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The Washington Post has an interesting review by Blake Gopnik on the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “Tiffany: Color and Light,” a major new survey of the studio’s work, now through August 15.
“(The exhibition) gives a fine overview of Tiffany’s glorious vases, leaded-glass lamps and work in stained glass.
It also lets us in on something strange: Tiffany was not an artist in the traditional sense. The man responsible for some of the most innovative handicrafts ever created barely set his hands on the objects he signed. The man who gave new life to blown glass never blew glass; he didn’t even come up with the iridescent surfaces that were his trademark. The man whose lamps went on to inspire the lighting in restaurant chains across America entrusted their design to a team of uncredited women.
None of this makes Tiffany a less important figure. On the contrary, it makes him a true radical. … His art supplies were other people; the masterpiece he built with them was a corporate entity called Tiffany Studios.”
Click HERE to jump to the full Post article by Blake Gopnik.
Tim Tate @ Art Basel, Switzerland
>At its inaugural exhibition at SCOPE Basel 2010, Micaëla Gallery (USA) introduces: Marvin Lipofsky, Nicole Schmoelzer, Prema Murthy, Lorraine Peltz, Scott Kildall, Silvia Levenson and Tim Tate.
San Francisco’s Micaëla Gallery will feature contemporary fine art with an exhibition of digital drawings (Murthy), explorations of light (Lipofsky, Schmoelzer), and dialogue addressing social concerns (Levenson, Tate, Kildall, Peltz), Micaela Gallery introduces artworks by gallery artists that are as beautiful to regard as they are engaging to the intellect.
Each artist was carefully chosen because of singular contributions to contemporary visual dialogues.
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Marvin Lipofsky, educator, inveterate traveler, multi-awarded artist, respected sculptor, and passionate supporter of the arts, is credited with bridging international communities of artists through ideological barriers, over time and across continents to become a fundamental pillar of the international glass community. Working with established and respected artists from the Czech Republic, Venice, China and the United States, his collaborative sculptures can be found in important museum and private collections worldwide. A master colorist, Lipofsky’s work pays homage to the communities where he created his work. For example, during his visit to the Czech Republic, his sculpture referenced landscape and political climate, while the work he made during his visit to China used colors that traditionally augur joy and prosperity in Chinese communities. Lipofsky’s work also addresses the manner that light shifts through space as well as the effect on space that his work occupies, in terms of color and texture. He established the respected glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley and the California College of Art; and resides in Berkeley, California.
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Nicole Schmoelzer, a life-long student of painting, works with oil paint on linen and paper, developing series of paintings where the behavior of color is the topic. She is an abstract painter, who loves the interaction of colors, with and against each other. By investigating the manner that color performs on a surface or structuring quality, Schmoelzer is excited by the possibilities of illustrating simultaneously different layers of movements and shifts on the visual plane. Her work begins by setting stains – staining – the surface, with liquid oil paint. By building layers, which are subsequently exposed, newly exposed washes of paint take on an illusion of depth, receding to, or surfacing from, an in-between imaginary third-dimensional space. Schmoelzer’s current work incorporates ink with oil paint, and, by process and composition, mediates between the organic and geometric, in expression and approach. She resides in Brooklyn, New York and Basel, Switzerland.
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Prema Murthy is a mathematician who decided the best way to address her love of beautiful mathematical theory is to work with it visually. TECTONICS is a series of archival digital prints that explore ruptures in the structural features of globalization. Murthy’s starting points for the project are scientific mapping of natural phenomena and concepts in eastern philosophy relating to embodiment, cognition, and Mind. Between these geographical and cognitive sites, she uses the human body as a metaphor where effects of globalization manifest in terms of simultaneous disintegration and reintegration. She combines drawing techniques with digital processes to map the body in terms of dynamic states of power – continuously shifting spheres of influence that effect geographical, as well as political, economic, and mental terrain as well. In her work, bodies become a drawing tool to map unseen traces of energy, motion and the passage of time. Based in New York, Murthy received her MFA from Goldsmiths College, London.
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Lorraine Peltz‘ work is a continuing discussion of feminine ideas in a fresh, beautiful manner in relation to place and identity. Her vernacular uses recognizable, highly charged images that explore women’s fantasies and desires. Peltz’ mimicry and reconciliation of how information comes to us and how meaning is made — real life alongside memory, poetry next to prose — become the landscapes of her exterior world and an interior space of dream, desire, hope, and memory. Images of chandeliers, among others, co-mingle the language of 17th century-esque still-life objects and pop imageries of lightening bolts, puffy clouds, painted lips, ominous blackbirds, and more. Peltz received her MFA from the University of Chicago. She lives and works in Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Scott Kildall works at the intersection of media culture and human memory. His artwork depicts collapse: between producer and consumer, viewer and viewed and simulated and real. He appropriates material, bends rules of consent, restages events and invites viewers to alter his exhibited pieces. These acts and products reflect a shift in cultural production – where ownership dips into a zone of ambiguity and image and sound is widely recycled. Lately, Kildall has been using Second Life – an online world with simulated physical space – as a site for artistic inquiry. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute MFA program, Kildall resides in San Francisco and New York City.
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Silvia Levenson addresses life and femininity with wry wit and beautiful work. Her work addresses daily living and the veiled anguish within the home, offering viewers a dark and comic window of not so blissful family life. Socially concerned with the influences of modern self medication, as a method of coping with what she calls the cocoon and the battlefield: a place of love, hate, and tension; her work displays dualities of fragility and imperviousness – best conveyed through her mediums of glass and video. Levenson purposefully exploits her personal experiences as wife, mother, daughter, and sister to express the fragility and complexity of her oeuvres. Much of Levenson’s art is an attempt to resolve the difficulties of living with threats of violence, political and domestic, that are out of our control. Born in Argentina, Levenson now resides in Italy.
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Tim Tate is an artist with a rare appreciation for the beauty of life – he perceives his sculptures as self-contained video installations. Blending a traditional craft with new media technology gives him the framework in which to fit his artistic narrative. Revelation, and in some cases self-revelation, is the underlying theme of his electronic reliquaries. Tate understands his interactive works may disturb because it prompts a variety of responses: amusement, memory, and maybe, recognition. But he values the viewer’s response to his hybrid art work and its conceptual nature. Tate defines his work as phylacteries of sorts, the transparent reliquaries in which bits of saints’ bones or hair, relics, are displayed. In many cultures and religions, relics are believed to have magical or spiritual powers, especially for healing. Tate’s relics are temporal, sounds and moving images formally enshrined, encapsulating experiences like as a collection of cultural specimens. Tate works and lives in Washington DC.
FirstView Party and Reception: FirstView for all VIPs or 100 CHF donation at the door
Tuesday June 15 3 – 7pm
PressView: Tuesday June 15 3 – 7pm
RSVP to press@scope-art.com
Serving cocktails and hors d’oeuvres to our guests and exhibitors.
General Fair Hours
Wednesday June 16 11am – 7pm
Thursday June 17 11am – 7pm
Friday June 18 11am – 7pm
Saturday June 19 11am – 7pm
Admission
Free for VIP cardholders
General Wednesday – Saturday CHF 20
Student Wednesday – Saturday CHF 10
Location
Kaserne Basel
Klybeckstr. 1b
CH – 4057 Basel
Fuller Craft Museum "The New Materiality"
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The Fuller Craft Museum‘s new show: The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft has its Opening Reception this weekend.
Curated by Fo Wilson, the artists in this exhibition combine new technologies – digital video, computerized design – with traditional craft materials to forge new artistic visions. The Washington Glass School’s Tim Tate is one of the featured artists in the show.
Sunday, June 13, 2010, 1pm
“A Twenty-first Century View of Craft”, lecture with Fo Wilson.
Fo will discuss how the artists of ‘The New Materiality’ are adapting, manipulating and re-inventing the materials of craft in a digital age.
Sunday, June 13, 2010, 2pm
Opening Reception
455 Oak Street
Brockton, MA 02301
GAS Clarifies Arizona Conf Cancellation
>An earlier post listed the Glass Art Society (GAS) cancellation of the planned 2011 GAS Conference in Tuscon Arizona.
The Board of Directors for GAS has issued a clarification, emailed out to the members of the glass artist organization on the reasons behind the decision to cancel the Arizona conference.
“Dear GAS Members:
The Board of Directors and the Executive Director would like to thank you for your many communications regarding the recent decision to cancel the 2011 Annual Conference in Tucson for financial reasons. It became evident from the many comments we received, both supporting and opposing the decision, that further explanation regarding our organization’s budgeting process would be helpful to all.
From the onset, the Board did not make this decision based on the new Arizona immigration law. Personal opinions of Board Members cannot be allowed to influence such an important decision, and the diversity of the Board ensures this. GAS depends financially on its Annual Conference to generate funds for operating the association. Our membership dues alone do not pay for all we do: staffing, office rental, communications, travel, website, GASnews, the GAS Journal, etc…we need to make money at the Conference not just to survive, but to thrive. A poorly attended Conference puts a serious strain on the finances, if not jeopardizing the organization financially.
Without getting into too much financial detail (a budget is provided and discussed at the annual business meeting): the Conference needs to have a surplus of about $175,000 to cover all associated costs. In addition, a financial “bolster” is needed to cover the International Conferences, which are part of our mission but are also much more costly. We do have a contingency account invested for the long term, but due to the economy and conference attendance, this reserve will be tapped into this year. GAS therefore finds itself in a particularly sensitive year financially, which affects all of its decisions.
How does the Conference support the organization? In several ways:
REGISTRATION FEES
HOTEL REBATES TO NON-PROFITS
TOURS
WEDNESDAY PRECONFERENCE RECEPTION/DINNER (Fundraiser)
THE GAS AUCTION
SITE CITY CONTRIBUTION ($100,000 MINIMUM)
Our finances become critical when attendance is poor. The following leads to losses for the organization:
LOSSES IN REGISTRATION FEES
HOTEL ATTRITION PAYMENTS INSTEAD OF REBATES
CANCELLATION OF TOURS
NO INCOME AT THE BENEFIT
LOWER INCOME AT THE AUCTION
DROP IN MEMBERSHIP INCOME DUE TO LACK OF RENEWALS (SOME MEMBERS TEND TO RENEW ONLY WHEN THEY COME TO THE CONFERENCE)
All of this adds up, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands, and goes against our Annual Budget. How did this affect our decision to cancel Tucson?
POOR ATTENDANCE AT ANY CONFERENCE, DESPITE A BEAUTIFULLY PLANNED PROGRAM, MEANS WE WILL BE DIPPING INTO OUR CONTINGENCY FUNDS.
THE TUCSON SITE COMMITTEE HAD YET TO SECURE ENOUGH FUNDS FROM THE CITY OR REGIONAL PROVIDERS TO MEET THE $100,000 COMMITMENT, DESPITE GOING THROUGH THEIR HIGH SEASON.
THE PROSPECT OF MEMBERS NOT ATTENDING BECAUSE OF THEIR OPPOSITION TO THE IMMIGRATION POLICY WOULD HAVE MEANT AN EVEN GREATER FINANCIAL BURDEN TO THE ORGANIZATION.
WE HAVE A SMALL WINDOW TO FIND ANOTHER LOCATION THAT WOULD NOT BE OBJECTIONABLE TO OUR MEMBERSHIP.
We, the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society, have a difficult job ahead of us. Not only do we oversee the programming for the organization and the Conference, we also have the responsibility for its financial survival. We want to be able to pass the Board over to future members in sound shape, as we have so far. Let me assure you that we have struggled with the weighty decision of canceling a Conference site, we did so to guarantee Conferences in the future.
The Board will be meeting on Saturday, June 12, at 12 noon the Rose Room of the Marriott Hotel for the Annual Business Meeting. Anyone who has further questions about Tucson, the budget, or GAS in general, should attend this meeting, as it is open to all members.
Best regards,
Shane Fero
President
Glass Art Society “
Maryland State Arts Council Artist Grant
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The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) 2011 Individual Artist Award (IAA) grant applications are now available online. Administered thru the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, (MAAF), the grants are available to Maryland resident artists.
The grant deadline is August 4, 2010 and the application will be open in eGRANT on June 4, 2010.
Click HERE to jump to the 2011 IAA Guidelines pdf.
DC Commission on the Arts Grant Applications
>Its that time!
Click on photo to jump to DCCAH grant website.
Flux Studios welcomes Jessica Beels
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If you have ever come out to the Gateway Arts District Open Studio Tours, you would know that adjacent to the Washington Glass School are some amazing artist studios.
Flux Studios, headed by celebrated ceramic artist Novie Trump, has announced that mixed media artist Jessica Beels will be joining the studio as their newest resident artist.
Jessica works in a number of materials, sculptural beads, paper, and ungalvanized steel armatures. Her work was featured at the Smithsonian Craft Show and at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.
Jessica has talked of using the change in studio space to allow her to take her work to a larger scale. Ms Beels said that she should be all settled in by the end of the next month or so.
We welcome Jessica to the ‘hood – and look forward to seeing alot of great new work from her!
Adam Lister Gallery’s Brave New World
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Fairfax’s Adam Lister Gallery sought out artist submissions for its summer juried show titled “Brave New World“. Over 300 artist submissions were received by the gallery, and 20 artists were selected.
Our Robert Kincheloe’s lampwork sculpture was selected to be in the summer show – his will be the only glass artwork in the show.
Brave New World
June 4 – July 18, 2010
Opening Reception Friday June 4, 6-9pm.
Old Town Fairfax Village Plaza
3950 University Drive
Fairfax VA 22030
*gallery entrance on North St. between University Dr. and Chain Bridge Rd.
(across from Panera and next door to Asian Bistro)
gallery hours: Thu.6-9, Fri./Sat.12-9, Sun.12-5
or by appointment