Installation view of "Synaptic Reverb," an exhibition of paintings by Jim Butler inspired by glass sculptures.

Thursday November 9, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Jim Butler's New York solo painting show is all about his fascination with glass

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

“Mercurial and fixed,” “familiar albeit fantastical.” Paradoxical terms such as these came up repeatedly in conversations with painter Jim Butler as he discussed his new "Synaptic Reverb" series on view at New York's Tibor de Nagy Gallery through December 22, 2017. The five glass-inspired large-scale canvases were created over the past two years, and each represents a detailed investigation of the behavior of light passing through glass. The oil on canvas images will tempt you to reach out and touch their intricate detailing and labyrinthine extensions of the glass sculptures, testament to Butler's skill with a brush, but also his keen insights into the qualities that distinguish glass from any other medium.…

David Gappa, Introspection, 2017. H 50, W 40 ft. photo: alonso rochin

Wednesday November 8, 2017 | by Joseph Modica

Imaging the Brain: David Gappa's installation at the University of Texas uses glass and light to illustrate synaptic firing

A synapse is the structure that connects neurons in the brain, linking then together so that electrical signals can be transmitted to create thoughts, memories, and experiences. A single synapse can fire 50-times a second, a sequence that is multiplied for hundreds of trillions of times during the normal synaptic functioning in the brain. If this is hard to conceptualize, artist David Gappa created a visual tool to illustrate. The result of Gappa's efforts is Introspection, a massive light fixture illuminating the room with a vibrant luminescent display, Each flicker, pulse, or flash of light in the over thousand hand-blown glass objects shows the viewer what a group of synapses does a billion-times an hour. His largest creation yet, the monumental work was unveiled on October 12, 2017 at the University of Texas' Brain Performance Institute. …

Lino Tagliapietra, Fenice. Blown glass. courtesy: schantz galleries

Thursday November 2, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

OPENING: Tonight, SOFA Chicago kicks off a weekend of art from craft materials, with many events and exhibitors featuring glass

FILED UNDER: Announcements

The annual Sculptural Objects Functional Art + Design (SOFA) Fair kicks off in Chicago’s Navy Pier tonight, November 2, 2017, with an invite-only two-hour preview from 5 - 7 PM, during which some of the best works will be snapped up. At 7 PM, the doors open to the general public, who will have been lining up to take part in the festivities surrounding the largest art fair dedicated to work in craft materials. Glass will figure prominently in this year's fair, with exhibitors from around the world displaying glass sculptural works, and events providing new insights into the field of collecting and curating. The Corning Museum of Glass Road Show will once again be in attendance, and the steady program of live glass demonstrations featuring prominent artists in the field is sure to keep the attention on the material throughout the three-day affair that ends Sunday at 6 PM.…

Clifford Rainey among the heat-twisted remains of his former Napa, California, studio.

Thursday November 2, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Clifford Rainey, who lost everything in Northern California wildfires, to make drawings out of a charred landscape

On Sunday night, October 8th, at 10:30 PM, artist and former chair of the glass program at the California College of Art Clifford Rainey and his partner, Rachel Riser, were awakened by a neighbor's frantic telephone call warning them that a wind-driven wildfire had kicked up and was blazing toward their shared Napa, California, residence. They needed to get out immediately. "We were very close to where the fires started so there had been no warning. We could see the wall of flames on the next hillside so we just threw whatever we had into the car to get out of there," Rainey told the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview from the hotel room he was staying in the weeks after evacuating. "The next day we found out the house had gone totally but were still hoping my studio would survive, which was down the hill a bit from the house. A couple days later, a neighbor called to tell us it was gone."

Anjali Srinivasan, Thinking Cap/ Head Container, 2013. Blown mirrorized glass, stainless Steel colander. D 10 in.

Tuesday October 31, 2017 | by Joseph Modica

Anjali Srinivasan wins 2017 University of the Arts Irvin Borowsky Award, to deliver lecture November 9th

Most art in museums is displayed with a barrier between the subject and the patron, often a thick pane of glass or stanchions and thick ropes. Get too close and a guard likely reminds you not to touch in no uncertain terms. Artist Anjali Srinivasan aims to tear down these barriers. Accessibility is the forefront of her thought processes and people are the last piece of the interactive puzzle she creates. Her bold direction of making an art an interactive experience is what got the attention of a panel of artists, educators, and collectors at the University of Arts who awarded her the fifth annual Irvin Borowsky International Prize in Glass Arts. The award comes with a $5,000 prize and a lecture at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which she will deliver on November 9, 2017.…

Monday October 30, 2017 | by Joseph Modica

Ringling museum set to unveil new glass pavilion that will house glass-art collection

Early next year, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, will reveal a new contemporary glass pavilion to showcase their expanded glass collection. The Kotler-Coville glass pavilion will the entrance to a 5,500-square-foot space that serves two purposes: as the entrance of their new Studio Glass museum wing dedicated to international glass art and as the entrance and gathering space for the historic theater the museum also houses. The opening event is slated for January 22, 2018. …

Lou Lynn, Iron, 2017. Bronze, glass and steel. H 18, W 16, D 5 in. photo: ted clark

Wednesday October 25, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Lou Lynn explores tools as extensions of the hand, touchstones connecting to the past

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

Lou Lynn's latest exhibition, entitled "Envisioned/Revisioned," opened recently at the Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, British Columbia. Running through January 7th, 2018, the exhibition features works drawn from three ongoing series: "Utensils," "Tools as Artifacts," and "Implements and Objects." The gallery's curator and artistic director George Harris collaborated with Lynn in selecting the final pieces, and in his curatorial statement, he describes the exhibit as “playful deception” through “juxtaposing versions of historically rooted objects alongside those of fabricated origin that nevertheless masquerade as real.”…

Wednesday October 18, 2017 | by Angela Laurito

EXHIBITION: Site of historic 1962 workshop, the Toledo Museum of Art celebrates women in glass with "Fired Up" exhibit

FILED UNDER: Exhibition

When Harvey Littleton held the first of his historic glass workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962, there were nine male participants, and only four female. Littleton would go on to start the first academic program in glass art and be heralded as the father of Studio Glass, while participant Norm Schulman would go on to found RISD's glass department. Much less recognition would go to the female participants in the workshop. Much has been written about the quest of 20th-century female artists to achieve equal recognition, but an exhibition now on view at the Toledo Museum of Art celebrates the impact and accomplishments of women glass artists since the early days of this once male-dominated field. An exhibition entitled "Fired Up: Contemporary Glass by Women Artists," which was shown at the Mint Museum in North Carolina, opened at the site of the 1962 Toledo Workshops, where it will remain on view through March 18, 2018. …

Tuesday October 17, 2017 | by Joseph Modica

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Toyama Glass Art Museum seeks submissions for inaugural international competition with rich top prize

FILED UNDER: Call for Submissions

Organizers of the Toyama International Glass Exhibition 2018 set to take place from September 15th through November 25th in 2018, will mark the first time this established competition will be open to international artists. This juried exhibit rewards successful applicants with opportunities to win the ‎¥ 3 million ($26,730 US) “Grand Prize,” while the runner-up will receive a ¥ 1 million ($ 8,910 US) “Gold Prize” and five artists will receive the “Silver Prize,” each winning ¥ 200,000 ($ 1,782 US). The deadline for entries is March 20, 2018, and the winning works will be exhibited at the second floor of this museum in Toyama, Japan.…

Tuesday October 17, 2017 | by Andrew Page

GALLERY: Images from the 2017 Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass

The 2017 edition of the Robert M. Minkoff Foundation Academic Symposium at UrbanGlass concluded on Sunday, October 15th, with a field trip to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, that included an exclusive advance preview of the largest retrospective to date of the glass and fiber work of MacArthur Fellow Joyce J. Scott, as well as an artist-led tour of Dan Clayman's "Radiant Landscape" exhibition. But the main events took place on Friday and Saturday, with a program of 18 lectures and panel discussions by leading glass faculty from around the world. The keynote presentation was delivered by Rachel Berwick (RISD Glass). Among the highlights were presentations by other heads of glass programs such as Helen Lee (UWisc, Madison), Justin Ginsberg (UTexas, Arlington), Kim Harty (College of Creative Studies, Detroit), Sharyn O'Mara (Tyler), and Li Wen (China Academy of Art). A panel discussion of contrasting international approaches to curriculum was moderated by UrbanGlass education director Ben Wright. Other highlights included a curator panel of Susie Silbert (Corning) and Samantha DeTillio (Museum of Arts and Design), and presentations y independent artist Dan Clayman ("Rainfield at MassArt"), writer Alexis Clements ("Myths of Success in the Arts"), and art history professor Mary Drach McInnes (Alfred). The event began with a Thursday night gallery tour on the Lower East Side that included a presentation by Betty Cunningham about Christopher Wilmarth.

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.