The Washington Glass School

Dean Allison; “What would the earth look like if shadows disappeared?”; 15 x 20 x 16 inches; cast glass

Introduced to glass in 1998 at Illinois State University, Dean Allison currently is a 3-year resident artist at the Penland School of Crafts. Dean’s work is an exploration of portrait sculpture in glass. He celebrates intrinsic beauty through physical form and through the afflictions and joys of life’s many stages. He begins with a life cast of his subject, usually a friend or family member. The final portrait, made in cast glass and resin, expresses the fragility and transparency of human experience through a medium that inherently captures those qualities. The artist notes, “I’m thinking about the inside/invisible aspect of a person and the outside/visible aspect that one creates and adorns for external display. Glass is the middle ground, the window to look through.”

Dean’s cast glass sculpture was one of the 43 finalists selected from the competition’s more than 2,500 entries received. 

Every three years, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery hosts the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.  The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery focuses on the important role that contemporary portraiture could play in the life of the gallery, as well as in heralding the museum’s engagement with figurative art and portraiture in today’s world. The exhibit “The Outwin 2016: American Portraiture Today” will run March 12, 2016 – January 8, 2017.

Vote for the “People’s Choice” selection of the finalists - here - (be like Chicago-born Dean and vote early & often!)

Dean Allison’s sculpture at the Smithsonian. L-R Nancy Kerr, Tim Tate, Dean Allison