The 1950s and ‘60s marked the heyday of kinetic sculpture with Alexander Calder’s mobiles and Jean Tinguely’s junk machine that destroyed itself in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art. But to glass lovers, Bandhu Dunham put himself on the same map with his 2016 Rube Goldberg-esque Escape Room created for Arizona State University as a reflection of how sports could evolve 24 years into the future.
Dunham says: “Nature inspires me, the interplays between art and science always interest me, and glass merges these fields like no other material. After many years, fanciful steam engines and other kinetic sculptures represent a full turn of the circle, back to the colorful, magical mysteries that captivated my childhood self. He’s still in there, and he wants you to come play, too. I think that people like watching kinetic gizmos with gears and pulleys and crankshafts because, in a paradoxical way, these machines re-connect us with nature.”
Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1959, Dunham began to teach himself lampwork technique in 1975 while still in high school. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he received informal training from the University’s glassblower before completing his apprenticeship under American and European masters at Urban Glass, the Pilchuck Glass School and the Penland School of Crafts. The artist regularly teaches workshops at craft schools and private studios around the United States and internationally including the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, The Penland School of Crafts and the Pilchuck Glass School. A visiting foreign instructor at Osaka University of Arts in Osaka, Japan, Dunham has presented his work at numerous international conferences including The Glass Art Society, Ausglass, The International Festival of Glass, Kobe Lampwork Festa and Glassymposium Lauscha.
An internationally respected glass artist, author and teacher, Bandhu’s work can be found in the permanent collections of numerous museums in the US and abroad, and his Contemporary Lampworking books are the authoritative, standard instructional texts in the field. In addition to fabricating one-of-a-kind glass sculptures and goblets, Dunham supervises his apprentices in creating unusual gift items and decorations of his conception from his studio, Salusa Glassworks, Prescott, Arizona. In 2018, he designed a groundbreaking kinetic sculpture fabricated by Ryan Murray, GANESHA (Guard Against Negativity; Express Sane Healing Attitudes), for The Melting Point Gallery, Sedona, Arizona.
He says: “The effect on the viewer is a playful mix of contemplative fascination with bursts of excitement as the marbles make their way up and down the track. I enjoy seeing how much viewers of all ages and backgrounds are engaged by the simple drama of marbles circulating through a kinetic system. The key elements of art-as-experience are brought to life in this complex yet simple theatre. We are reminded of life’s magic when we allow ourselves to be captivated by the colorful story unfolding before us. In the best case, the world looks a little different after we have spent some time watching one of my machines.”
Dunham has established a Patreon page to support the creation and dissemination of his informative, inspiring and amusing videos about glass art.
Exploring themes of birth, death, animal-human relationships and parallel worlds suggests that Christina Bothwell is a magical realist. Her work conjures scenes from fables or children’s stories in which something impossible is happening quite naturally and spontaneously.
Bothwell says: “Since I was very young, I have been fascinated with the concept of the Soul… the idea that the physical body represents only a small part of our beingness. I am always interested in trying to express that we are more than just our bodies, and my ongoing spiritual interests and pursuits have run parallel to the narrative in my pieces.”
Bothwell studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before teaching herself how to work with ceramics and cast glass. The artist lived and worked in Manhattan until 1994 when she and husband, artist Robert Bender, relocated to rural Pennsylvania – along with their three young children, eight pets, plus a snake named Lucy. Nature, the main source of inspiration for her work, helps Bothwell maintain an awareness of the interconnectedness that exists among all of life.
By the late 1990s, Bothwell was having some success making doll-like figures out of clay, found objects and cloth. But a perceived “disturbing quality” sometimes made the work a tough sell. A 1999 glassmaking workshop at the Corning Museum of Glass provided the breakthrough she needed. Realizing glass could do all the same things as clay but with an added element of delicacy and lightness, Bothwell has been combining the two materials ever since – a pairing that has become her aesthetic signature.
Since those early days, Bothwell has won numerous scholarships and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation award for excellence in sculpture. Additional awards and honors include the 2018 Artist of the Future Award for Most Compassionate Artist, Imagine Museum, Saint Petersburg, FL; The Haven Foundation grant, Brewer, ME; and the Craft Emergency Relief Foundation grant, Montpelier, VT, to offset damages and loss of artwork caused by a devastating studio fire Bothwell and Bender suffered in August 2018.
Bothwell’s work is held in permanent public collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Shanghai Museum of Glass Art, Shanghai, China; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Palm Springs Museum, Palm Springs, CA and the Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung foundation, Munich, Germany. She is represented by Heller Gallery, NY; Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI; and Austin Art Projects, Palm Desert, CA.
With an exhibition at Heller Gallery scheduled in February 2021, Bothwell contemplates new work. “My subject matter includes babies, animals, and children as they embody the essence of vulnerability that is the underlying theme in my work. Currently I am exploring metamorphosis as a topic, and have been incorporating figures within figures in my pieces. Within each glass figure there is a smaller figure seen through the surface of the glass. I think of these pieces as souls, each being pregnant with their own potential, giving birth to new, improved versions of themselves.”
In this special AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode of Talking Out Your Glass podcast, patron and co-producer Anthony Cowan participates in interviewing one of his favorite glass artists, Bothwell, as a reward for his support of the podcast via Patreon. If you’re interested in supporting the continued documentation of glass and glass artists while earning extra episodes and other rewards, visit
www.patreon.com/TalkingOutYourGlass
Creating under the pseudonym 2-Stroke since 2013, Christopher McElroy constructs one-of-a-kind pipes and rigs adorned with his colorful, psychedelic, textile-inspired patterning technique known as Heliocoileh. His current body of work includes polychromatic water pipes, dry pipes, cups, marbles, and beads, created with the philosophy that the ornamentation of daily objects serves to elevate an experience from mundane to mystical.
McElroy earned his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA from The University of Washington, where he studied under Mark Zirpel. His early glass mentors Emilio Santini, Sally Prasch and Rick Schneider encouraged him to forge his own path from the very start of his relationship with the medium. His sculptural and functional works have been exhibited at The Henry Arts Gallery (Seattle, Washington), Anderson Gallery (Richmond, Virginia), Traver Gallery (Seattle, Washington), Missoula Art Museum (Missoula, Montana), Dampkring Gallery (Amsterdam) and Pismo Fine Art Gallery (Aspen, Colorado).
Teaching has played an important part of McElroy’s history with glass and includes flameworking instruction at Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan, Penland School of Crafts, the Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel.
Growing up in Southwest Virginia’s scenic rolling hills and farmlands shaped McElroy’s affinity for agrarian and wilderness landscapes. Informed by color relationships in plants, animals, lichen, and minerals, the artist studies and examines how colors convey information of biological purpose. Lessons of age, nutrition, fertility, and danger are communicated among entities that speak the language of color.
Informed by avant-garde contemporary fashion, ceremonial objects of pre-columbian South American cultures, and textiles from around the world, the artist cites artistic influences to include Robert Irwin, El Anatsui, Kelsey Brooks, & Tom Sachs. Color, collection, and craft have always been and remain at the core of his studio practice.
In early June 2020, the artist exhibited new work in a four-person show, A Time for Passion, held at Stoked, Connecticut, and will be a part of Mins, a group pipe show held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 16, 2020.
From his studio in Hudson, New York, McElroy discusses the transition from sculpture to pipes, and how art school training affects his approach to functional glass.
More than a decade ago, Tanya Veit was a bartender living and working in Chicago, Illinois. While on vacation in Florida, a psychic predicted she would one day own an arts related business. Back home in the Windy City, Veit attended a glass exhibition with her husband John, after which she immediately applied for a business license, knowing that her company would one day dedicate itself to glass art.
The Veits established AAE Glass in Cape Coral, Florida, along with John’s brother, Mark Veit. Their 22,000-square-foot facility is a Bullseye Resource Center and distributor and also offers two classrooms, a retail store, cold working shop and shipping warehouse for their large e-commerce business. Some of AAE Glass’ offerings include products and equipment from Coatings By Sandberg, Olympic Kilns, Gemini Saw Company and many popular fusing supplies. Classes are offered almost daily by world-renowned glass fusing instructors from the U.S. and by international fused glass artists 10 to 15 times a year.
At an early age Veit was inspired by her grandmother, who provided pastels and chalks from the art supply store where she worked. Since that time, the artist has explored myriad mediums including PMC, art clay, wood, metal and glass. Constantly experimenting with new techniques, Veit has redefined what is possible in fused glass jewelry. A self-taught artist, her work has been published in many periodicals.
An energetic and “spicy” instructor, Veit developed a unique talent for assisting others in tapping into their own creativity to further their craft. Her students lovingly refer to her inspiring classes as “The Tanya Show.” The artist has travelled the US and Europe extensively, teaching her signature techniques and has expanded those offerings into highly anticipated online video tutorials.
AAE Glass currently offers more than 50 online tutorials by fusing experts worldwide. Two recent videos include Veit’s Creating Depth & Drama in Fused Glass Jewelry, which has become her most popular online offering to date. She says: “Being able to review instruction at your leisure in your studio is priceless. Referring back and watching repeatedly will also spark something new. Life gets in the way, so being able to have that resource when you need it is invaluable.” Look for Veit’s new release, Scenic Layering and Color Blending in Jewelry in the fall along with Kiln Casting by Nathan Sandberg.
Investigating a range of issues from equity and privilege to materiality and labor, Nathan Watson’s artwork addresses complex social issues through a combination of monochromatic glass and compelling form. After directing San Francisco State University’s small glass program for five years, the artist, designer, and educator became Executive Director of Public Glass, the city’s only public access glass making facility. As the director of an arts non-profit and in his life as an artist, Watson’s current practice continues to move intuitively between community building and art making as a way to examine and imagine how we might offer each other the same attention and regard as we do the object.
A Kentucky native, Watson received a BA in history from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, where he also began investigating glass as a way to transform storied narratives into a visual medium. Before pursuing his graduate studies at California College of Arts in 2004, Watson received grants and awards from the Rhode Island Foundation and the Rhode Island Council for the Arts for his work concerning local crafts, identity, and immigration. Often formed by constructed architectural interventions and poetic imagery, Watson’s work in glass has been the subject of exhibitions at the Noma Gallery and Refusalon in San Francisco, POST in Los Angeles, and numerous surveys of contemporary artists using glass as an element in their practices.
Watson has lectured and taught nationally as a visiting artist at the Massachusetts College of Art, Centre College in Kentucky, UC Fullerton, San Francisco State University, and at conferences addressing issues surrounding arts education, youth programming and social justice. As a curator, he has contributed to exhibitions at Southern Exposure, Google, The Reclaimed Room at Building Resources, and directs the gallery and artist in residence programs at Public Glass.
In 2012, Watson co-founded Light A Spark, a glass-focused arts program that provides rare opportunities and resources for youth in the underserved communities of San Francisco. He’s also a member of an artist collective called Related Tactics, which brings together artists and cultural workers to collaborate on projects that deal with the intersection of race and culture.
Days before the most recent issue of GASnews was set to publish, the organization received a letter from Watson and published it in its entirety.
Watson wrote: “In this moment when all communities must ask, how did we get here, I think that it’s a meaningful statement in itself to say that I am one of two African Americans leading nonprofit glass organizations, and one of three helping to guide University glass programs in the entire United States. After sitting back and watching our glass community respond to the lynching of brown people and observing the social media-based processing of our complicity through inaction and a pervasive lack of inclusion, I’ve decided to put my heartache aside to share what it feels like from my perspective. With all of the wealth, privilege, and supposed progressive elements within our arts community, how could we let ourselves fall so far behind when it comes to supporting equity and opening doors for everyone?
Even when compared to the lack of representation across the art world as a whole, the glass community looks really bad. No words, propping up of black faces, or sudden unburying of works by black artists will solve this. We were wrong all along to be content amongst ourselves, content to peddle in shiny things with little connection to the realities of the world that is burning our eyes open now. We as artists, who are tasked with interpreting our collective condition, did not do our jobs, and the industry that supports us did not do theirs. The glass galleries did not look toward and support our futures, and our institutions looked to the past and the same sources for self-congratulation again and again until last week.
In the last few days my projects, my body, and the images of my black and brown colleagues have become all too popular in the social media posts of the many glass companies and organizations around the country who are trying to make a statement about how “woke” they are. If you use our bodies in your catalogues, in your posts, and in your applications for larger grants, YOU are responsible for helping to create a way forward for the many who have not been offered a seat at your table.
The leading nonprofit glass organizations from coast to coast who have been working on issues of access and diversity, lifting new voices, and supporting emerging artists for years with little to no contribution from our industry’s biggest donors and institutions have joined together to create the Give to Glass Campaign. We’ve united due to the devastating financial impacts of COVID-19 on our programs and studios, but also because our own glass community has never fully appreciated the value of what we’ve been working for all along. In this moment when everyone has
something to say about social justice, I ask….Do you see us now?!
If you as an individual or an institution have made a declaration about where you stand, then it’s your moral obligation to support change in our glass community. Words raise awareness, but contributions provide the resources for REAL CHANGE! Donate to Give to Glass, to Crafting the Future, or to any organization that is versed in fighting for those whose lives are compromised and voices muted, and for God’s sake, please VOTE!
If there is no action behind your statements, then please stop using our names, our black bodies, those of our youth, and the objects made from our alienation and pain, and step aside to let us build our own house.”
Talking Out Your Glass podcast and all of our sponsors have made donations to Give to Glass.
Give to Glass is a fundraising campaign created by and for Glass Impact, a nationwide coalition of nonprofit, community-focused glass organizations who are dedicated to equal access and uplifting diverse voices and ideas through glass. Each of the member studios is supported primarily through public programming, making the economic fallout of COVID-19 and social distancing particularly devastating.
By supporting Glass Impact through the Give to Glass Campaign, you are making a statement:
A diverse and accessible glass community is the best way that we can move the industry forward, and we cannot afford to allow COVID-19 to eliminate the studios that are fighting for inclusivity.
Glass Impact is:
Firebird Community Arts | Chicago, IL | @firebirdcommunityarts
Foci- Minnesota Center for Glass Art | Minneapolis, MN | @focimcga
GlassRoots | Newark, NJ | @GlassRootsinc
Hilltop Artists | Tacoma, WA | @hilltopartists
North Carolina Glass Center | Asheville, NC | @NCGlassCenter
Public Glass | San Francisco, CA | @PublicGlass
STARworks Glass | Star, NC | @STARworksglass
UrbanGlass | Brooklyn, NY | @UrbanGlass_nyc
Visit
Early exploration of flameworking and its applications play out in Elliott Todd’s diverse body of work that ranges from functional glass pipes to glass drawings to breakthrough video presentations on Instagram, such as the 2019 demonstration of musical instruments made at his torch. For his BFA show at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Todd aka et_glass, drew Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map using glass rods and his torch.
Todd says: “I make work based off of repeated geometric patterns. These patterns are often made up of many little parts. Eventually I can assemble it all to make a much larger piece than the individual components could ever be. When you put the earth on a 2D scale, it distorts the sizes and the relationship of the continents. What I like so much about the Dymaxion Map is it uses geometry to make a more fair map of the world. And it creates this really interesting perspective where we’re all connected instead of all being separated by our different continents.”
A native of Boone, North Carolina, Todd visited Penland School of Crafts as a boy with his father and attended community open house events. As a teenager, he started making flameworked beads at home with a simple gas torch and rods of glass. Upon graduation from high school and unsure of his direction, the young artist attended Penland classes beginning with a hot glass intensive taught by Ed Schmid and followed by further glass studies taught by Dave Naito and Scott Benefield. More recently, he attended a workshop with one of his favorite torch artists, Micah Evans, and served as teaching assistant for Carmen Lozar.
After earning his BFA from Tyler in 2016, Todd returned to his hometown and established a studio where he designs and creates a line of functional glass combining reticello in contemporary forms, networked and framed pieces that are sold through Gallery 42 and direct to galleries. In 2020, he was looking forward to serving as teaching assistant at Penland and having his first solo exhibition in four years in Asheville, both events cancelled because of Covid. However, thanks to his presence on Instagram, et_glass is coordinating on a project with a glassblower from Kuwait who is the lead artist at the first school for glass in the Gulf region, Yadawi. He’s also recently donated proceeds from the sale of some beautiful Sherlocks and bubble sculptures to Crafting the Future.
Through constant experimentation, et_glass blends non- functional forms with the objects he loves to use and turns mistakes into great pieces just by being open to the idea.
A process that involves creating a model, pouring a mould, and carefully applying very thin layers of powdered glass within that mould, pâte de verre has historically been associated with the matt/frosted, translucent vessel forms of Lalique and Daum. Enter Alicia Lomné, who has not simply redefined the techniques, but pioneered the acceptance of radical new non-traditional forms created with paste of glass. Her glorious plant/ underwater creature hybrids are a wonder to behold with their rounded bellies, spikey spines, and stunning color gradations and values.
Born on the island of Corsica, France, to two working artists, Lomné was exposed to life as a maker from the beginning. Her mother, well-known glass artist KéKé Cribbs, introduced her to the glass community at large and gifted her with the Pilchuck workshop where she fell in love with glass casting. Lomné studied the techniques under the tutelage of Clifford Rainey, Daniel Clayman, Jeanne Ferraro, and at The California College of Arts and Crafts.
Having recently relocated from Whidbey Island to Tacoma, Washington, Lomné has spent the last 21 years exploring and developing her own unique style of pâte de verre. She has exhibited her work nationally and participated in shows at The Kentucky Museum of Art and Design, The Museum of American Glass, Figgie Art Museum, National Liberty Museum, Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, and The Muskegon Museum of Art.
For the last 17 years, Lomné has invested more of her time in teaching, enthusiastically sharing her knowledge of pâte de verre with others at Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, The Corning Musuem of Glass, Bullseye Glass resource centers across the country, as well as in Denmark, Switzerland, Australia, England, and Germany. Though she never thought of herself as an educator, sharing knowledge has resulted in a genuine love and an enthusiasm for teaching which she describes as one of best experiences of her life. One of a few artists who have inspired a resurgence in pâte de verre, Lomné has also released four educational videos, the first with Bullseye Glass Co. and three others with AAE Glass. https://www.aaeglass.com/video-tutorial-exploring-pate-de-verre-w-alicia-lomne-1.html?noforce=1
https://www.aaeglass.com/video-tutorial-exploring-pate-de-verre-w-alicia-lomne-1.html?amp=1
Currently on a self-imposed hiatus, Lomné takes a much-needed break from teaching, traveling, and juggling many jobs. She says: “I need a reboot. Time to explore and expand my own techniques, time to rethink how to function as an artist in this world, time to build a new website and diversify myself.” Future goals include creating a line of greeting cards and fleshing out book ideas. In 2020, Lomné’s work will be featured in a new book about pâte de verre by Max Stewart and Tone Ørvik. And of course, explorations of new work to push the technical and aesthetic limits of pâte de verre continue.
“The pieces I made in the Alluvial series, which I will still be working on now, are about the flow of water, sedimentary layers, a reflection and recording of time. So much of what I do is wrapped up in my process. There is a love and calm in the making that I find nowhere else in my life. Each line laid is a loving meditation and a small record of my time past. Time is, I believe, the only thing we really have in life.”
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Silvia Levenson brings the black humor of the survivor into the domestic arena with a wit that tempers what might at first glance be shrugged off as simple, more caustic feminism. Hers is a tango danced by twin outsiders of the Venetian glass community: female artist/ kilcast glass. And to further insult the traditionalists, she concocts her iconoclastic cakes with American glass. – Lani McGregor, director, The Bullseye Connection.
Razor blades embedded in wedding cakes. Knives hanging precariously above recliners. Shoes pierced with nails. Empty chairs. Silvia Levenson does not claim her work is universal, but rather an intimate reflection of her own feelings about childhood, domesticity, travel and exile. Though she lives and works in Italy, her work cannot be defined by the usual Italian glass parameters. There’s nothing shiny or exclusively beautiful about her cast glass; rather, it is raw, emotional and unforgettable.
Levenson is a survivor, a descendant of Russian Jewish fugitives from the 1904 Revolution, herself an exile from Argentine repression. From 1976 to 1984, during the dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla, 30,000 people known as “desaparecidos” disappeared in Argentina, including members of Levenson’s own family. People who were identified as terrorists were abducted or murdered outright in their homes or safe houses, at their jobs or high schools. When one of Levenson’s cousins and her aunt were killed, she emigrated to Italy with her husband and two children, Natalia and Emilano. She was only 23 years old at the time.
Coming to art as a painter and graphic artist, in 1987 Levenson read Glass Fusing I and discovered that artists were able to work in glass independently. At this time, she also attended Bertil Vallien’s exhibition of stunning new work in cast glass and was again surprised by the potential of the medium. This attraction and excitement led to her early glass studies at Creative Glass, Switzerland, and Sars Poteries, France. She says: “I was fascinated, not only with the beauty of glass but with the fact that glass is a material used in our daily lives. I do not believe the more complex the material, the better the result. I think that a good piece begins with a good idea. I don’t like virtuosity in art. I love feelings, pathos, intuitions. Being a slave to technique is boring.”
In 1995, Levenson served an artist residency at Bullseye Glass Co., where she created work for her first U.S. exhibition Il Viaggio: Selected Works, held at Bullseye Gallery. In 2004, when she was awarded the Rakow Commission from the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) for her work It’s Raining Knives, the first congratulatory e-mail was from McGregor. Her relationship with the company, which is both personal and professional, continues today.
Through iconic objects such as tea pots and wedding cakes, pink hand grenades and empty chairs, Levenson’s work reflects the fragility and vulnerability of humankind. The sculptures symbolize myriad painful truths including the inability of parents to protect children and the repetition of parents’ mistakes by their offspring. One might believe collectors would shy away from such intense or painful content to focus on the decorative quality of glass, on its beauty. But, when Levenson created her Little Bad Girl dresses made in glass and barbed wire, she sold them all. Levenson explains: “If you look at what is happening in a contemporary art context, my work doesn’t look so aggressive.”
Though the Covid 19 pandemic altered Levenson’s teaching and exhibition schedule, the artist currently offers online workshops, including a sold-out class for Warm Glass UK, and future class for Bullseye in August 2020. She is scheduled to teach August 3 – 8, 2020 at CMOG, https://www.cmog.org/class/shifting-boundaries. Check the websites for updates. The artist is also providing one-on-one online tutoring. Find out more at www.silvialevenson.com.
Fall 2020 exhibitions include Punto sull’arte Gallery, Varese, Italy, September 29 and Argentinean Embassy, Rome, October 29, with Levenson’s daughter, Natalia Saurin. Post pandemic, Levenson will install new work at the Art Applied Museum at Sforzesco Castle, Milan. A travelling exhibition, Missing Identity, addresses her experiences as a survivor of Argentina’s Dirty War. The show has been exhibited at the American University Museum in Washington DC, the Argentine Consulate in Barcelona, the Galerie Argentine in Paris, the Murano Glass Museum in Italy and Bullseye Projects, Portland, Oregon. Recovered Identity, Levenson’s 130-piece collection of glass baby clothes, was acquired in 2018 by the Alexander Tutsek Fondation in Germany. The work will be exhibited some time in 2021.
Ellen Mandelbaum creates environments in stained glass that inspire connection between the viewer and the serenity of the spiritual world. Painting with light not only allowed her to transcend art glass limitations, but offered a broader concept for expanding artistic vision in the medium.
After receiving her MFA in painting in 1963 from Indiana University, Mandelbaum worked for several years as a painter, educator and lecturer before developing an interest in stained glass. In 1975, her studies in leaded glass began in earnest at the now defunct Stained Glass School in North Adamas, Massachusetts. By the mid 1980s, Mandelbaum had studied in workshops with such well-known masters as Ludwig Schaffrath, Johannes Schreiter, Jochem Poengsen, Albinas Elskus, Ray King and Ed Carpenter.
Having learned the basic skills of leaded glass, Mandelbaum found herself wanting more fluid motion and softness in her work. The pathway to breaking free of rigid lead line confines was to paint on the glass, techniques she learned from Elskus, who encouraged her to paint in a more personal way. Becoming a member of the Glass Painting Society, founded by John Nussbaum, introduced her to other glass painters with new ideas and approaches, and pushed the artist to further explore free expression using glass paints.
From the beginning, Mandelbaum’s primary interest was the architectural use of stained glass, though throughout her career she designed and exhibited exquisite autonomous pieces, such as Martinique. She says: “I sat on the edge of a dock, plein air painting like Monet. This piece was painted from life with special glass paint and glass I’d brought from Queens, New York, wrapped in newspaper and nestled in the clothes in my suitcase. Miraculously it made it home unbroken where I could fire it in the traditional way – in my kiln at 1200 degrees.” Bold, often geometric designs appeared in concert with expressive free-hand use of paints, stain or enamels. Mandelbaum made use of clear and light tints to enable what was beyond the stained glass to play a role in her designs. Her aesthetic signature, painted elements interacted with what was occurring in the view beyond.
Exhibited internationally, Mandelbaum’s autonomous panels have been featured in several one-person exhibitions at the Queens College Art Center in Flushing, New York, and in a couple of one-person shows at Gallery35 in Manhattan. A member of the Women’s International Glass Workshop since its inception, in 2016 the artist participated in the group show La Grange Aux Verrieres- Lumiere Visible, in Saint-Hilaire-en-Lignieres, France.
Mandelbaum is internationally recognized for her innovative stained glass commissions including installations for the Queens College Art Center, the Marian Woods Retirement Facility in Hartsdale, New York, and a 30-foot high window for the South Carolina Aquarium, Charleston, South Carolina. Liturgical projects include: Temple Beth Shalom, Annapolis, Maryland, 2014; Kol Shalom Synagogue, Rockville, Maryland, 2012; and Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, Minnetonka, Minnesota, for which she was presented with the 1997 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Religious Art Award.
In 2014, Mandelbaum was accredited as an Artist/Designer by the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA). Two years later, she was appointed Senior Advisor for the American Glass Guild. Other awards include the Ahavas Sholom Honorable Mention Award for Design Excellence, Newark, New Jersey, 2014, and the Williamsburg Art & Historical Society’s 16th Anniversary Grand Harvest Award for Excellence, 2012.
In 2019, Mandelbaum received the SGAA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Education. Her teaching experiences include the instruction of glass painting at the SGAA Stained Glass School, Raytown, Missouri; and in New York at Hunter College, Pace University, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2020, the artist will teach long weekend workshops at her Long Island City Studio. A class including Bruce Buchanan, this year’s James Whitney Scholarship recipient, was rescheduled, hopefully for September 4, 5, 6. Check her website, ellenmandelbaum.com for the latest updates.
In capturing the transcendent moments between silence, introspection and self-discovery, Sibylle Peretti seeks to find and depict places of mystery and wonder as launching spots in a journey towards the infinite. Ethereal imagery and haunting subtexts flow freely from porcelain sculpture and mixed media panels, which incorporate multiple layers of paper, oil paint, and watercolor on either side of Plexiglas. Through these techniques the artist creates a darkly romantic mix of fairytale and tension. Her skillful combination of engraving, photography, painting, and glass casting exposes exquisitely subtle environments we wish to enter in spite of some uneasiness.
Heller Gallery, New York City, has recently extended Peretti’s current online solo exhibition, Backwater, through June 13, 2020. The show features nine major new works – five wall pieces and four cast sculptures, as well as an installation of Glass Notes, an ongoing collaboration between Peretti and her husband, artist Stephen Paul Day.
Peretti says: “One aspect of my work reflects on our disrupted relation to nature and our yearning to achieve a unity with the natural world. Backwater describes places that are isolated and constantly changing. Living in New Orleans just footsteps away from the Mississippi river, I explore almost daily the ever-changing alluvial land with its magical backwaters.”
Anchoring Backwater is Tchefuncte, Peretti’s large 48-panel wall piece (60 x 80 inches), which combines photography and drawing with surface interventions such as engraving, mirroring and glass slumping. It is based on a photograph she took along the riverbanks of the Tchefuncte river north of New Orleans, an area that was populated by the Tchefuncte culture as early as 500 BCE, and which derives its name from the Choctaw word for a dwarf chestnut, a plant used as medicine by the first people who inhabited this area. Peretti calls it a “temporal place that is likely to soon vanish due to flooding and human expansion,” but the composition suggests a portal, “a waterway that is open to the viewer’s imagination. When you look at the landscape, you also see your own reflection in the mirrored parts of the glass, and you become a part of the journey.”
Peretti received her MFA in Sculpture and Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cologne, Germany, after first studying glassmaking and design at the State School of Glass in Zwiesel, Germany. In the past year her work was added to the collections of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; the newly established Barry Art Museum in Norfolk, VA; and most recently to the Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, AL. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt, Germany; the Hunter Museum, Chattanooga TN; and the Speed Museum and 21c Museum, both in Louisville, KY.
Awards and endorsements include grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Joan Mitchell Foundation, as well as the 2013 United States Artist Fellowship. In 2018 Peretti’s work was featured in a solo exhibition Promise and Perception: The Enchanted Landscapes of Sibylle Peretti, at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA.
Exploring the relationship between time, loss, emotion, memory and solitude, Peretti’s multimedia collages and sculptures provide a place into which her protagonists- the people and animals that inhabit her work – retreat. Impactful and unforgettable, the work balances the nostalgia of impending loss with the profound fortitude of understanding ourselves… and the world.
In October 2020, during her residency at the Corning Museum of Glass, Peretti will work on a new project inspired by the Werner Herzog movie Heart of Glass. She will explore ideas of the historic importance of making Gold Ruby, and how it can be seen as a metaphor for a collapsing world.
The Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) is temporarily closed to limit the spread of COVID-19. All previously scheduled classes, events, and programs are cancelled until further notice. However, the Museum has compiled a list of 10 Ways to Digitally Experience Glass, found here (https://visit.cmog.org/resources).
Susie Silbert, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at CMOG, discusses the enjoyment of taking a virtual museum tour, the fun of the Color Our Collections program, ways to discover what was hot in glass every year since 1979 by reviewing New Glass Review online, and the benefits for artists, collectors, galleries and glass lovers of remaining engaged with glass during these uncertain times by exploring CMOG’s virtual collection.
Glass is all around us, working hard to enrich our lives. It’s so easy to look through glass, but we rarely pause to look at it. CMOG’s new live chat series, Connected by Glass, features experts and special guests who share their insights into a range of topics, allowing us to discover all the unexpected ways that we are connected by glass. Join CMOG at 1 p.m. EDT each Thursday on MS Teams as topics including glass used in science and innovation, entertainment, fashion, industry, design, and travel are discussed. Ask speakers questions via the chat feature. Each Connected by Glass episode will be uploaded to CMOG’s YouTube channel.
Eric Goldschmidt, CMOG’s Properties of Glass Supervisor, will host the first episode of Connected by Glass. Airing May 7 at 1 p.m., the live chat will focus on fiber optics, a vital technology that’s enabling us all to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. CMOG’s panel of experts includes: Dr. Marvin Bolt: Curator of Science & Technology, CMOG; Dr. Claudio Mazzali: Senior Vice President Technology, Optical Communications at Corning Incorporated; and Chris Schmidt: Executive Producer, PBS NOVA. They will discuss the topic and answer questions from the virtual audience.
Lastly, Eric Meek, CMOG’s Manager of Hot Glass Programs, will discuss the Museum’s Watch with the Artist series, launching on its YouTube channel: https://www.cmog.org/press-release/corning-museum-glass-launches-online-watch-artist-series.
Based on past demos from the Guest Artist program, the Watch with the Artist series gives viewers a new way to engage live with talented artists as they watch previously recorded demos together. Each Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT, a featured artist will be active on the Museum’s YouTube channel, ready to chat, answer questions, and share stories with viewers about all things glassmaking. Guests so far have included William Gudenrath, Catherine Labonte’, Eusheen Goines, Kristina Logan and Jeff Mack.
The Museum’s YouTube channel, which has 144K subscribers, is currently seeing more than 50,000 visitors per day and the average watch time has been 1 hour and 17 minutes. To access the Watch with the Artist series and many more pre-recorded glassmaking demonstrations, visit YouTube.com/corningmuseumofglass.
Says Meek: “During this unprecedented moment when we may be physically distant, the Museum is proud to offer a new way for art lovers and artists to be socially together. It’s fascinating to watch an artist create, but it’s rare to actually interact with them while they’re working. The Watch with the Artist series allows direct conversations between artists and fans as everyone watches the process unfold together.”
A glassmaker himself, Meek runs the Guest Artist program and was the featured artist during a soft launch of the Watch with the Artist series on April 1. “It was great fun,” Meek continued. “It was refreshing for all involved to spend two hours chatting about a material we all love. During a time when I physically can’t be in the Museum’s hot shop creating new work, this is the next best thing.”
Meek also discusses CMOG’s new blog series, “Virtual Journeys into our Collection,” and his inaugural post: https://blog.cmog.org/2020/04/07/virtual-journeys-into-our-collection-thoughts-from-a-glassmaker/ This feature comes out every Tuesday, and staff members from across the institution share interesting stories about their favorite objects.
For comfort and solace, the Museum also released a 3+-hour white noise “virtual fireplace” video that features in-progress pieces inside the reheating furnace! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1i9FSZYWU
Pushing the boundaries beyond form and function, Janusz Pozniak’s blown glass abstractly reflects his personal experiences while distilling human emotion. Works in decorative, functional, figurative or abstract glass reflect the highest level of hot glass expertise. Whether colorful or achromatic, a Pozniak sculpture is always delicate, detailed and striking.
In 1986, Pozniak earned his BA in 3D Design from West Surrey College of Art and Design in the UK. He subsequently went to work for Christopher Williams and Annette Meech at The Glasshouse in Covent Garden, London. Driven by his passion for pursuing a creative career, the artist moved to the US in 1991 to work alongside Dale Chihuly. This opportunity allowed him to expand his knowledge, talent, and substantial glassblowing skill.
Throughout his career, Pozniak has worked with the most prominent glass artists in the world including Lino Tagliapietra, Sonja Blomdahl, Josiah McElheny, Dick Marquis, Benjamin Moore and Preston Singletary. He’s been working alongside Dante Marioni since 1992. In addition, Pozniak has travelled all over the globe to teach and mentor others, providing students with the skills, inspiration and encouragement to fulfill their own artistic visions.
After more than 30 years as an artist, Pozniak is still discovering new ways of experimenting and evolving his work to elevate and communicate the unique beauty of glass as an artistic medium. In 2019, he became one of 10 highly skilled glassmakers from North America to appear in the Netflix competition series, Blown Away. On the show, glassblowers had a limited time to fabricate beautiful works of art that were assessed by a panel of expert judges. One artist was eliminated in each 30-minute episode until a winner was announced in the 10th and final episode. Pozniak, an instant show favorite for anyone who knows glassblowing, quickly grew in popularity amongst neophytes, the result of his impressive command of glass and on-screen magnetism.
Riding the wave of fame which resulted from his appearance on the show, Pozniak and wife Michelle funded a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch [Hohm-meyd], a home goods company that utilizes a network of local makers to produce functional wares they design.
Says Pozniak: “Driven by our core values of community, sustainability, and ethics, each product will be made with care and integrity. Simultaneously we hope to train and mentor local artisans. Between the two of us, we have 50 years of making and selling work as artists. We also know that purchasing a piece of fine art is too expensive for many people. Given our combined experience, our community of other artisans and craftspeople and our growing family, there is no time like the present for us to pursue this shared dream.”
William Warmus and Tim Tate: Founders of 21st Century Glass – Conversations and Images/ Glass Secessionism Facebook Group
Glass Secessionism does not mark the death of Studio Glass. It makes it stronger…In many ways, Glass Secessionism is putting glass back on the path it should have followed. It encourages those areas of glass that had progressed over time and builds heavily upon them. It reveres those artists who advance the medium, taking chances with new directions. In other words, we are not destroying the past, we are constructing a future.
An exchange on a tour bus between artist and art historian inspired the formation of 21st Century Glass – Conversations and Images/ Glass Secessionism. This Facebook group, founded and moderated by Tim Tate and William Warmus, underscores and celebrates glass sculptural art in the 21st century and illustrates the differences and strengths compared to late 20th-century, technique-driven glass.
Warmus is a Fellow and former curator at The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG). The son of a glassblower at Corning Incorporated, he studied with art critic Harold Rosenberg and philosopher Paul Ricoeur while at the University of Chicago. As curator of modern glass at CMoG in 1978, Warmus curated three landmark exhibitions: New Glass, which was also shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Louvre; Tiffany’s Tiffany, which focused on the masterpieces Tiffany had in his home and studios; and the first major exhibition in North America of Emile Gallé’s work. He is the founding editor of New Glass Review and has served as editor of Glass Quarterly Magazine, faculty member and visiting artist at the Pilchuck School of Glass, executive secretary of the Glass Art Society, and board member at UrbanGlass. The recipient of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass award for outstanding contributions to contemporary glass, Warmus lives near Ithaca, New York.
A Washington, D.C. native, Tate has been working with sculpture now for 30 years. Co-founder of the Washington Glass School, his artwork is part of the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and the Mint Museum. He participated in 2019’s Glasstress show with Ai Wei Wei and Vic Muniz during the Venice Biennale. Tate has received numerous awards and honors including the 2010 Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture; a Fulbright Award from Sunderland University, England, in 2012; second place in the 2017 London Contemporary Art Prize; and the 2018 James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist Award. His involvement at Penland School of Craft includes teaching, serving as featured artist for the 2018 annual auction, and acting as the Development Chair for the Penland Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2018.
Modeled after Alfred Stieglitz and the redefinition of photography by Photo Secessionists, Glass Secessionism is similar in that both mediums were born of science and industry, and both had similar paths of evolution as a result. Photography and glass art emerged from the lab or factory with inherent technical barriers, and genius was required to make something from the materials. Thus, early pioneers had a vested interest in keeping secrets and making adaptation by other artists difficult.
“We respect good technique, and understand its importance in creating great art from glass. However, we believe that great art should be driven primarily by artistic vision, and technique should facilitate the vision. For too long, technique has driven the majority of Studio Glass. As Secessionists we do not seek to isolate ourselves from other artists working in glass, but to enhance the field as a whole,” says Warmus.
Another motivation for Glass Secessionism, fine art galleries were not showing enough 21 century glass, and glass galleries were not showing emerging glass sculptors. Tate and Warmus believe, “Only by seceding would we succeed.” A primary drive of their Facebook group is to attract and support younger artists working with glass.
In this conversation, Tate and Warmus discuss their Facebook group, how Studio Glass will move forward in the 21stcentury, and how glass artists and galleries can survive the effects of the current Covid 19 global pandemic.
For many years, Cathryn Shilling has been fascinated by kinesics or the study of body language by which humans subconsciously transmit and receive non-verbal communication. These physical expressions may reveal our true feelings by signaling the difference between what we say and what we mean. Body posture and the position of a person in relation to others is an important indicator of feelings, attitudes and moods.
Shilling’s most recent body of work, Cloaked, further explores the relationship between fabric and the human form. “Clothing conveys so many things. Not only does it provide protection against the elements, it also broadcasts our position and identity within society, as well as reflects our mood and emotional state.” Shilling’s sculpture investigates these themes as well as the numerous associated misconceptions and judgments we are all guilty of making.
An internationally renowned glass artist living and working in London, Shilling began her career as a graphic designer, graduating from Central School of Art and Design in London, and working as a designer until her family’s move to the US in 2001. Prompted to pursue a new and exciting creative direction, the artist studied the art and craft of stained glass in Connecticut. Upon her return to London in 2004, she switched her focus to kiln formed glass and also became a student of blown glass at Peter Layton’s London Glassblowing Studio. In 2009 she established a studio near her home, and the following year became curator at London Glassblowing.
Shilling’s work has been collected and widely exhibited internationally, including: Ireland Glass Biennale 2019 at Dublin Castle; The 3rd Session of China·Hejian Craft Glass Design & Creation Exhibition and Competition, Ming Shangde Glass Museum, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, China, 2019; TACTILE at Glazenhuis, Lommel, Belgium; New Acquisitions, 2017 at Glasmuseum Lette, Coesfield, Germany; Peter Bremers & Cathryn Shilling: A Two Person Exhibition at Schiepers Gallery in Belgium; The CGS Jubileum 20th Anniversary Exhibition at Etienne Gallery, Oisterwijk, Netherlands; The Taos Art Glass Invitational New Mexico, USA; BODYTALK at the Glasmuseet, Ebletoft, Denmark; COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery with London Glassblowing and Vessel Gallery; East-West Artists Exhibitions in Kyoto, Japan and London; Hot Glass at Contemporary Applied Arts, London; Collective Genius at Vessel Gallery, London.
Exhibitions also include the British Glass Biennale in 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, when her collaboration with Anthony Scala won the Craft & Design Award, and 2019. Shilling has twice exhibited as a finalist in the Emerge juried kiln glass exhibition at Bullseye Projects, Portland, Oregon. In 2013, the artist took home the international Warm Glass Artists Prize and has twice been nominated for the SUWA Garasuno-Sato Glass Prize and several times for the Arts & Crafts Design Award. In 2015 she was ranked number 4 in the Glassation list of “The Most Game Changing Female Glass Artists” and number 25 in the Graphic Design Hub’s list of “The 30 Most Amazing Glass Artists Alive Today.” The artist’s work was represented in the Corning Museum of Glass’ New Glass Review 33, and in 2018 she was Artist in Residence at North Lands Creative, Lybster, Scotland.
In 2019, Shilling celebrated 10 years of professional practice with a solo show, Hidden Gestures, at Vessel Gallery, London. Her piece Diorama – Moonlight was recently acquired for the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, by Habatat Galleries Detroit. “I am absolutely thrilled to be part of this amazing collection.” Her work, The Intangibility of Sorrow, can be seen in the Contemporary Glass Society’s latest online exhibition, Reverie.
Like so many artists, Shilling’s forward momentum was halted abruptly by the Corona Virus pandemic. Many of her scheduled exhibitions and events, such as giving a talk and exhibiting at the Art Workers’ Guild during London Craft Week, will be rescheduled for the fall. Some, like her demo with glassblower Louis Thompson at the 2020 Glass Art Society Conference in Smaland, Sweden, have been cancelled altogether.
“It is rather depressing because just about everything has been cancelled or postponed. I had been looking forward to glass exhibitions taking me and my work to Sweden, Venice and New York as well as speaking at the Contemporary Glass Society Conference in Wales. All these plans have had to be shelved. However, this is all pretty insignificant when you look at the bigger picture. I am lucky enough to be able to keep making, and this gives me enormous satisfaction. I am also finding it good to have the time now to really think about my practice and try out some of the ideas that I haven’t been able to explore with so many deadlines looming. I am hopeful that 2021 will be as fabulous for me as 2020 was going to be!”
Please check all venues for the latest updates.
2020 Exhibitions:
Sculpture at Kingham Lodge, May 8 – 17, Kingham, Oxfordshire
Sculpture at Doddington Hall & Gardens, July 25 – September 6, Doddington, Lincolnshire
The Devil’s In The Detail, a two-person show with Anthony Scala, October 23 – November 7, London Glassblowing, London
Glass Is Biotiful, date to be confirmed, Biot, France
Homo Faber 2020, September 10 – October 11, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy
From Many, One 1, October 1 – November 6, Culture Object, New York, USA
On the Eastern Cape of South Africa, stained glass artist Anika Van Der Merwe grew up visiting her family’s farm in the Karoo. Watching her Dutch grandmother craft wool into beautiful artistic weaves on a loom, inspired a lifelong appreciation for traditional crafts, particularly the dying arts. Now, from her Cape Town studio Silver Stain, Van Der Merwe works on a combination of projects that include both restorations and original works, many of which set social networks afire with interest and enthusiasm upon their publication.
With a passion for painting, Van Der Merwe enrolled in fine arts study in 1999 at Port Elizabeth Technikon, where she participated in a stained glass course that forever altered her trajectory. Unfortunately, glass painting was not part of the program and upon completion of her certificate, the young artist traveled to London with nothing but a one-way ticket and 50 pounds in her pocket. Work at four different UK studios provided experience and practice in both glass painting and restoration.
In 2008, Van Der Merwe returned to South Africa and established Silver Stain Glass Studio, where she navigated many challenges, including sourcing materials and equipment. Exploration has been key to the artist’s evolution and growth. Restoration work on windows from Argentina led to her discovery of Prodesco enamels, a product of Spain. She says: “I find the amber enamels more predictable, and they can be mixed with other colors. I’ve pushed the paints quite a bit and the results amaze me.”
Notable Van Der Merwe restorations include Argentinian Glass restored for On Site Gallery including a dome for a private residence and the entrance to the main seating area of the Short Market Club, both in Cape Town; thirty-four windows at the Church of Transfiguration in Kensal Rise, London (for which the council allowed no power tools on the site. It was mandated that the entire restoration, including carpentry and masonry, be carried out by hand); and Saint Mary the Virgin, Harefield, UK, 2007.
In 2014, an opportunity to create a Saint Francis window for Bishops, an historic catholic chapel at a Cape Town boy’s school, presented itself. Restrained by the fact that the surrounding windows were Mayer of Munich, Van Der Merwe designed and fabricated a companion window, but knew it would be her last non-original work.
She said: “Although I really enjoy painting in the Mayer style, I couldn’t help but feel I should be making my own windows by now. I’ve painted so many windows in the styles of others for such a long time. That’s not what I envisioned stained glass to be for me. I’ve admired artists like Judith Schaechter and Sylvia Laks, and many others. I wanted to be an artist in my own right.”
During the St. Francis project, Van Der Merwe designed and fabricated the first of three autonomous panels featuring graceful and flowing koi fish, based on her early design sketch for an Asian restaurant commission. “I didn’t really give it any thought or planning. It was one of those pieces I let take me places. I played and experimented, applied techniques I learned from restorations, pushed the paint to get certain results, and it came out great.” The second and third koi panels in the triptych were created in 2016 and 2017 respectively, the second appearing on the cover of the Stained Glass Quarterly in 2019, along with a feature article.
Overwhelming positive response on social media and from the stained glass world at large has encouraged Van Der Merwe to take on more complex and challenging projects, such as her recent collaboration, The Honeybear. Based on Ree Treweek’s illustrations from her book Postcards of Molitia, the panel afforded Van Der Merwe and Treweek the perfect opportunity to marry illustration and stained glass in a detailed, magical and fantastical panel featuring a character from Treweek’s fantasy world.
Van Der Merwe says: “It was a great project, some of which Ree even painted herself. We went to this magical cottage in the mountains of the southern most point of Africa to paint some of the imagery in the window.” The two artists are currently working on an accompanying panel alive with botanicals for Treweek’s home. Also now in progress is a stained glass dome created by Van Der Merwe for a local residential client.
Throughout her career, Van Der Merwe has actively avoided the “fine art” world. Stained glass provided the means to be an artist, make a living and avoid navigating intimidating art critics. Though South Africa doesn’t currently recognize stained glass as an art form, the popularity and success of Van Der Merwe’s work is expanding the understanding and appreciation of the craft, not only in her homeland, but worldwide.
Charting new territory in functional glass art, Patrick McDougall and Subliminal Glass redefine what is possible in terms of size and complexity of their builds, made possible by utilizing a team approach to fabrication. Taking risks with every large, complicated boro art pipe, Subliminal Glass is highly recognizable by its inclusion of characters from the Simpsons, Mario Brothers, and Rick and Morty. One recent tube displayed 14 partying classic Looney Tunes characters in perfectly intricate detail.
“It’s not common for boro artists to want to go really large and elaborate due to the risks involved with that kind of construction,” says McDougall. “I think training so many artists has helped a lot. The team dynamic is something that hasn’t really been taken advantage of in our industry.”
At age 19, inspired by heady glass in local shops, McDougall headed to Portland, Oregon, where he began an apprenticeship making straight shooter pipes on a lathe in exchange for lessons in benchwork. Now, from his 1000-foot cabin studio in the woods north of Portland, the artist has assembled a team of four artists to create production work in scientific glass as a steady income stream that allows them to work on mind-blowing art pipes.
A self-proclaimed dreamer, McDougall’s solo work includes a 4-foot-tall glycerin tube with a castle in the base, a castle ash catcher, a built-in glass torch based on a castle with a fire-breathing dragon, and a full-sized dragon dropped inside a tube with a glycerin coil on top. The artist has also been collaborating with Robert Mickelsen on the The Art of War series, which included the life-size megawork, Shogun. One final piece in the series will be made some time this year.
On 4/20, Ruckus Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will host the first solo exhibition of Subliminal Glass. “This show is monumental for us because it allows us to display our work and everything we can do in one place.” The solo exhibition will feature beakers, sculptural works, and guns with the goal of displaying the diverse skills set of Subliminal’s artists. McDougall will also be exhibiting new collabs made with his functional glass heroes.
On May 28, McDougall and team will teach a group class on the collaborative process at Level 42 Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina.
Please check the Ruckus and Level 42 Instagram accounts for updates and possible changes due to the Corona Virus pandemic.
When a friend gave Toland Sand a stained glass studio in 1977, he embarked upon a journey that would lead him to explore the myriad qualities that define glass as a medium. Sand’s 45 years as a sculptor has resulted in works of stained glass, blown glass, and every combination in between. A pioneer in utilizing the unique properties of dichroic glass, Sand begins his current sculpture with optical crystal and dichroic coated glass, hand worked by grinding in ever finer stages until a polish is achieved. Seeking balance, harmony, and symmetry, with an accent on deconstructed form, his work inhabits the symbolic, the cosmic, and the mystery.
Inspired by his peers as well as artists such as Isamu Noguchi, David Smith, Henry Moore, and Mark Rothko, Sand says: “I love that images can come and go, are made bold, and then disappear; are reflective and then not. The energetic and mystical side comes from the teachings of my spiritual Master, Sant Kirpal Singh, by whose instructions I meditate every day in my personal effort to connect to and be receptive to the vibration of the mysteries.”
Two years in Taiwan as a child and five years in Athens, Greece, as a teenager, motivated Sand’s investigations of “otherness.” Influenced by Eastern ideograms, Greek letters and Arabic writing, the sculptor creates symbols that have meaning in their elegance as graphics and maintain the sense that language and lettering can lead one into other consciousnesses and cultures.
Each piece takes more or less six weeks to complete, starting with a drawing in the traditional three views on large white paper ripped from a roll, pencil, ruler, and compass. He says: “It’s exciting for me to see how the finished piece measures up to my concept, that begins with inspiration and an idea, and ends up as a complex construction made more complex by reflection, refraction, and the dance of light and color in a three- dimensional setting.”
Sand’s sculpture has been collected by individuals and institutions nationwide including Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin; Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph. Missouri; Chattanooga Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee; University of Michigan Art Museum, Ann Arbor; and The Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. His work can also be found in the corporate collections of IBM, Coca Cola, UPS and MacDonald’s, to name a few. Exhibitions include SOFA Chicago, New York and Santa Fe as well as 25 solo shows, most recently in 2015 at Bender Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina, and in 2016 at Raven Gallery, Aspen, Colorado.
In July of 2016, Sand moved his studio from rural New Hampshire to Carmel Valley, California. “The sculptures are a reflection of my inner space and what grabs my attention. I could be doing them anywhere. Actually, I don’t question exactly where they come from. It’s the mystery.”
On the first episode of the Netflix glassblowing series Blown Away, Deborah Czeresko introduced herself as having “a polarizing personality; I have lovers, and I have haters.” Winner of the competition, the New York based, 58-year-old, queer female artist with 30 years of glass experience was awarded $60,000 and a two-week residency at the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG).
Wrote Casey Lesser on Artsy: “In a similar vein to Project Runway or Top Chef, Blown Away gathers glass artists to compete in creating innovative artworks. And while some contestants in the show’s first season crumbled under challenges that required conceptual depth, Czeresko thrived. Asked to make botanicals, she procured a set of oddly poetic potatoes; summoned to imagine a futuristic robotic device, she fashioned the Man-Bun in the Oven, an external womb for men to wear to gestate; and during a food challenge, she managed to make tacos appear über-elegant through a set of Venetian-style dishes. Her pièce de résistance was an installation for the finale: a feminist take on breakfast, including a fecund fried egg and a chain of sausage links.” Meat Me in The Middle, an installation with a sunny-side-up egg at the center represents women taking the art world by storm and a nod towards equity in fine arts.
Czeresko’s work originates from personal experience influenced by the complexities of modern day political and social ideas. It challenges gender stereotypes within the traditional glassblowing landscape. “To me, it’s almost a political act to occupy the hot shop as a fierce female glassblower,” she says in Blown Away.
In her October 2019 two-week residency at CMoG, Czeresko began work on a new conceptual chandelier comprised of more than 50 mirrored glass pieces of automotive-related ephemera such as hubcaps and a muffler. The work uses the metaphorical power of car parts to create a narrative surrounding the gendering of objects.
Czeresko’s art has always invoked a range of approaches and techniques, including performance and collaboration. After completing a BA in psychology from Rutgers University and attending graduate school in studio art at Tulane University, she began working with glass at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop in 1987. For 20 years, Czeresko has made a living creating custom lighting designs and fabricating works for fellow artists such as Robert Gober, Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, Mariko Mori and Eric Fischl. The artist has instructed classes at many universities and schools throughout Europe and the US, including UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, New York, where she formally sat on the board; Tyler School of Arts in Philadelphia; College of Creative Studies in Detroit; and LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium.
Following her appearance on Blown Away, Czeresko developed a vocal and enthusiastic fan base, inspired by this strong, creative woman articulating a message of diversity, equity and belonging. A most unlikely reality TV star, she is stopped regularly on the streets outside of her Lower East Side apartment for autographs, embraces and accolades.
Admittedly thrilled with the attention, the artist has used her new-found celebrity to gain gallery representation. Blown Away inspired interest from New York’s Heller Gallery, which exhibited a new, large installation of her potatoes at SOFA Chicago last fall and her Meat in Chains at the NYC gallery earlier last year. In 2020, both CMoG and the Toledo Museum of Art purchased Czeresko’s work for their collections. In addition to exhibiting new works in three upcoming museum shows and multiple pending residencies, Czeresko will be the honoree for the UrbanGlass 2020 Gala held May 12.
With nature as her muse, stained glass artist Hallie Monroe recently completed two ground-breaking autonomous panels. The first references a recent study on octopus intelligence. It depicts her imaginings of what cephalopods could do with the car keys, sunglasses and smartphones routinely dropped overboard and into the ocean by humans. The other illustrates the heart-wrenching effects of 2019’s summer fires on the world’s wildlife.
“These are not your grandmother’s church windows. I wanted to explore topics that go beyond the blonde Jesus interpretations I have painted so many times to speak about modern topics of climate change and society.”
A graduate of the Pratt Institute with a BFA in Illustration, Monroe’s experience as a glass painter is vast and includes All Saints Episcopal Church’s Chapel of Ease in Barbados (2006 – 2009); Conrad Pickel Studios, Vero Beach, Florida, where she worked on one of the largest stained glass windows in the US for Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida (summer 2009); and Willet Hauser Architectural Glass (2010- 2014). Over the years, the artist has also painted for many freelance clients including Holdman Studios, Lehi, Utah; the Art of Glass, Media, Pennsylvania; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; The Gil Studio, Brooklyn, New York; Serpentino Stained & Leaded Glass, Needham, Massachusetts; and Sunlites Stained Glass, Far Rockaway, New York.
Monroe’s process and techniques are basically the same whether painting liturgical work or creating personal autonomous panels. She begins by standing sheets of glass around her studio, allowing color and texture to interact with different light and inspire a design. In her work, Red Elephant, the artist utilized acid etching on red flashed glass in a protest against the slaughter of these animals for their ivory tusks. Silver stain was expertly applied to produce a glowing effect used in combination with the angle of the elephant charging to heighten the urgency of the message.
In another work, Owl in the Birches, Monroe relied upon Catspaw glass to create the dappled green background that so vividly conveys sunlight in the forest. This panel was exhibited in American Glass Now: 2014, the American Glass Guild’s (AGG) annual juried show held at the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, from May 1 to June 30, 2014.
Semi-photorealistic portraits comprise a large percentage of both her personal and liturgical painting. “People of color are rarely depicted in stained glass, and I wanted to change that.”
The recipient of the AGG Scholarship, Monroe also received two grants from the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA). The 2009 SGAA Elskus Scholarship enabled her to take a 12-day stained glass tour of southern France given by author and guide, David Wilde.
After 30 years of running her studio in Southampton, New York, Monroe recently relocated and opened Twin Elms Stained Glass Studio at Pittsford Village Farm, Pittsford, Vermont. An experienced instructor, Monroe has taught workshops at St. Michael’s Institute, Mystic, Connecticut; Amagansett Applied Art School, Amagansett, New York; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; and the 2019AGG conference held in San Antonio, Texas. In 2020, the artist will teach workshops at Yestermorrow Building Arts School, Waitsfield, Vermont, and out of her own studio.
In discussions about why stained glass has not found its place in art galleries, lack of content in the work is cited as a primary factor. This is closely followed by the challenges of exhibiting an art form with an absolute dependence on natural light. Monroe accepts the inherent limitations of her medium and with a masterful painter’s hand, blurs the lines between art and craft in profound images of our vanishing natural world.
“The public still thinks of stained glass as church windows. Architects using stained glass windows in ways outside of that definition and artists like myself showing in galleries so people can see the work outside of a church setting, will build new audiences for autonomous works in glass.”
Dark and beautiful, Bertil Vallien’s sculpture takes the viewer on a mystical journey through the subconscious. Part oracle, part art object - his boats, maps and heads reveal existential secrets through a series of symbols and codes embedded in a glass matrix that appears to contain light. Sweden’s most innovative and well-known contemporary glass artist, Vallien pioneered sand casting in the 1980s and began creating sculptures in glass that inspired his now famous quote: “Glass eats light.”
Born in 1938 in Sollentuna, a suburb north of Stockholm, Vallien studied ceramics at the Konstfack School of Arts, Crafts, and Design in Stockholm, then spent two years at the School for Advanced Industrial Design. At Konstfack, he graduated at the top of his class and was awarded a Royal Foundation grant. His love of ceramics took him to Los Angeles for a position with HAL Fromholt Ceramics, and soon he was meeting artists, critics, and gallery owners, attending events at California universities, and exhibiting his ceramics. In 1963, he was invited back to Sweden by the C.H. Åfors glass-factory, where he contributed to a successful reorganization of the company and designed many of their most well-known lines.
Vallien’s introduction to glass offered artistic opportunities that were lacking in ceramics, and blowing glass became central to his work. He describes it as, “ladling matter out of a volcano and watching the glowing lava turn into ice.” His work has a symbolic and mystical narrative, in which the human head, boats, maps, stars, crosses, bridges, pyramids, and rings play recurring roles. Sometimes the light-absorbing glass is transparent like a membrane that allows vision into the spaces within. At other times it is translucent to represent how our understanding can at times be clouded.
From California to Israel, Vallien has exhibited around the world including The State Heritage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia); the National Museum (Stockholm, Sweden); the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, England); the Art Institute of Chicago (IL); the National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan); the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY); the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia); and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA). He has received numerous awards, such as: Prince Eugen’s medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts (1995); an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vaxjö (2002); the Gold Medal from the Royal Academy of Science, Stockholm (2005); and the Libenski Award, Seattle (2008).
At 82, Vallien is still active as a creating artist. In 2018, he exhibited new work at Spritmuseum, Stockholm, in an exhibition titled, Under ytan (Under the Surface). The art objects were made in a coarse-cut black glass that suggested an archaeological excavation of a desolate civilization. Wrecked ships and desolate landscapes stood on pedestals in a dark room with a light source above it.
On February 8, 2020, during Imagine Museum’s Fire and Light Gala, Trish Duggan, Founder and President of Imagine Museum, presented Vallien with the “Artist of the Future” award, based upon his undaunted journey as an artist looking toward the future while continuing to aspire other artists in new ways of expression and communication. “Bertil’s vision about the future and his unbound curiosity about what lies ahead puts him far ahead many of the younger artists working in the field today,” said Duggan about the award recipient.
Continuing down his prolific path, on May 14, 2020, Vallien’s exhibition Surface Tension opens at Gallery Glas in Stockhom. His show Anhalt will be on view at VIDA Museum and Art Gallery, Borgholm, Sweden, beginning May 23. The artist is also preparing for his demo at the Glass Art Society (GAS) conference in Smaland, Sweden, May 20-23, where he will be presented with GAS’ Visionary Award.
Defying familiar branding practices, Snic Barnes prefers exploring uncharted aesthetic and technical territory, creating works that range from electroplated pipes reminiscent of Steampunk machines to his current complex functional sculpture incorporating varied motifs. The combination of his unique style and groundbreaking processes put this pioneer of mixed media pipes on the map beginning in the late 1990s.
A Philadelphia-based artist, Snic discovered glassblowing in 1997 at The Crefeld School. Subsequently the 17-year-old spent a year traveling the East Coast, supporting himself by selling glass pipes at concerts and festivals. These experiences cemented a lifelong involvement in psychedelic counterculture. To advance his glass working skills, in 1999 Snic enrolled at The Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee, and later studied at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.
Snic’s work has been exhibited at the National Liberty Museum, SCOPE Miami, Joseph Gross Gallery, SOFA Art Fair, Habatat Galleries, and Gregorio Escalante Gallery. Media featuring his artwork includes Vice, Juxtapoz, High Times, LA Weekly, Philadelphia Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and the documentary film, Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes. The artist was named Central Territory Glass Artist of the year at the 2016 American Glass Expo, won second place in group competition at the 2011 Champs Trade Show, and first place at the 2009 Pipe Classic. He has instructed at Pilchuck Glass School, Philadelphia Glassworks, Ontario’s Edy Roy Gallery, and Lunar Cycle in Tokyo.
This Saturday, February 15, 2020, Piece of Mind in Orange County presents Organized Confusion, an exhibition featuring new solo work by Snic as well as collaborative pieces by artists from California and across the country. The artist will present a live glassblowing demo in the gallery during the opening reception, held February 15, 2020. VIP 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (ticket purchase required), public from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Bay Area artist Tali Grinshpan seeks to create intimate spaces of reflection where the past speaks to the transient present. In her 2019 solo show at Bullseye Bay Area Gallery titled Longing for the (Home)Land כיסופים למולדת, multi-generational stories of immigration were told via delicate pâte de verre forms that recall curling flower petals or silky folds of fabric.
Grinshpan says: “I explore the fragility of nature and human existence by using organic materials to create forms that burn out in the kiln. Their remnants speak of the spirit and beauty of what once existed.”
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, Grinshpan earned a B.A. and M.A. in Business and Psychology from Tel Aviv University. A variety of art mediums were a source of interest and exploration since childhood. Travels around the world with her family were also important in her development as an artist. In 2004, the artist moved to and currently resides in Walnut Creek, California, where she fell in love with glass and began to pursue it professionally.
“The ever-changing life of the land, in particular that of Israel, where I was born, and that of my present home in Northern California, inspires me. As an immigrant, I search for connection between the land and my internal landscape of memory. These landscapes, simultaneously intimate and vast, come together in my work,” she explains.
Grinshpan’s education and experience in glass includes a professional residency at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington; serving as teaching assistant for both Saman Kalantari and Alicia Lomne, who were instructing at Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) Studio in Corning, New York; summer sessions at CMOG’s Studio and the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pennsylvania; and a professional residency and master class at North Lands Creative Glass, Scotland, UK.
Grinshpan was selected as a finalist at The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa Japan in 2016; first prize winner of The Glass Prize 2017 international competition, UK; and published in CMOG’s survey of cutting-edge glass, New Glass Review 39. She achieves the paper-like qualities in her glass beginning with a model of the final artwork made out of clay, wax or other materials. A mold is made from the model using plaster and silica. After mixing finely crushed glass with a binding material, this paste is applied to the inner surface of a negative mold to form a coating. When the coated mold is fired, the glass fuses into an object whose walls depend on the thickness of the pâte de verre layers. After firing, the artist removes the mold material and cleans the piece. The amount of cold work on the fired piece varies, depending on artistic and aesthetic considerations.
Over the past few years Grinshpan’s work has been exhibited in various national and international galleries and museums. Upcoming exhibitions include: Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan, A New State of Matter – Contemporary Glass, January 25 through April 26, 2020; Abrams Claghorn Gallery, Albany, California, Particles, Grinshpan’s first exhibition as curator, February 1 through 28, 2020; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, The Biennial for Art and Design, March 17 through November 30, 2020; and Pittsburgh Glass Center, The United, October 2, 2020 – January 24, 2021.
Celebrating its 40th year, Glass Artists of Colorado (GAC) creates opportunities for education, sharing, promotion and friendship. Established in 1979 under the name Glass Artists Fellowship, GAC offers its members monthly educational meetings, artist slideshows, demonstrations, information, seminars, workshops, guest lectures, and field trips. Originally comprised of stained glass artists only, over the years membership has grown and evolved to reflect the dynamic nature of art glass in Colorado.
Says president, Deborah Carlson: “With the closing of most, if not all, retail and teaching shops in Colorado, clubs like ours are a necessity to keep the glass artists in our area involved and informed about the outside glass community and give support to this medium. The Morgan Adams Project, as well as our bi-annual support of Beads of Courage, provides us with an opportunity to come together, share, and focus on our community.”
Currently, GAC is coordinating a special project in conjunction with The Morgan Adams Foundation, D&L Art Glass Supply, Denver, and The Children’s Hospital of Colorado. When Morgan Adams lost her battle with cancer, her mother started a foundation to raise awareness and funds for children’s cancer research.
Carlson asked the children in the cancer unit of Children’s Hospital to draw a picture and write a story about their healing character and assign them special powers. The drawings of the 25 kids who participated are being created in glass via blowing or sculpting in the furnace or on the torch. The glass sculpture along with the corresponding drawing and story will be auctioned off at a special event called ARTMA 2020, on February 8, at Denver Design District. The Morgan Adams Foundation puts on this art auction every two years to raise money for children’s cancer research.
As a special gift to the children, D & L Art Glass Supply and Leslie Silverman graciously opened their teaching facility and furnished all of the glass and kiln time for GAC to produce a glass tile matching the drawing of every child who participated. These will be given out either at the auction or at the hospital. The Morgan Adams Foundation has also made and will give each child a special t-shirt with the project name and Glass Artists of Colorado on it. Every participating glass artist will receive the same t-shirt and a year’s membership to GAC.
Says Carlson: “The children’s comments are amazing, with most of them saying this was the best project they have ever been a part of because it gave them a chance to participate in the fund raising. They were incredibly enthusiastic, and we are grateful. The artists also expressed their gratitude for being included in such a meaningful event. We are blessed to have this great glass community here in Colorado.”
In 1989, Tim Tate received an HIV-positive diagnosis and was told he had one year to live. The terrible news inspired him to follow a dream he’d had since the age of 9 when he visited the Corning Museum of Glass. Driven to use the time he had left to become a glass artist, Tate travelled to Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina for the first in an intensive succession of classes. Penland and the artwork made during this time saved his life.
A Washington, D.C. native, Tate has been working with sculpture now for 30 years. Co-Founder of the Washington Glass School, his artwork is part of the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and the Mint Museum. He participated in 2019’s Glasstress show with Ai Wei Wei and Vic Muniz during the Venice Biennale. Tate has received numerous awards and honors including the 2010 Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture; a Fulbright Award from Sunderland University, England, in 2012; second place in the 2017 London Contemporary Art Prize; and the 2018 James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist Award.
Along with William Warmus, Tate is the founder and moderator of the Facebook group 21st Century Glass – Images and Discussions. His involvement at Penland includes teaching, serving as featured artist for the 2018 annual auction, and acting as the Development Chair for the Penland Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2018.
In 2001, Tate helped establish the Washington Glass School to focus on sculptural glass made by kiln-casting and mixed media rather than traditional studio glassblowing techniques. Modeled after Penland and the Crucible in Oakland, the school has offered instruction to more than 4,000 students while providing a permanent studio in which Tate makes his work.
After 10 years of making bowls, between 1999 and 2005 Tate made 30 large blown glass hearts, an exercise which required him to work with a glassblowing team and revealed his preference to work solo. His Reliquary works created between 2004 and 2014 drew attention from journalists, galleries and critics, putting Tate on the map of the art world at large.
Never fully fitting into any one definition of Studio Glass, steampunk or video artist, Tate blends traditional craft with new media technology, the framework in which he fits his artistic narrative. Through moving images and endless mirrors his contemporary work possesses the aesthetic of Victorian techno-fetishism, which emerged from fascination with Jules Verne as a boy. Artwork and video, he believes, will be society’s relics of the future.
He says, “I like to reference many possible histories and will do so with video or mirrors to show our common artistic ancestry and illustrate alternate paths. Perhaps centuries from now my work will have the same presence as abandoned archaic machines from the Turn of the last Century, as people marvel over what could have possibly been its intent.”