June, 2020 | Washington Glass Studio

WGS Featured Artist: Cheryl Derricotte

Posted on June 30, 2020 by admin |

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: Cheryl Derricotte

Cheryl Derricotte is a visual artist and her favorite mediums are glass and paper. Originally from Washington, DC, she lives and makes art in San Francisco, CA.

Cheryl Derricotte

She has an extensive background in the arts and community development. Cheryl holds the Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), the Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in Urban Affairs from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Recent awards include the Windgate Artist Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center (2020/2021); Antenna Paper Machine Residency; San Francisco Individual Artist Commission, and the Puffin Foundation Grant, (all 2019/2020). She is also the recipient of the Hemera Foundation Tending Space Fellowship for Artists; the Rick and Val Beck Scholarship for Glass; Emerging Artist at the Museum of the African Diaspora; Gardarev Center Fellow; Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass’ Visionary Scholarship and a D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities/ National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant.

Washington Glass School blog catches up with Cheryl as her work is part of the WGS Contemporary online exhibit “CLICK-IT!”

Washington Glass School (WGS): Describe your artwork method/process.

Cheryl Derricotte: I make art from research. This type of inquiry also leads me not just to economic but also environmental concerns. Observations of current events, politics, and urban landscapes are my entry into these issues.

To make my work I use a variety of glass and printmaking techniques. My cold glasswork (unfired) often takes form as sculptural mixed media, involving books and found objects. Warm glass means work fired in a kiln up to approximately 1,500°F. I enjoy layering images and text onto warm glass pieces, featuring public domain historical photographs, drawings, or my own photographs. My preferred techniques include screen-printing with glass enamels or powder printing. My work on paper employs the techniques of image transfers, ink stamping and collage. Over the past few years, I have been enjoying learning the craft of bookbinding. I recently exhibited my first artist book, entitled “Emily” about a runaway slave’s journey along the Ohio River.

WGS: Describe your work in the show and highlight aspects that the viewers should understand about the work.

Cheryl Derricotte: Most often I create work in series. “Oil and Water,” looks at communities that live in the shadow of oil: California places like Richmond, Los Angeles and Manhattan Beach. The two pieces in the show use historical images from Los Angeles.

Cheryl Derricotte, “Red Alert”; glass

WGS: Do you do a lot of planning in your work – or is there an element of chance while working?

Cheryl Derricotte: I do a lot of planning! Text is an important component of my artwork. I often say that I live under the tyranny of title. A phrase will get stuck in my head, such as “21st Century Capital” and I wrestle with it until an artwork is created. Thus, many of my pieces have titles before I ever make a schematic drawing, much less cut a piece of glass.

WGS: How have you handled the Covid lockdown?

Cheryl Derricotte: The lockdown has been tough. My studio building – where I do my glasswork & house my kiln – closed in the first week of March. In order to stay in touch with my creativity during the lockdown, I took short online classes in printmaking & bookarts; I developed a sketching practice.

My studio building recently became accessible again under San Francisco’s phased re-opening of businesses, and I am excited to get back to glass in July. I have been invited to participate in an upcoming show at the French Embassy in San Francisco, and I am going to make some new works appropriate to the show’s theme.

WGS: What artwork/event has moved you and got you thinking about your own work?

Cheryl Derricotte: The returned societal focus on police brutality, has made one of my series on paper more relevant than ever before. “The Blue Wall Project” maps people killed by the police using data from the Guardian UK’s “The Counted” and the Washington Post’s “Fatal Force.” Thanks to funding from the Puffin Foundation, I am moving this work online so activists can use my visuals for posters and postcards in support of efforts to #DefundThePolice and re-invest that money in more meaningful community programs, including the arts.

WGS: if you were not an artist – what would you be?

Cheryl Derricotte: That’s easy! I already have a dual identity. I am also a licensed city planner. I have worked “day jobs” in real estate development and facilities management for many years in both non-profits and corporate/tech spaces. I make art and creative places. I have never met a warehouse space I didn’t like.

Click HERE to jump to Cheryl Derricotte’s work in CLICK-IT!

Posted in artist interview, artists to watch, Cheryl Derricotte, click-it, contemporary artwork, content driven glass, covid-19, neues glas, wgs contemporary

WGS Featured Artist: Sean Donlon

Posted on June 29, 2020 by admin |

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: Sean Donlon

Sean Donlon has been drawn to the challenges of glass manipulation. Sean earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Craft and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012. He has traveled all over the United States and internationally to Lauscha, Germany and Murano, Italy to study lost glass techniques and to work with other glass artists. Among his distinguished honors, Sean has been the recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowship, was awarded Craft + Design’s Best in Show, and was recently featured in American Craft Magazine. Sean’s work has been exhibited in the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Chrysler Museum. He is currently living and working in Richmond, VA.

Sean Donlon

Washington Glass School blog catches up with Sean as his work is part of the WGS Contemporary online exhibit “CLICK-IT!”.

Washington Glass School (WGS): Describe your artwork method/process.

Sean Donlon: I use flameworking, a glassblowing technique, to create these teapots. Within the manipulation of glass and fire a unique vessel is born.

Sean Donlon, “Tantric Tea Time“; glass / mixed media

WGS: Describe your work in the show and highlight aspects that the viewers should understand about the work.

Sean Donlon: We are surrounded daily by functional objects; beauty everywhere is easily overlooked when it is hidden in plain view. Becoming obsessed with this practical object turned into an opportunity to make sense of the world.

The teapot became a symbol in my eyes, one that could be recognized by all people. Throughout history teapots have been used as a canvas for expression through its maker or utilizer. This makes the teapot a greater symbol – one that can connect everyone on the principle of taking a moment to wind down, interact, tell stories, or internally reflect.

This inanimate object becomes vibrant and alive when juxtaposed in a foreign environment; every teapot manifests its own personality in these installations. Reflecting light off of each other and playing with their environment, these teapots, in every viewing angle become their own story.

WGS: How have you handled the Covid lockdown?

Sean Donlon: It has been difficult, and a storm of emotions. I have family who is going through treatment for a terminal cancer and covid isn’t making that experience any easier.

I run a shared studio space with other artists, and it has been a big change. In the pace of the workplace, and to make sure everyone is on the same page in our adapting to this pandemic. Safety has always been our top priority, I was very excited to see how everyone came together to make things operate smoothly. It hasn’t been easy, but I have realized so many small things I love about life. Between the sound of water pouring on coffee beans for cold brew, and how light can change so much in a few seconds throughout the day. Its made me so grateful to be able to reconnect with the world around me again.

I was thinking there would be a large flow of creative energy, but it has actually been hit and miss. Its made my work slow down but in a great way. New work from this is in the works and I am excited to share it when its ready… but its kind of hush hush till then.

WGS: if you were not an artist – what would you be?

Sean Donlon: I discovered glass when I was working as a tire installer. I had a car dropped when I was working on it and almost lost my hands and it was that day, I decided to switch to glass full time… I wanted to keep using my hands to create art and have not looked back since that decision.

Sean Donlon’s surreal teapots.

WGS: Do you do a lot of planning in your work – or is there an element of chance while working?

Sean Donlon: Much of the planning starts with the concept and design. Then trying to figure out what tools to make is important to each piece. Everything gets a custom-made component to make the mounting and shaping seamless. Then the raw fun starts. When doing the hot glass part, it is planned – but then I do allow room to have the natural avenue of chance and error to come into play!

WGS: What is your rule of thumb in determining when a work is finished?

Sean Donlon: (When the hot glue is dry… JK). I wish this was an easy answer but its not. I often know when I am working the glass on the torch when its done. There will be this moment where it just speaks to me in a way that i see if i change anything else it’ll be too much or throw off the balance of the piece. Once this is done I still have to install and mirror the work so its still a long process after the glass is made.

My rule of thumb is when the work has the right gesture, narrative, flow, and I am happy with it. I won’t let something out that I am not please with, and it takes failed works to make the great ones.

Click here to jump to Sean Donlon’s work in CLICK-IT!

Posted in 2020, 21st century glass, art glass, artist interview, click-it, conceptual glass, contemporary craft, contemporary sculpture, CONTEMPORARY SURREALISTIC, glass art, sean donlon, wgs contemporary

WGS Featured Artist: Jason Chakravarty

Posted on June 27, 2020 by admin |

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: Jason Chakravarty

Jason Chakravarty is a mixed media artist based in Arizona. He worked for four years in a commercial neon sign shop before earning his MFA from California State University-Fullerton. He teaches neon and kiln casting workshops at universities and glass centers nationwide, and exhibits his work nationally.

Jason Chakravarty, together with Jennifer Caldwell have made many collaborative pieces, maintaining a critical, conceptual, and technical dialogue thru their work. Jennifer best known for her flame worked glass compositions and Jason’s technical focus is cast glass objects which often include parts or techniques from the hot shop. He uses familiar photorealistic imagery that ranges from sea to space. The narrative is the starting point and is a response to daily life and cultural observations.

Their work has been exhibited in museums including Corning Museum of Glass and Tacoma Museum of Glass, at SOFA Chicago.

Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty

Washington Glass School blog catches up with Jason as his work is part of the WGS Contemporary online exhibit “CLICK-IT!” and the associated show “Artists for Racial Justice“

Washington Glass School (WGS): Describe your artwork method/process.

Jason Chakravarty: Our process begins with a need to illuminate an idea. Ideas come from our surroundings, travels (or lack of in 2020), experiences, written stories, or even just captured moments. Glass presents the only medium with endless possibilities. We cast, blow, sculpt, paint, slump, fuse, carve, light it up and cut it. Glass can be made thick, thin, transparent, and opaque. To explain a single process would ignore the way we work.

Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell, “Bee-nounced”; cast murrini with flameworked components.

WGS: Describe your work in the show and highlight aspects that the viewers should understand about the work.

Jason Chakravarty: For Click It, we were lucky to include works that span over the past decade. The most recent being ‘Beenounced‘. This piece highlights the delicacy of Jennifer’s flame worked bee and honey living amongst a random and repeating hexagon honeycomb pattern. Each leg and wing is sculpted by hand, while a more machine-like process for the hexagon can be compared to a sushi roll. Long pulls of clear glass coated with yellow or black cut up, organized on end and cast to make a larger hexagon home.

Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell, “Woken Inna Space Without Sound”; sculpted/blown glass/mixed media

On the other end of the timeline spectrum, ‘Woken Inna Space Without Sound‘ was entirely made using the hot shop. A small paperweight was created and cooled, butterfly and bee decals were applied to the surface. The paperweight was then heated, more clear glass was added and the glass cooled again. Add additional decals and repeat. Each layer requires a couple days. Once all the layers were built the glass was reheated again, shaped and sculpted into a half moon with craters. Layers of transparent and opaque gray, white and opal color were added to the surface and then cooled. The butterfly net was hand blown separately.

Discussing one last piece. “Catch and Release“. The lock is cast glass and was purchased in Tel Aviv on a trip to teach in Jerusalem. At the time it felt like an ancient relic that we had found in an old mud hut and bought from a man that was nearing the end of a long and nonmonetary rich life. The fence referenced a fence that ran along the walkway to a bridge in Seattle that we would use when boarding/unboarding the ferry. The fence itself is created by hand using a torch and then assembled cold and held tight in a frame like a puzzle.

WGS: How have you handled the Covid lockdown?

Jason Chakravarty: It feels like we are working on the same path as a year ago. The demand for our work has shifted but not slowed down. While we are busy, the silver lining has been that all the anxiety has subsided. Deadlines are on ‘island time’ more like a suggestion vs an absolute. While too much to list has changed we are still consistently working. Every day is still a great day to add something better to the world.

Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell; “Weeding Out”; cast/fused glass, steel.

WGS: What artwork/event has moved you and got you thinking about your own work?

Jason Chakravarty: Typically travel and life experience write the story for our work and fill our sketch books. It feels like we are now able to resolve some of the ideas that have been sitting or on hold. So I would say the ‘lack of event’ has us thinking more about how we work and the actual work and less focused on the excitement that comes with new ideas.

WGS: if you were not an artist – what would you be?

Jason Chakravarty: Fred Flintstone.

The artist formerly known as Jason Chakravarty. Yabba.Dabba.Do.

WGS: Do you do a lot of planning in your work – or is there an element of chance while working?

Jason Chakravarty: We start with a plan and embrace all the changes along the way. Our work is very process orientated. Many steps using many techniques. Each would have to be perfect to reach our original plan. Nothing is ever perfect. Even our view of the narrative shifts with time, day, and week.

WGS: What is your rule of thumb in determining when a work is finished?

Jason Chakravarty: Each piece we make starts with a narrative. Our goal within a narrative is to raise questions vs provide answers. A piece is resolved when the question is asked.

Click HERE to jump to Jason Charavarty and Jennifer Caldwell’s work in CLICK-IT!

And see their work as part of “Artists For Racial Justice” – click HERE.

Read about Jennifer Caldwell – the other half of JC2 -click HERE.

Posted in american glass, art gallery, art glass, artist interview, borosilicate, cast glass, click-it, covid-19, jason chakravarty, jennifer caldwell, kilncast, lampwork, lampworking, wgs contemporary | Tagged jc squared

WGS Featured Artist : F Lennox Campello

Posted on June 26, 2020 by admin |

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: F. Lennox Campello

F. Lennox (Lenny) Campello

Florencio Lennox (Lenny) Campello was born in Guantanamo, Cuba and studied art at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, Washington from which he graduated in 1981. While there Lenny helped to create the Arts NW Student Gallery in Seattle, the area’s first art gallery focused on student artwork. He also organized several exhibitions at the School of Art.

In that same year that he graduated from Washington, he won the William Whipple National Art Competition First Prize for Printmaking, the silver medal at the Ligoa Duncan Art Competition in Paris and the French “Prix de Peinture de Raymond Duncan,” also in Paris. In addition to numerous galleries, his work has been exhibited at the McManus Museum in Scotland, the Brusque Museum in Brazil, the San Bernardino County Art Museum in California, the Musee des Duncan in France, the Frick Museum in Ohio, the Meadows Museum of Art in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Hunter Museum in Tennessee, the Sacramento Fine Arts Center in California, The Art League in Alexandria, The Museum of Contemporary Art in DC, the Rock Springs Art Center in Wyoming and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado, the Popov Museum in Russia and the Museum of Small Art in Malaysia. In 2009, world famous American art collector Mera Rubell selected one of his pieces for her 2010 “Cream” auction at the Katzen Museum in Washington, DC. In 2016 The Washington City Paper called him “one of the most interesting people of Washington, DC.

Washington Glass School blog catches up with Lenny as his work is part of the WGS Contemporary online exhibit “CLICK-IT!”.

Washington Glass School (WGS): Describe your artwork method/process.

Lenny Campello: I usually draw with either charcoal or graphite, generally on paper and for the last few years on reclaimed, broken, unfired Bisque. The drawings are most likely part of an ongoing narrative series, some of which I’ve been doing for decades, where I tell and retell stories, or express ideas through the means of contemporary realism. Over a decade ago, inspired by the marriage of embedded video in the glass sculptures of Tim Tate, I started to embed video in my narrative pieces, where I employ the video to further the narration process. This has further progressed over the years to embedding miniature spy cameras, motion detectors, video recorders, etc. into the artwork.

f.lennox.campello.art.ceramic.charcoal.wgs.contemporary.clickit

F. Lennox Campello “Suddenly, She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer ” charcoal & conte on unfired bisque. Lenny’s artwork is part of WGS Contemporary online exhibit CLICK-IT!

WGS: Describe your work in the show and highlight aspects that the viewers should understand about the work.

Lenny Campello: “Suddenly, She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer” is part of several of my processes. This charcoal and conte on Bisque is part of my “Obsessive” series. I have probably repeated this image, in various variations and incarnations, over 200 times since the 1980s. The subjects which draw my obsession are diverse and varies. Some of them are iconic people and often comic book superheroes – Frida Kahlo was the first around 1975 when I first saw her works in Mexico City, Elvis, the racist murderer Che Guevara, Monroe, The Batman, Catwoman, Spidey, Superman, etc. Others, such as “Suddenly, She Wasn’t Afraid Any Longer” is just an image that keeps returning to the blank paper. This one exemplifies lack of fear, taking a chance, a leap forward and away from indecision… freedom.

WGS: How have you handled the Covid lockdown?

Lenny Campello: Not well… I have not adapted… It sucks! All my time is occupied around the ripple effects of the draconian lockdown and I have not created many new pieces… the ones which have emerged are dark and foreboding. I am concerned that more people will die eventually because of the Covidian lockdown effects than from COVID-19 itself.

WGS: What artwork/event has moved you and got you thinking about your own work?

Lenny Campello: John Singleton Copley’s dramatic rendering of a shark attacking 14-year-old Brook Watson in Havana Bay – depicted in his painting “Watson and the Shark” has always struck me as one of the greatest narrative paintings of all time! And it made Watson into a celebrity! Tim Tate’s worldwide impact on art history, in being the first human on the planet to take video away from video players and embedding it into artwork, so that the video became a component of the artwork, not an “artsy movie” to be played on a screen, had the most profound effect on my artwork. I stole his idea – which he developed into glass sculptures – and deployed the same concepts into my drawings and paintings.

F. Lennox Campello “North Atlantic Mermaid (Syreni Caldonii)” artwork in the CLICK-IT! online exhibition.

WGS: if you were not an artist – what would you be?

Lenny Campello: Running a food truck outside some Midwestern University or running a small Cuban restaurant in Brechin, Scotland.

WGS: Do you do a lot of planning in your work – or is there an element of chance while working?

Lenny Campello: Very little planning – other than compositional… and there’s always an element of chance – especially in the blurring of the charcoal, which often reveals unexpected new forms and figures. Sometimes that leads me to include a double-encrypted form of writing that I’ve developed over the years, where I’ve married ancient Ogham writing with the Navy’s verbal Falcon Codes. I use this to “leave” messages hidden as cracks on the backgrounds of some drawings – these almost always start by “accident”, when I see a shadow or crack developing into a phrase.

WGS: What is your rule of thumb in determining when a work is finished?

Lenny Campello: No rule of thumb – I just know…

Click here to jump to F. Lennox Campello’s work in CLICK-IT!

Posted in american, artists to watch, click-it, f lennox campello, Lenny Campello, wgs contemporary

WGS Featured Artist : Jennifer Caldwell

Posted on June 25, 2020 by admin |

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: Jennifer Caldwell

Jennifer Caldwell

Jennifer Caldwell is internationally renowned for sculpting borosilicate glass using a torch. Humor, whimsy and imagination are a cathartic aspect of Jennifer’s studio practice that allows her to address more serious emotions from a place of playfulness. Objects from her experience become beautiful, yet un-functional, or are combined in a way to see the paradoxes through which Jennifer views the world.
Since 2012, Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty have worked collaboratively, and formed JC Squared. Their works have been exhibited in museums including Corning Museum of Glass and Tacoma Museum of Glass, at SOFA Chicago.

Jason Chakravarty and Jennifer Caldwell

Washington Glass School blog catches up with Jennifer as her work is part of the WGS Contemporary online exhibit “CLICK-IT!” and the associated show “Artists for Racial Justice”.

Washington Glass School (WGS): Describe your artwork method/process.
Jennifer Caldwell: We use several processes to complete a single piece. For example, a porthole begins by taking a replica mold of a real object. A wax is then poured into the replica mold the wax is then cleaned up and altered to suite each piece. A custom mixed refractory investment is then poured over the wax, the wax is removed by using steamed leaving a hollow cavity. The investment mold is then brought up to 1500′ where then hot glass is melted into it. Following a extensive cooling process the investment mold is removed from the glass. Finally, the glass is cut, ground and polished. The life form portion of the piece is sculpted using specific tools and solid glass rods in a 3000′ flame with a oxygen propane torch.

WGS: Describe your work in the show and highlight aspects that the viewers should understand about the work.
Jennifer Caldwell: I really love “Catch and Release” the fence is Flameworked and the lock is cast. We are very fortunate to have our work/teaching take us all over the world. When we are somewhere new and we discover objects that form memories we put them in our work. The lock we found at the old city in Jerusalem. We had been exploring the city that day and stumbled into a shop after a few minutes of haggling it was ours. We brought it home made a silicone mold of it and now it becomes part of our vocabulary with the other molds we’ve taken. It holds a memory that’s unique to us but also can convey its own message with just being the object it is.

WGS: How have you handled the Covid lockdown?
Jennifer Caldwell: Honestly the technical part has not affected us as much as I thought it would. The hotshop we use has been shut down so we’ve had to think in different processes. However we get most our inspiration from everyday life and travels which have both slowed way down. I think we’ve had to reflect more internally.

WGS: What artwork/event has moved you and got you thinking about your own work?
Jennifer Caldwell: “Beyond the Streets” in Brooklyn last summer. It was a great exhibit that just showed how time and evolution and responses from what was happening in that moment showed told a collective story of the evolution of street art.

WGS: if you were not an artist – what would you be?
Jennifer Caldwell: I have no idea, but I feel it would need some sort of creative aspect to it.

WGS: Do you do a lot of planning in your work – or is there an element of chance while working?
Jennifer Caldwell: We start out with a plan. We need to because we are mixing so many processes however the piece will start to change and adapt to what happens along the way.

WGS: What is your rule of thumb in determining when a work is finished?
Jennifer Caldwell: When it starts to make me anxious and gets too busy…less is more!

Click here to jump to Jennifer’s work in CLICK-IT!

Click HERE to jump to Jennifer’s work in “Artists for Racial Justice” fundraiser.

Read about Jason Chakravarty – the other half of JC2 click HERE

Posted in artist interview, borosilicate, click-it, jennifer caldwell, racial justice, wgs contemporary

Artists for Racial Justice Exhibit Raises Funds for Community!

Posted on June 17, 2020 by admin |

“Artists for Racial Justice” exhibit is the companion show to WGS Contemporary Gallery exhibit CLICK-IT! Online gallery!

WGS Contemporary wants to add our voices to support racial equality.

Using our community’s focus on love and support, we want to use art as a tool for healing and peace to help at this time. Featuring artworks by Joseph Ivacic, Jennifer Caldwell, Jason Chakravarty, Tim Tate, Teri Bailey, Erwin Timmers & Michael Janis – proceeds to the NAACP & Color of Change.

Posted in wgs contemporary | Tagged BLM, color of change, naacp, racial equality, racial justice

CLICK-IT Exhibition Opens June 16th @ WGS Contemporary

Posted on June 13, 2020 by admin |

: WGS Contemporary hosts CLICK-IT! and Artists for Racial Justice

With much of the physical art world closing because of Covid-19, artists, galleries and museums have turned to technology and social media to stay open (albeit virtually), allowing visitors from anywhere in the world to interact with and view art.

WGS Contemporary Gallery (located in the DMV’s Gateway Arts District) had to get creative with how to bring art to the world. With so much changing so quickly, artists and arts organizations are still in the process of finding their footing. “With everyone in isolation, art is needed now more than ever to help remind people that we are not alone. Art helps us to dream, escape our current realities, and engage our imaginations in building a better world for tomorrow,” said Gallery Director Teri Swinhart (Bailey). “With this show, we all stand united (six feet apart, of course) and ready to take on these challenges and the new opportunities they present.”

“Spilt Perfume Set”, Artist: Carmen Lozar

“Sea Through The Looking Glass”, Artists: Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty

Opening June 16th, WGS Contemporary presents “Click-It!” featuring works by some of the most exciting and inspiring artists, with a broad spectrum of works that showcase the current trends in art and the media specific works.

“Patterns of Containment”, Artist: Erwin Timmers

Artists in the show include:

Teri Swinhart (Bailey)
F. Lennox Campello
Jennifer Caldwell
Jason Chakravarty
Cheryl P. Derricotte
Sean Donlon
Sean Hennessey
Joseph Ivacic
Michael Janis
Carmen Lozar
Tim Tate
Erwin Timmers
Steve Wanna
Jeff Zimmer

“By placing artworks of different materials, mediums, and styles in direct conversation, there is opportunity for new dialogues and perspectives,” adds Swinhart. Click-It! will highlight the many parallel and interesting artistic directions these artists bring creating a dynamic environment of exchange online.
“We will be using our online platforms to introduce exciting new art programming that aims to enrich, entertain and inspire during this challenging time.”
A special fundraising event “Artists for Racial Justice” is also scheduled online as a companion show, with the-proceeds for these special works to be donated to the non-profit organizations “Color of Change ” and the “NAACP”.

“DejaVu”, Artist Sean Donlon

WGS Contemporary is a Washington, DC area art and special projects fine arts gallery. WGS Contemporary’s mission is to contribute to thinking about art, new media, technology, and social issues through an open access forum which we hope will facilitate contemporary and innovative projects worldwide. In that process, WGSC will expose the cutting edge work of artists pushing the new media frontiers of art. Projects using robotics, sensory perception, holographic imaging, self-contained video sculptures and others will offer an intelligent and fresh set of artwork that marries technology and art into a new creative dialogue in the visual arts.

Want more than just visual …stimulation? click on link below and get the official “Click It” themesong – music by Donovan Lessard.

Posted in 21st century glass, 21st century sculpture, american glass, american studio glass, art, art auction, art education, art fair, art gallery, art glass, art glass today, art world, Arts and Crafts Movement, city gallery, covid-19, craft design art, dialogues in glass, f lennox campello, figurative art, fused glass, glass, glass and steel sculpture, Jeff Zimmer, kilnformed, wgs contemporary | Tagged george floyd, naacp, racism

Watch Imagine Museum’s Instagram Video of Artist Michael Janis

Posted on June 5, 2020 by admin |

Florida’s Imagine Museum has WGS’ Michael Janis’ glass artwork in its permanent collection, their “American Masters”, – and recently posted a video snippet of an interview with him on their Instagram page.

Click on image to jump to Imagine Museum Instagram

Imagine Museum is a new fine art institution in St. Petersburg, Florida. Its primary collection displays the explosive growth and diversification of the studio glass movement in America since the 1960’s, and extends to new directions in contemporary glass.

Posted in Uncategorized

Get Ready to CLICK-IT! WGS Contemporary Art Gallery Presents New Virtual Exhibition

Posted on June 4, 2020 by admin |

Want it? Click-it! Get It!

Click It Opens Online June 16th, 2020

The COVID-19 epidemic has been an unprecedented challenge to the art world. WGS Contemporary art gallery is working thru the issues that have stopped the gallery from being open bring artwork made by some of the hottest glass, mixed media sculptors, painters and ceramic artists to the world.

The WGS Contemporary gallery is excited to bring lots of fine art sculpture right to your living room! Be sure to check out CLICK IT! – a virtual gallery experience that will be made live – opening June 16th on our website!

Look for (very affordable!) by artists that include: Teri Bailey, J. Jordan Bruns, F. Lennox Campello, Jason Chakravarty & Jennifer Caldwell, Cheryl P. Derricotte, Sean Dolon, Sean Hennessey, Joesph Ivacic, Michael Janis, Carmen Lozar, Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Jodi Walsh, Steve Wanna, and Jeff Zimmer!

WGS Contemporary’s mission is to contribute to thinking about art, new media, technology, and social issues through an open access forum which we hope will facilitate contemporary and innovative projects worldwide. In that process, WGSC will expose the cutting edge work of artists pushing the new media frontiers of art.

Want more than just visual …stimulation? click on link below and get the official “Click It” themesong – music by Donovan Lessard.

Posted in art gallery, art glass, arts and crafts, coronavirus, covid, covid-19, virtual, wgs, wgs contemporary, wgs projects | Tagged click it

ARTOMATIC 2.0 Coming!

Posted on June 1, 2020 by admin |

Recently it was announced that the next Artomatic will be completely virtual!

ARTOMATIC 2.0: A VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE is a digital response! Since we can’t gather physically for now, the DMV artfair for all will move their 20th anniversary celebration online.

Artomatic debuted in 1999 as a non-juried, volunteer-run exhibition in the Manhattan Laundry building, which also lent the event its washer-inspired name. Over time, it has grown into a 501(c)(3) with a board of directors and tens of thousands of attendees at each iteration, but until now, the model has remained largely unchanged: Participants pay a modest entry fee and take volunteer shifts staffing the event, in exchange for ample space to exhibit or perform pretty much whatever they want for multiple weeks. Events have happened more sporadically in recent years, but organizers wanted to mark the 20th anniversary year in a meaningful way. However, 2019 came and went without finding a location to host a celebration, so anniversary plans were moved to 2020, only to be upended by the outbreak of COVID-19.

Here’s what’s happening:
*Visual artist profiles to display/sell art thru their pay channels
*Live opportunities for performing artists
*Enriching workshops
*By artists, for everyone
*July 20 – August 20, 2020

More information soon. Stay tuned.

Posted in artomatic

The Washington Glass School

Monthly Archives: June 2020

WGS Featured Artist: Cheryl Derricotte

WGS Featured Artist: Sean Donlon

WGS Featured Artist: Jason Chakravarty

WGS Featured Artist : F Lennox Campello

WGS Featured Artist : Jennifer Caldwell

Artists for Racial Justice Exhibit Raises Funds for Community!

CLICK-IT Exhibition Opens June 16th @ WGS Contemporary

Watch Imagine Museum’s Instagram Video of Artist Michael Janis

Get Ready to CLICK-IT! WGS Contemporary Art Gallery Presents New Virtual Exhibition

ARTOMATIC 2.0 Coming!