In Memoriam: René Roubíček (1922 - 2018)

Born in Prague in 1922, the world-renown glass artist René Roubíček died in his native city on Sunday, April 29, 2018, after a brief illness. Despite his age and until his last moments, Roubíček was actively engaged in artistic pursuits and full of contagious energy. He is recognized as an artist who, from the 1940s, contributed greatly to enhancing the perception and use of glass as a full-fledged sculptural material.

Wednesday May 23, 2018 | by Andrew Page

HELP WANTED: UrbanGlass seeks education coordinator

UrbanGlass, the Brooklyn, New York, non-profit art center that publishes the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet, is seeking a full-time education coordinator to be responsible for the day-to-day logistics of the various types of education programs. The successful applicant will work in close coordination with the director of education, the registrar, and the youth coordinator, and will be responsible for logistics for workshop, youth, and university programs at UrbanGlass.

Libbey Glass Company, Punch Bowl and Stand with 23 Cups. Thick colorless glass. H 21 ½, W 23 ⅞, D 23 ⅞ in. courtesy: libbey glass company.

Wednesday May 9, 2018 | by Valerie Hughes

EXHIBITION: The Toledo Museum of Art celebrates the industrial glass empire that has supported it since 1901

In 1995, when the legendary graphic designer Steff Geissbuhler was asked to re-imagine the logo of the Toledo Museum of Art, he chose a bluish-green color for his window-shaped logo that evoked the hue of float glass as a way to acknowledge the importance of industrial glassware producer Libbey Glass. The company's owner, Edward Drummond Libbey, was the founding patron of the museum, and his generous endowment made it possible to not only acquire significant paintings and sculptures that make it a top-flight art museum, but to offer free admission with no support from the city of Toledo. In 2017, another large gift from Libbey, Inc. endowed the top post at the museum, and Brian Kennedy is now known as the Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey Director. In yet another honor of its great patron, the museum has turned over its Glass Pavilion exhibition space to two centuries of its corporate patron's production, using its own extensive holdings of unusual or notable glass objects by Libbey for its current exhibition "Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818 - 2018," which runs through November 25, 2018.

Pam Koss pictured during the 2016 Glass Art Society Conference in Corning, New York.

Tuesday May 8, 2018 | by Andrew Page

After 14 years, Pam Koss will step down as executive director of the Glass Art Society

Following next week's ambitious 2018 Glass Art Society annual conference in Murano, Italy, the artist organization's long-serving executive director Pam Figenshow Koss has announced that she will step down. Though she plans on staying on through the end of June 2018, the announcement issued late last night brings the curtain down on her 14-year tenure.

A detail from DuGrenier's work Super Art, a work involving glass and bees, which was displayed in New York City's Fulcrum Gallery in the 1990s.

Thursday May 3, 2018 | by Valerie Hughes

Designer and artist Robert DuGrenier inducted into Illinois State University's fine art hall of fame

This April, Townshend, Vermont-based artist Robert DuGrenier was inducted into the Illinois State University’s College of Fine Arts Hall of Fame nearly forty years after receiving an MFA in Sculpture from the university. DuGrenier trained as a glassblower and goldsmith at Philadelphia College of Art and Hornsey College of Art in London before continuing on to ISU. His career has been defined by works inspired by environments that gradual change due to the forces of nature. DuGrenier visited ISU to receive the award and presented a hot glass workshop and lecture.

In Chicago, James Yood delivered the 2014 Glass Art Society Conference Strattman Lecture entitled “W(h)ither Glass? The Next 50 Years.” photo: heather ahrens. courtesy: glass art society

Tuesday April 24, 2018 | by Andrew Page

In Memoriam: James Yood (1952 - 2018)

An important critical voice on visual art fell silent last weekend with the sudden death of James Yood, who regularly penned articles for Artforum, art ltd., and Aperture in addition to Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, the print magazine which produces the Hot Sheet. Yood's first article as a contributing editor to Glass was a Spring 2001 review of a Jim Dine exhibition in Chicago, where Yood immediately revealed his keen eye not only for sculpture, but sensitivity to the unique nature of glass and the commitment required to unlock its unique material properties. Calling the exhibition at Richard Gray Gallery "more of a roller coaster experience than one might have expected going in," he pointed out how Dine's embedding of found tools contrasted with Mary Shaffer's exploration of similar terrain. Unintimidated by Dine's art-star reputation, Yood drew a pointed contrast with another artist's richer approach: "Dine seems to use glass as some kind of silicon paint, as colored or clear substance that is optically penetrable and an excellent sheathing for his tools, while Shaffer sees glass as volumetric and weighty, often using slumping as a device to emphasize gravity and process."

Tom Moore, Pyrotechnic Puffer Fish, 2016. Blown and solid glass, epoxy. H 19¾, W 20, D 11 in. (larger fish) photo: grant hancock.

Thursday April 19, 2018 | by Valerie Hughes

Playful glass goblet work takes top honors, $15,000 prize, at contemporary art competition in Australia.

The 2018 winner of the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s annual Tom Malone Prize is Tom Moore, who utilized 15th-century Venetian glassblowing techniques to create two whimsical puffer fish in a work entitled “Pyrotechnic Puffer Fish.” The Tom Malone Prize, now in its sixteenth year, highlights accomplishment and experimentation in Australian glass art with $15,000 in prize money. Moore’s “Pyrotechnic Puffer Fish” was one of sixty applicants and, as the winner, will be incorporated into the gallery’s State Art Collection, which houses works by other winners. Additionally, Moore’s work will be shown in the gallery’s annual Australian contemporary art exhibition alongside the thirteen short-listed artists, such as Holly Grace and Jason Sims, through May 28, 2018.

Jeremy Lepisto in the studio. photo: adam mcgrath

Wednesday April 18, 2018 | by Andrew Page

3 Questions for ... Jeremy Lepisto

GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What have you been working on? Jeremy Lepisto: Currently, my time is divided between my full-time position at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design as a Technical Officer in the Sculpture Workshop as well as the School’s Work Health and Safety Officer, completing a long-overdue PhD degree, fabricating for others. and making new gallery work. As part of my PhD research, I'm creating a collection of stacking sculptures that compile together (physically and metaphorically) into a mixed-media series of sculptures. The shape and structure of these sculptures are based on the form of a common shipping container. This research looks to explore the duality of effects delivered to the agencies of people/places/objects through the utilization of the modern shipping container. …

(front view) Song File #1 - Friends of Prometheus by Julie Alland

Julie Alland, Song File #1 - Friends of Prometheus, 2016. Kilnformed and engraved glass, magnetic audiotape, vintage glass box. H 4 ½, W 6, D 4 in. courtesy: julie alland.

Tuesday April 17, 2018 | by Valerie Hughes

EXHIBITION: Philadelphia glass museum seeks to join the visual and the auditory in "Sound + Vision"

The relationship between sound and art has often been explored by artists who attempt to unite the visual and auditory worlds. Through June 10, 2018, the National Liberty Museum of Philadelphia will feature “Sound + Vision,” an exhibition of glass instruments and sculptures that grant a new perspective on sound and visual expression. Thirty-four featured artists created their own interpretations of the relationship between glass art and sound, ranging from glass instruments, some of which are playable, to mosaics of music legends. “Sound + Vision” presents the relationship between music and art through a multitude of stylistic glass works in a collection of different artistic skills and techniques.

Stephan Cox’s Yellow Spout looks like a crossing between the human body and an exotic, colorful glass bird.

Tuesday April 10, 2018 | by Allison Adler

Morgan Contemporary's twelfth annual teapot exhibition reveals a form rich in symbolism

The teapot is, at first glance, a simple object: a hollow vessel with spout, handle, and lid created for steeping and pouring. And yet, Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, describes the artists featured in the 2018 “teapots!12" exhibition as having “accepted the teapots! challenge.” So, what is the challenge of the teapot? Perhaps it is not only the challenge of translating an artist’s chosen media into innovative teapot-like forms, but also choosing between the various experiences and images that gather around this structurally simple, but symbolically-laden object. The teapot, after all, seems to simultaneously evoke childhood whimsy, domestic warmth, and sacred space. The more than 50 artists chosen to participate in this year’s twelfth annual teapots! invitational, like those before them, have created teapots that reflect their particular interests and chosen media, as well as their creative responses to the various images and experiences evoked by the teapot.

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.