artist Kate Hush -- or, as they like to call her, "The Madame of Neon" -- have created a limited-liability company that they adventurously call FagSigns, an unusual moniker that reflects the company's goal to reclaim hurtful language used against the LGBTQ community as well as any other individuals that might feel marginalized. The company's product line are personalized neon signs with a word of the customer's choice that he or she has felt particularly affected by. Through Kickstarter, the artists have nearly raised 90-persent of the funds needed to start a workshop in which to produce the signs and their ultimate goal is to be able to open an apprenticeship that will bring employment opportunity to disadvantaged individuals, particularly from the LGBTQ community, who are interested in working in glass.

Sarah Briland, Problematica (Pink Slump/Pink Crystal), 2015

Thursday November 8, 2018 | by Eve Aaron

Artist Sarah Briland, winner of the 2018 Irvin Borowsky International Prize Winner in Glass Arts, lectures Philadelphia this evening

Sarah Briland, who has been chosen as the 6th annual winner of the Irvin Borowsky International Prize in Glass Arts, will deliver her award lecture this evening at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Briland was selected by an international panel of artists, educators and collectors. Her recent work consists of combining glass with found objects such as wasps nests, honey and architectural fragments to make organic and environmentally inspired forms that mimic natural scientific processes like crystallization and fossilization. She takes much of her influence from the surroundings she was exposed to at an early age in West Virginia's coal mining region, thinking about man's connectivity to the earth. She has additional knowledge in the fields of environmental science and landscape architecture, backgrounds that continue to play a large role in her work as well.

Portrait of Mark Peiser. courtesy: the corning museum of glass

Wednesday October 31, 2018 | by Andrew Page

Mark Peiser named Corning Specialty Glass Resident for 2019

In an informal conversation at the 2009 Glass Art Society conference in Corning, artist Mark Peiser told me how hard it was to come to the many glass-art conferences at The Corning Museum of Glass (they've been held there as far back as 1976), where the adjacent research facilities closely guarded their groundbreaking trade secrets. Especially for an artist as dedicated to the technical possibilities of glass, the conferences put him in tantalizingly close proximity to some of the world's most knowledgeable experts in the material, but with strict controls over who could access the multi-million dollar research facilities. Fast forward to today, when Peiser has just been named the 2019 recipient of the Specialty Glass Residency that pairs artists and scientists to explore artistic applications of cutting-edge glass technologies. It's fitting that Peiser, an artist who has developed innovative and technically intricate solutions to working the material, was chosen. He follows on the heels of former artist residents Albert Paley (2014-2015), Tom Patti (2015), Toots Zynsky (2016), Anna Mlasowsky (2016), and Karen LaMonte (2018), and marks an opportunity for Peiser to partner with the leading experts on the material.

Mike Hernandez, Utopia, Neon, H 40, W 84, D 6 in. courtesy: huntington beach art center

Monday October 29, 2018 | by Eve Aaron

EXHIBITION: "Shines Through" celebrates the unique glass-art community in Southern California

Representing the third part of the contemporary art series "The Power of Pigment: A Celebration of Color" at the Huntington Beach Art Center in Southern California, Hiromi Takizawa curated "Shines Through," an exhibition featuring 33 established and emerging glass artists whose works cover a wide range of glass-making practices.

Tuesday October 23, 2018 | by Victoria Josslin

SEEN: Kait Rhoads' sinewy monumental work at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art celebrates oceanic forms

Until February 3, 2019, drivers coming off the Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry are enjoying a visual feast in the windows of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Every four months the museum has to find an artist who can bring that 15-foot tall, two-story space to life. Kait Rhoads’s Bloom, a sculptural representation of bull kelp, enlivens the entire space – there is no emptiness, only the sculpture and the ocean that you imagine. What else would surround the kelp and keep it insubtle motion?

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.