Rachel Owens, Queens Giant no. 5 (Oldest Being in NYC), 2017. Broken glass cast in resin with steel. H 93, W 19, D 55 in. courtesy: ziehersmith, new york

Thursday March 23, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Rachel Owens’ majestic works in cast resin and glass explore globalization and endurance

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News

Rachel Owens, whose previous solo exhibit at Zieher Smith Gallery in New York's Chelsea neighborhood was a pointed critique of consumer culture, turns her sharp eye (and shards of broken glass) to the pre-European American landscape, global glass production, and New York City history in a new body of shattered glass and cast resin sculptures. The exhibition, titled "Mother," is the product of taking molds of a 400-year-old tree in the Queens borough of New York City. Owens uses these molds to render sides of the trunk of the oldest-living being in the city in a wide palette chosen from shattered glass from surplus supplies of cheaply made bottles from China. Her work is an homage to the longevity of the tree, which likely predates the arrival of the first Europeans, and brings an environmental component in its reference to American colonization being driven partly by the overuse of natural resources such as wood in Europe. Owens' glass and resin creations soar skyward in a defiant majesty, limited only by the reach of the artist's arms in making the molds of her arboreal subject.

Artist Sarah Mizer at work in the studio.

Wednesday March 22, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

3 Questions for ... Sarah Mizer

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

Glass artist, Sarah Mizer, explores polarization, overindulgence, and nostalgia in her exhibition "Of Most Excellent Fancy," on view through April 1, 2017 at a project space in Laurel Park, North Carolina, that is the contemporary art component of a novel retail wine market called the Crate Project. Drawing inspiration from Vanitas Dutch still life imagery, and dialog from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mizer created three groups of art forms that reside on individual walls. Each set of works evoke a sense of conflicting ideas, such as life and death, like Vanitas imagery, while incorporating her own experiences from her time as an artist residence at the Penland School of Crafts. In these three questions, Mizer expands on how her botanical studies mesh with 17th-century sources of inspiration.

Monir Farmanfarmaian, Third Family - Heptagon (Detail), 2011. Mirror, reverse-glass painting, and acrylic. photo: robert divers herrick. courtesy: the artist and haines gallery

Thursday March 16, 2017 | by Awura Barnie-Duah

OPENING: Iranian contemporary artist’s richly mirrored work featured at Chrysler Museum of Art

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition, Museums, Opening

Kandinsky and Mondrian are two Western painters credited with pioneering the form of geometric abstraction. But artwork that focuses on patterns of color and shape rather than figuration goes back to ancient art forms, especially in Islamic Art, where depiction of religious figures has been carefully avoided in respect for the faith's ban on idolatry. The mirror sculptures of Monir Farmanfarmaian, an Iranian artist, bring together influences of Western avant-garde painting and centuries-old Islamic art in works of refraction and geometric abstraction. An opening reception this evening at The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, will kick off an exhibition of Farmanfarmaian's work that will continue through July 30, 2017.

Pilchuck announces its 2017 John H. Hauberg Fellows, Tempestuous Commons. courtesy: pilchuck glass school.

Wednesday March 15, 2017 | by Malcolm Morano

Pilchuck announces a female-focused multi-media collaborative as 2017 Hauberg Fellows

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Fellowship, News

Pilchuck Glass School has announced its 2017 John H. Hauberg Fellowship recipients, a group called Tempestuous Commons, who plan to “explore the female form as a narrative tool for expression,” according to the announcement. Tempestuous Commons, a newly formed group of emerging artists working largely in mixed-media sculpture, is comprised of Ashley Berkman, Jade Usackas, Kelsie McNair, and Nadira Narine. Their Pilchuck residency, which provides living accommodations and access to all Pilchuck studios except its hot glass shop, will take place from April 26th to May 12th, 2017.

Tyler MFA graduate and faculty member Amber Cowan is the event's featured artist.

Tuesday March 14, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Co-chair Amy Lemaire talks about the more academic line-up at the 2017 Flameworking Conference

FILED UNDER: Education, Events, News

The upcoming international flameworking conference, which will run from March 24th through 26th at Salem Community College in Carney's Point, New Jersey, will be the 17th gathering of artists specializing in borosilicate glass. It will also mark a notable shift as many of the featured speakers and demonstrators are graduates of fine-art-degree programs, including the featured artist Amber Cowan. Throughout the programming of the three-day event which has recently featured highly skilled flameworkers such as Eusheen Goines (2016), Vittorio Costantini (2013), Loren Stump (2007), Cesare Toffolo (2004), a decidedly more academic tone is notable, starting with the opening-night lecture on the history of flameworking courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass's reference librarian Beth Hylen joined by the museum's properties of glass programs supervisor Eric Goldschmidt. Featured artist Amber Cowan not only holds an MFA in glass and ceramics from Tyler School of Art of Temple University, but is also on faculty. Other presenters include Beccy Feather, Jacob Moskowitz, Zach Puchowitz, Ryan Tanner, and Kim Thomas, all of whom studied art at the university level. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet checked in with conference co-chair Amy LeMaire to learn more about the lineup for the 2017 event.

Lino Tagliapietra standing in front of his 2013 panel, Campo dei Fiori (Field of Flowers), installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Thursday March 9, 2017 | by Gabi Gimson

OPENING: Lino Tagliapietra at the Morris will be maestro’s second art museum exhibit in Mid-Atlantic

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Exhibition

Master glass artist Lino Tagliapietra will showcase works from the past 15 years in an upcoming solo exhibition at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey, opening with a private reception on Saturday. "Lino Tagliapietra: Maestro of a Glass Renaissance" brings together works from private collections as well as the artist’s personal holdings. The exhibition has been organized by Morris Museum curator Alexandra Willis with consultation from Jim Schantz, director of the Stockbridge, Massachusetts, gallery that bears his name. New York City's Heller Gallery was also involved in the organization and support of the exhibition.

Penland School of Crafts, Inspired: Life In Penland's Resident Artist and Core Fellowship Programs, cover. courtesy of Penland School of crafts

Wednesday March 8, 2017 | by Hailey Clark

BOOK REPORT: Penland publishes a lavish celebration of its unique residency program

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Book Report, Education

In many words and pictures, Penland School of Crafts' new book, entitled Inspired: Life In Penland’s Resident Artists and Core Fellowship Programs, tells the story of this North Carolina craft center's mission and artist outcomes through the voices of its staff and 32 of the artist residents. These voices share their positive experiences during their time in residency, whether it was for 8 months or the uniquely long 3 year fellowship, and how they benefited from the institution's educational and residency programs. Over the course of 192 pages, this new coffeetable book delves into the history of Penland, first founded in the 1920s (it established its first glass program in 1965), and the core reason for its existence: to provide the perfect balance of solidarity and isolation for upmost creative growth. This hardcover book, according to Penland executive director Jean McLaughlin on page 8, "aim[s] to acknowledge the remarkable near-fifty-year history of these two programs and begin to document this history through the stories of participating artists."

Inside the Denver gallery, billed as the "flagship" location of Tansey Contemporary.

Tuesday March 7, 2017 | by Andrew Page

Santa Fe’s Tansey Contemporary opens new “flagship” location in Denver, Colorado

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

When Jane Sauer Gallery, a Santa Fe outpost for ambitious art from craft materials including glass, was acquired by Jennifer and Michael Tansey in 2013, the Denver-based couple renamed it Tansey Contemporary but maintained relationships with most of its artists. Today, the Tanseys have opened the doors of a second, larger gallery space at 1743 Wazee Street in Denver, Colorado, which they are referring to as their "flagship" and headquarters where the owners will direct an "international expansion." Although this might sound overly ambitious given the challenging economy for work in glass, keep in mind that the gallery's co-owner Michael Tansey is also the chairman and owner of Art Miami, LLC, which runs not only the biggest Art Basel Miami Beach satellite fair each December but several other important art fairs in the New York and Palm Beach markets. The Santa Fe location will remain open on Canyon Road.

The cover of GLASS: Virtual, Real scheduled to be published in Fall 2016.

Tuesday March 7, 2017 | by Andrew Page

BOOK REPORT: Contributing editor William Ganis on reviewing Koen Vanderstukken’s scholarly work

FILED UNDER: Book Report, Print Edition

The back-page "Reflection" essay in the newly published issue of GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly (Spring 2017, #146) is dedicated to an in-depth book review of a new scholarly work by Koen Vanderstukken, an artist and head of the glass program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet talked with the reviewer — the magazine's contributing editor William Ganis, who is also the chair of art and design at Indiana State University — about his assessment of this major new work.

James Mongrain with his 2016 Arcobaleno Series.

Thursday March 2, 2017 | by Awura Barnie-Duah

EXHIBITION: James Mongrain celebrates the glory of Venetian glassblowing at the Museum of Glass

FILED UNDER: Artist Interviews, Exhibition, Museums, News

Towering, taut, and ornate, 130 exquisitely blown glass works are currently on view at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, where they will remain through October 15, 2017. These are the fruits of a four-year collaboration between master glassblower James Mongrain and patron and prominent collector George R. Stroemple. Organized into four groupings entitled the Adriatico, Atlantis, Poseidon, and Arcobaleno series, the works result from Mongrain's extremely disciplined approach to traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques, and represent his response to the more than one hundred 19th-century Venetian glass objects in Stroemple's collection, which are also displayed in the exhibition. This show is an homage to the traditions that inspired Mongrain to devote his career to mastery of the techniques and aesthetic rules of this historic high-water mark for glassblowing skill.

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.