'Strike while the iron is hot' by Richard Meitner

Friday July 15, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

OPENING: “Strike While the Iron’s Hot” with newly minted Dr. Richard Meitner

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

Richard Meitner's "thesis exhibition" just opened in the Gallery at the University of Lisboa, where he has been a visiting professor since 2008. His employer is also now his alma mater, thanks to Meitner's pursuit of a doctorate in glass. In his PhD exhibition, Meitner "sets out to define what he believes art really is and is about, and how we should be teaching it and thinking about it", as he explained in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. It's Meitner's personal belief that there are "quite a few glaring and highly consequential mistakes in how we currently think about and discuss art, and how we teach young people what art is and how to make it". The exhibition is tied in with his thesis for his newly achieved doctorate in art, specifically focused, unsurprisingly, on sculpture.

Ron Desmett and Kathleen Mulcahy, co-founders of Pittsburgh Glass Center. courtesy: pittsburgh glass center.

Wednesday July 13, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

An improbable success story, Pittsburgh Glass Center’s 15th anniversary is indeed a celebration

FILED UNDER: Announcements, News

Pittsburgh Glass Center will celebrate its 15th anniversary this month, marking an important milestone for a glass institution that seemed like a long shot when it opened in 2001 in a run-down part of a small, economically stagnant city. Fast forward to today, and it has become a destination for some of the world's most famous glass artists, a respected exhibition venue, and a source for high-level master classes. The Pittsburgh Glass Center is an improbable success story; and, in many ways, its story is the tale of renewal that is Pittsburgh's in the 21st century. PGC and the city will celebrate the milestone on Saturday, July 16th, with an event called “Ignite + Imbibe: Handcrafted Beverages by the Fire.” From 6 PM to 9 PM, those in attendance can drink beverages from local distilleries and watch glass artists give vessel-themed glass blowing “pourformances,” while toasting this scrappy center for glass art that has willed itself into the upper tiers of public access studios in the country.

Tuesday July 12, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

BOOK REPORT: Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace

FILED UNDER: Book Report

Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace Essays by Mark Doty, Daniel J. Hinkley, Patricia Kirkpatrick, and Linda Tesner Marquand Books, 216 pages. $39.56 (via Amazon). The decades-long artistic collaboration between artists and partners Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace comes to life in a 216-page book that includes over 100 high-quality photographs of mixed-media work, as well as a lengthy essay by Linda Tesner, the director of the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College. There is no shortage of chronological or technical detail in these pages, though one longs for a stronger analysis of what unites the pair’s varied bodies of work which range from figurative drawings on glass vessels to abstract assemblages.

Skyslide

Thursday July 7, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

CURIOSITIES: Slide 1,000 feet above Los Angeles latest architectural glass gimmick

FILED UNDER: Architecture, Curiosities, News

Following a top-floor renovation, The U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles has just opened a unique and tourist-friendly architectural feature called "The Skyslide," an unusual way to access the expansive new observation deck on the building's 69th floor (which can also be reached by elevator). More dramatic (and somewhat silly) is to slide down from the 70th floor, enjoying the sights via a glass chute 1,018-feet above ground. The transparency of glass heightens the views from highest public vantage point in Los Angles, and the tallest building west of the Mississippi. While a ride on an empty sack down to the outdoor observation deck is not the most elegant way to get there, the glass slide is a headline-seeking way to get publicity, at which it has been quite successful. The official website of the OUE Skyspace deck and Skyslide can be found here.

Ed Carpenter, Crocus, 2016. Stainless steel and laminated glass. H 852, W 240 in. photo: ed carpenter and deoa.

Wednesday July 6, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Glass figures prominently into monumental new public artwork unveiled in Taiwan

FILED UNDER: Announcements, New Work, Opening, Public Art

A 72-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide public sculpture designed by architectural installation artist Ed Carpenter was unveiled in June 2016 in Taichung, Taiwan. Made from stainless steel and laminated glass, the sculpture stands at the intersection of two public parks outside of the Taichung City Council building.

Andy Paiko, Indefinite Sum #6, 2016. Blown, sculpted, etched, lacquered, mirrored, assembled glass, brass, leather. H 21, W 96, D 12 in. image: kenek photography, courtesy of wexler gallery.

Thursday June 30, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Ornate assemblage artist Andy Paiko wins Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, News

Artist and designer Andy Paiko — known for his highly intricate, often kinetic, glass fabrications — has received a 2015 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. The biennial juried award grants $20,000 to 30 artists to provide “the opportunity to produce new work, to push the boundaries of their creativity.” If Louis Comfort Tiffany's designs advanced glass lamps and jewelry as art, Andy Paiko has effectively been doing the reverse, provoking us to consider art glass objects as functioning, moving, active utilitarian devices. That very distinction between aesthetic and functional value seems to be a boundary that he seeks to erase.

Helen Lee's gold award-winning work KowTow.

Wednesday June 29, 2016 | by Andrew Page

Helen Lee takes top honors in Emerge 2016, a juried biennial exhibition organized by Bullseye Glass

FILED UNDER: Announcements, Award, Exhibition, News

Artist and educator (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Helen Lee took the gold prize at "Emerge 2016," the ninth biennial juried exhibition organized by Bullseye Glass. This year's field saw 370 entries, from which 42 finalists were selected by the jury made up of Bellevue Arts Museum curator Stefano Catalani, artist and educator Kim Harty (College of Creative Studies, Detroit), and Art in America contributing editor and educator (Portland State Universty) Sue Taylor. The competition drew submissions from 16 countries, and jurors were instructed to select work that best represented "creativity, craftsmanship, and design" in object-making using Bullseye Glass.

Arts In The Village Dedication Barrys2 2

Richard and Carolyn Barry have donated generously to both Old Dominion University and the Chrysler Museum of Art. courtesy: old dominion university

Tuesday June 28, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

Major Chrysler Museum benefactors donate private collection to nearby university in $35 million gift

FILED UNDER: Architecture, Exhibition, News

Prominent Norfolk, Virginia-area philanthropists Richard and Carolyn Barry, whose names adorn the Chrysler Museum of Art's glass curator position, have just announced that their art collection will be gifted to Old Dominion University in nearby Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Barrys' collection is part of a $35-million gift to the academic institution that is earmarked for the construction of a new museum building to house their collection— which includes over 100 sculptural objects from some of the most prominent Studio Glass artists such as Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, and Harvey Littleton.

Beth Lipman, Distill #13, 2015. Cast iron, enamel, chrome plating. H 12, W 7, D 6 in. photo: arts/industry program of the john michael kohler arts center and kohler co.

Thursday June 23, 2016 | by Malcolm Morano

OPENING: Beth Lipman leaves glass behind in newest body of work

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, Opening

Of the thirteen new works Beth Lipman will unveil Saturday, June 25th, at an opening at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City, none include the material of glass with which she made her career. Instead, the works in the exhibition entitled "Distill" are primarily cast iron. For this body of work, Lipman made dioramas by arranging ancient flora, such as conifer and ginkgo, alongside pieces of miniature furniture in cardboard boxes, which were then filled with molten iron. The result is a series of fossil-like tableaus, where seemingly ancient pieces of modern furniture are overtaken by organic matter.

Richard Royal's blown glass orbs. courtesy: schantz galleries

Thursday June 23, 2016 | by Sarah Canny

Annual outdoor contemporary sculpture exhibition turns focus to glass for the first time

FILED UNDER: Exhibition, New Work, News, Opening

When art dealer Jim Schantz was given the opportunity to curate the first all-glass exhibition at the annual contemporary and experimental sculpture show at the grounds of the historic Chesterwood, a Stockbridge, Massachussets, landmark, he saw an opportunity to push some of the leading glass artists he represents into new territory — environmental artwork. “It was an opportunity for them to realize their visions and perhaps work outside their comfort zone,” Schantz says in an email exchange with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. He reached out to artists Martin Blank, Peter Bremers, Nancy Callan, William Carlson, Daniel Clayman, Sidney Hutter, Richard Jolley, John Kiley, Thomas Patti, Kait Rhoads, Richard Royal, and Thomas Scoon, some of whom were well-acquainted with the challenges of exhibiting work outdoors, while others had never done so before. The result is the exhibiton "The Nature of Glass," which will remain on view through September 18, 2016.

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.