courtesy: Tyler School of Art

Thursday June 29, 2017 | by Stella Porter

HELP WANTED: Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia is looking for an assistant professor of glass

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Call for Submissions, Education, News

The Tyler School of Art at Temple University is searching for a full-time non-tenure-track assistant professor for its glass program. Candidates with mastery of traditional and contemporary glass techniques should apply by July 12, 2017, to receive priority. The ideal applicant would be able to teach a range of courses from introductory to advanced and conduct research-based classes that are both conceptual and experimental. Applicants should also have produced work shown in national exhibitions and demonstrate a passion for teaching their skill.

Noel Hart, Waiting for a twenty eight parrot, 2017. Handblown glass. H 16.5, W 13 H 3 in. courtesy: the artist

Thursday June 29, 2017 | by Stella Porter

OPENING: At Tansey Santa Fe, Noel Hart takes flight in colorful new works referencing bird plumage

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, New Work

Noel Hart’s solo exhibition, entitled “The Rewilding,” will open at Tansey Contemporary's Santa Fe location on July 7th. The Australian artist's latest work reveals an evolution toward more transparency, a greater sheen to the glass, as well as more depth to the individual works. Inspired by his close observations of the bird life in the backyard of his home in the Australian rainforest, which is teeming with birds and is a showcase of biodiversity and species interaction.This daily intimacy with biological diversity has led to increasingly vibrant artworks. “He’s going into a more sculptural direction," said Tilly Badham, marketing director for Tansey Contemporary, in a telephone interview with the Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet. The new work also has a glassy transparent finish rather than an etched finish.” Hart, who was showing at Jane Sauer Gallery before it was purchased by Tansey four years ago, sees an increase in scale, and confident approach to color that betrays Hart's training as a painter.

William Traver and Sarah Traver pictured in the gallery with "White on Black Z Leaves" by Dante Marioni. photo: ben lerman/traver gallery

Monday June 26, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

Traver Gallery turns 40 on July 7th, and there’s much to celebrate

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Events, Exhibition, News

On July 7, 2017, Traver Gallery, an icon in the Seattle glass art community as well as in the Studio Glass Movement, will turn 40, and it plans to celebrate with a party that evening. Founded in 1977, the gallery exhibits paintings, ceramics, and installation art of all kinds, but it has been the medium of glass where the gallery has had a particularly consequential role in developing the careers of artists as prominent as Bertil Vallien and Lino Tagliapietra. The gallery lays claim to helping discover such notable glass artists as Martin Blank, Sonja Blomdahl, Gregory Grenon, Doug Jeck, Dante Marioni, Preston Singletary, Therman Statom, and Jamie Walker. The story of the founding of the gallery by a young interior designer who discovered a need for better sourcing of local artists, is one of seizing an opportunity, and then executing it so well it changes the field. Seattle's role as an epicenter of glass art would not have been as firmly established without Traver's important role as a leading art dealer in the field.

Former Corning Museum of Glass director and curator David Whitehouse (1941 - 2013). courtesy: corning museum of glass

Friday June 23, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

CALL FOR ENTRIES: A new residency allows artists time to research at Corning’s Rakow Library

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Call for Submissions

The Corning Museum of Glass announced a new artist residency program, only this one won’t take place in their studio, but instead in their library. The David Whitehouse Artist Residency for Research will offer one artist up to three weeks in The Corning Museum's Rakow Library, which they are free to peruse (along with the museum’s permanent collection) in any sort of research effort to expand their knowledge of glass technique and history. This residency is similar to the Rakow Grant, which the Corning Museum offers to scholars to conduct research, but the Rakow is reserved for scholars alone and does not necessarily have to take place on site. The Whitehouse residency, on the other hand, is exclusively for artists, is completely onsite, and can last from one to three weeks. The deadline to apply is August 31, 2017.

Baptiste Debombourg, Contextual installation in laminated glass 33/1 from "Raging Dreams", 2017. broken windows. courtesy: artist.

Wednesday June 21, 2017 | by Gabi Gimson

Channeling collective unease, Baptiste Debombourg shatters glass in three European exhibitions

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Seen

For the past decade, French artist, Baptiste Debombourg, has exploited the fragility of glass to explore the “evidence of humanity" out of scenes of apparent wreckage, as GLASS Quarterly contributing editor Victoria Josslin put it in a Fall 2015 (GLASS #140) profile of the artist. And Debombourg’s three recent exhibitions prove just as gasp-inducing as their predecessors. “RAGING DREAMS—over the horizon” by Debombourg opened May 19 at Gallery S12 in Bergen, Norway to celebrate the gallery’s 10th anniversary. According to the S12 event announcement, energy and the power of dreams are guiding motifs in the installation, composed mostly of laminated broken glass. Like the artist’s previous works, “RAGING DREAMS” references the destructive power of natural forces with large, immersive and engulfing installations that creep from the gallery walls to its floors with edges that resemble a breaking wave.

Richard Royal, Optical Lens Series (untitled), 2017. Blown glass. H 18, W 18, D 18 in. courtesy: the artist.

Friday June 16, 2017 | by Stella Porter

Richard Royal, fusing math and art, to headline the Pittsburgh Glass Center’s fundraiser

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Artist Interviews, Auction, Education, News

The Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) will feature Richard Royal at its annual Art on Fire celebration and auction this September, coinciding with his residency at PGC. Royal, a former gaffer for Dale Chihuly at the Pilchuck Glass School, creates art fueled by his interest in the math inherent in nature, and he is drawn to the geometric possibilities of the material, as well as its optical properties. He's been blowing glass for more than 30 years and combines both blown and solid glass elements in his internationally recognized and highly photogenic work. Royal’s art has been on exhibit at the Mint Museum of Art and Design, the High Museum, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. Royal is a prolific teacher, including a regular at the Pilchuck School. He has also taught before at PGC. As honorary artist, one piece of Royal’s work from his optical lens series will be for sale at the auction.

Adriano Berengo at a German museum exhibition of Marta Klonowska who participated in two prior Glasstress exhibitions.

Wednesday June 14, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

CONVERSATION: Adriano Berengo talks Glasstress 2017

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Image Gallery

Glasstress 2017, on view through November 26 in the Palazzo Franchetti in Venice, is a collateral event, which means it's a satellite to the international Venice Biennale. A carefully curated survey of contemporary art in glass, Glasstress includes work by artists who have devoted themselves to glass for their entire careers, but the majority of what's on view in the exhibition is by internationally known artists who came to the island of Murano to have their creative ideas fabricated in glass. This, the fifth iteration of Glasstress, was curated by Hermitage Museum contemporary art department director Dimitri Ozerkov, Austrian artist Herwig Kempinger, and Glasstress founder and the head of Berengo Studio, Adriano Berengo. This Glasstress may be a high-water mark for bringing the biggest names in contemporary art to glass as the exhibition includes work by Sarah Sze, Paul McCarthy, and Ai Weiwei. With artists hailing from Austria to Iraq, the event also includes a site-specific installation in Murano. The "The Unplayed Notes Factory" is an installation in an abandoned glass factory by Loris Gréaud, who is making his Glasstress debut.

An influential cast-glass pioneer, the late Normal Courtney touched many lives and helped found Pratt Fine Art Center. courtesy: pratt

Tuesday June 13, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

IN MEMORIAM: Norman Courtney (1947-2017)

FILED UNDER: In Memoriam

Norman Courtney, the founder of the glass program at Pratt Fine Art Center and a prominent Seattle artist, passed away in his sleep on April 29, 2017. In his memory, there will be a celebration of his life at Pratt this Saturday, June 17th, from 5 PM to 10 PM. Courtney was best known for being one of the leading figures in the Seattle glass art community during the 1970s, and helped to build Pratt from the ground up in order to bring arts and craftsmanship opportunities at little to no cost to lower-income citizens of Seattle. After Pratt opened in 1979. Courtney taught classes in glassblowing and casting as well as stained glass, and even built much of the equipment. He directed the glass program at Pratt until 1982, after which he remained on the advisory board until 2003. To his friends and family, Courtney was a figure of life, laughter and kindness who lived life to the fullest and cared deeply for his friends and neighbors.

Anna Boothe/Nancy Cohen, Between Seeing and Knowing, 2013-2017. Glass. Dimensions vary. courtesy: the artists

Thursday June 8, 2017 | by Stella Porter

OPENING: Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen continue their collaborative embrace of Buddhist concepts

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, New Work, Opening

When glass artists Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen come together, artistic accidents are embraced. Instead of tossing aside a mistake, the two consider it important to give value to an accidental creation as part of their effort to create art with a Buddhist sensibility in mind. The artists continue their 5-year-long collaboration in a new exhibit entitled “Permutations: A Collaboration Featuring Anna Boothe and Nancy Cohen,” which will have an opening reception at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (PAA) this evening. The two began collaborating in 2012, fusing together two unique styles and a combined experience of more than 50 years working with glass. Although neither artist considers herself a practicing Buddhist, they self-consciously sought to take on on the Buddhist style of thought as a strategy in the creation of their collaborative art, and they consider the work to share the aesthetic approach of Thangka, an elaborately composed Tibetan Buddhist tradition of painting.

Penland executive director Jean McLaughlin has overseen the crafts school for nearly two decades. courtesy: penland school of crafts

Wednesday June 7, 2017 | by Lindsay Hargrave

CONVERSATION: Jean McLaughlin to retire as executive director of Penland School of Crafts

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Education, News

After a dynamic career spanning nearly 20 years (19 and three-quarters to be exact), Jean McLaughlin will retire as executive director of the Penland School of Crafts in December 2017. She will leave behind an institution far stronger financially, more accessible to the physically challenged, and with greater outreach to the North Carolina rural communities which surround this important craft school. And yet the school McLaughlin came to lead remains recognizable to those who remember it before her tenure, a sense of continuity which she was careful to cultivate and preserve in this organization that dates back to 1929.

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.