Artworks by : Dr Joyce Scott, Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Soledad Salamé & more!
2022 is the International Year of Glass (IYOG) AND the 60th Anniversary of American Studio Glass Movement. As part of the events celebrating glass, Howard Cohen of Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass has organized a spectacular exhibit of glass artwork during the Glass & Optical Materials Division (GOMD) conference in Baltimore at Coppin State University. This will be the first glass exhibit in Baltimore since 1996! The goals of the show are to showcase ways glass has matured into a sculptural medium, bring a diverse group of renown artists from the Baltimore/Washington region to the arts communities, and students in the area, and amplify artists voices including members of the BIPOC, Hispanic, LGBQT and immigrant communities. The exhibit will feature artwork by Dr Joyce Scott, Tim Tate, Soledad Salamé, Erwin Timmers, and Michael Janis. The exhibition is made possible through the support of the GOMD, the American Ceramic Society, Corning & Owens Corning for funding some of the exhibition costs and to fund the Baltimore scientific outreach to Baltimore City High schools.
The exhibit is scheduled to run from Mid-May through June 2022.
Michael Janis, “Healing Words” 2009, kilnformed glass, glass powder imagery, 37″ x 19″ x 2″, Collection Museum of Glass.
A long-time Museum of Glass Trustee, Potomac, MD-based glass-art collector Robert Minkoff selected MOG to house his art collection before passing away in September 2020. Developed through decades of patronage and philanthropy, the collection celebrates the incredible diversity of glass art and its possibilities in the field of contemporary art. With the addition of Robert Minkoff’s personal collection, the Museum’s glass holdings are now the largest in the Western United States.
Organized by Museum of Glass and curated by Katie Buckingham, ‘Boundless Curiosity’ follows Minkoff’s love of glass and tells vibrant stories of glass’s evolution from a studio craft material. “The Minkoff Collection is a transformational gift to the Museum” said curator Katie Buckingham. “We are excited about the opportunity to widen the story of glass art and show compelling narrative sculptural work”.
MOG’s contemporary glass collection concentrates on how medium of glass interacts with modern day art. Citing “glass secessionism” (as defined by Tim Tate and William Warmus in their “21st Century Glass Conversations and Images” online group) there is a movement in glass art away from “technique” towards “artistic vision” and concept. Said Curator Buckingham “we all look forward to including the artworks by the Washington Glass School directors – the 3 Musketeers of Glass.”
Washington Glass School artists Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate and Michael Janis (aka aka- Athos, Porthos and Aramis)
Works by noted glass artists Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Debora Moore, Therman Statom, Amber Cowan, Susan Taylor Glasgow, Shane Ferro, Paul Stankard, and Laura Donefer round out the exhibit in the main gallery of the Museum. The Minkoff collection exhibition will kick off the Glass Art Society (GAS) 2022 international conference held in Tacoma, WA this May.
About Museum of Glass
Located in Tacoma, Washington, Museum of Glass is a premier contemporary art museum dedicated to glass and glassmaking in the West Coast’s largest and most active museum glass studio. Opened in 2002, the Museum has established a reputation for hosting impactful and engaging artist residencies, organizing nationally traveling exhibitions, and creating unique programs for visitors while building a growing permanent collection chronicling the development of modern and contemporary glass.
Museum of Glass provides an environment for artists and the public to ignite creativity, fuel discovery, and enrich their lives through glass and glassmaking. MOG’s glass holdings are now the largest in the Western United States.
Germantown, VA’s BlackRock Center for the Arts, presents HAND CRAFTED, a group exhibition that explores the role of craftsmanship in contemporary art and across a variety of media including wool, ceramic, glass, paper, fiber, porcelain, etc. This group exhibition features over 55 multimedia works by 23 artists from the Mid-Atlantic United States region.
Says Gallery Director and Curator Rula Jones, “Concept and craftsmanship, the latter defined as strong knowledge of material manipulation, have occasionally been oppositional in modern and contemporary art. However, these works show high levels of artistry and skill, while also presenting very strong purpose and theory. Artists in this exhibition use materials often associated with craft and elevate them through contemporary concerns. The works on view address a variety of both universal and contemporary issues including loss, identity, the environment, humanity and nature through a variety of media including ceramic, glass, fiber, wool, silk, beads, paper, porcelain etc. This exhibition celebrates the diversity of theory, process and materiality in contemporary art, suggesting that the boundary between craft and fine art remains as elusive as ever.”
Artists included in the exhibition are: Lisa Battle, Helen Blumen, Karin Birch, Mei Mei Chang, Ceci Cole McInturff, Linda Colsh, Barbara Joann Combs, Andrea Finch, Felisa Federman, Sarah J. Hull, Noelani Jones, Shana Kohnstamm, Rebecca Murtaugh, Phyllis Mayes, Mitchell Noah, Sara Parent-Ramos, Sookkyung Park, Margaret Polcawich, Paulette Privott, Allan Rosenbaum, Kanika Sircar, Erwin Timmers, and Patricia de Poel Wilberg.
Hand Crafted will be on view from March 5 – April 15, 2022. An opening reception will be held on March 19th from 5 pm to 7 pm. A virtual catalog is available to the public in the link.
About BlackRock Center for the Arts Located in Germantown, MD, BlackRock Center for the Arts brings inspiring performing and visual arts experiences to diverse audiences in a welcoming and intimate setting, providing opportunities to explore, celebrate and engage in the arts. For more information, visit www.blackrockcenter.org, email Rula Jones, Gallery Director at rjones@blackrockcenter.org, or call 301-528-2260.
Joyce Scott; Head Shot, 2008, Seed beads, thread, glass, bullets, 18 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 4 1/2 in
Dr Joyce Scott
Join the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass on Tuesday, March 15, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, when MacArthur Fellow Dr. Joyce J. Scott examines the extremes of human nature by conflating humor and horror, history and fantasy, as well as beauty and brutality to create artworks that not only mine the fabric of our complex collective history, but that reveal universal truths.
Best known for her use of the off-loom, free-form, glass bead weaving technique referred to as the peyote stitch, Scott merges beads, blown glass, and found objects with autobiographical, sociological, and political content to unapologetically confront themes of racism, sexism, violence, inequality, history, and oppression while simultaneously embracing splendor, spirituality, nature, and healing. For this episode of Fired Up!, expect the unexpected! Sometimes, her boundless energy and creativity will spill forth in delightful and playful ways, mocking cultural stereotypes.
Free – Open to the public. Click below link to register for AACG talk:
WGS Co-Director Erwin Timmers is interviewed by Vicki Schneider in the hot-off-the-press issue of Glass Art Magazine. Erwin talks about his unique technique and if he shares his intellectual property or if he guards his glass secrets. Read his interview in the March/April issue of Glass Art Magazine. Photos by Pete Duvall.
Save The Date! May 14th is the proposed date for Washington Glass School Open Studio Tour! Many of the surrounding art studios and galleries will be participating! We will follow health protocols – and it will be great to see all in real life! Come and see what’s new and what has been shaking at the studio!
Tim Tate’s “Justinian’s Oculus” 33″ x 33″ x 4″; Cast Lead Crystal
Last year, as the Glass School blog noted, “Glasstress – Window to the Future” the internationally acclaimed joint venture exhibition by Russia’s State Hermitage Museum with Fondazione Berengo and Berengo Studio showcased artworks made with glass by contemporary artists with a grand opening at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Tim Tate’s cast glass work was made in Italy’s Berengo Studios.
The exhibition catalog has been released – and on the cover is the cast glass work by WGS director Tim Tate! His cast glass sculpture, “Justinian’s Oculus ” is the show’s signature featured work.
It would help if one could read Russian Cyrillic….
Glasstress is a project by Adriano Berengo to further his mission to promote the use of glass in the world of contemporary art. The first Glasstress exhibition was launched in 2009 to establish a new platform for art made with glass. Founded as a Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale of Arts, although its roots will always remain in Murano it has gone on to tour the world.
The Allegany Arts Council Saville Gallery presents Washington Glass School Co- Director Erwin Timmers in a solo exhibition “Reflections in Glass” from February 5 thru February 26, 2022. Recycling, waste, the environment, and the ways in which all three relate to society are recurring themes in his work.
Erwin Timmers cast recycled glass sculpture in the Saville Gallery, Cumberland, MD.
Said Timmers about his body of work on exhibit: “My work revolves around ideas of sustainable design and consumption in the urgent context of pressing societal changes and deepening global ecological concerns. My artwork centers on the craft of design, combining modern and traditional fabrication techniques to develop new material-based knowledge and aesthetics of sustainability. My portfolio aims to spark specific kinds of awareness. “
“The objects I sculpt from recycled materials are moments of intersection and influence. As boundary objects, they play with conventions of form and function, material and method, production and consumption. I work less for the purposes of critique, but rather for the potential to generate open and inviting exchanges. An artist, successfully engaged in creative inquiry, notices, seeks out, or otherwise creates the conditions for novel convergence and the overlapping and dissolution of conventional boundaries. I work at reinforcing metaphors of transformation and change. “
Timmers will also present a talk on how public art transforms communities. The event “Making Our Case For Public Art” is free and open to the public and all are invited to attend. The event will begin with a networking reception at 5:30PM with the program slated to kick off at 6:00PM.
The artists from the Washington Glass School are also on exhibit in a special show, featuring artworks by Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Patricia De Poel Wilberg, April Shelford, Vibha Bhatia and Clayton Lutu.
Timmers is Co-founder and Director of the Washington Glass School and one of the DC area’s leading ‘eco-artists’. Erwin is currently working with architects and designers on several “green” design projects. His work in sustainable design can be seen in some of the large public art projects he has completed, including an award-winning project for the US EPA Ariel Rios South Courtyard Green Infrastructure Project, in Washington, DC, and the public artwork for the LEED certified Safeway supermarket in Bethesda, MD. Montgomery County honored Erwin Timmers as the county’s “Outstanding Artist” in 2018. The Museum of Glass (MOG) in Tacoma, Washington has recently acquired works by Timmers for its permanent collection.
Allegany Arts Council Saville Gallery 9 N. Centre Street Cumberland, MD 21502 Reflections in Glass February 5- 26, 2022
Making Our Case for Public Art Friday, February 25, 2022 • 5:30PM – Cocktail Reception; 6:00PM – Program • Free to attend
“Compositions In Light” public artwork sculpture at Maryland’s Town Center Phase 2.
Washington Glass Studio was commissioned to make a new, two-part public art sculpture installation for the new mixed use residential development, Ansel, in Rockville, MD. Working with the project’s art consultant Artists Circle Fine Arts, the outlined goals were to enhance the location and the urban environment, as well as creating welcoming and colorful place markers that enlivens Rockville Town Center. The client – Duball, LLC – asked that the street placemaking artwork allow for a sense of fun and discovery.
The site – Ansel, 33 Monroe Street, Rockville, MD
The development was named “Ansel”, as spiritual nod to incredible American photographer Ansel Adams. Adams was considered a master of his craft and his experimentation with light gradations, degrees of exposure, and new techniques. Best known for his dramatic photographs of the American West, Adams achieved a popularity that few other photographers have known. Dedicated to wilderness preservation, he succeeded in changing the way Americans perceived their natural environment.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
American photographer Ansel Adams
Creating a strong visual element for the streetscape – while maintaining clear pedestrian circulation – Washington Glass Studio focused on creating an internally illuminated vertical tower – approx 11′ high.
Prelimary studies of sculpture form – based on the classic camera tripod shape.
Named “Compositions In Light”, the sculpture is made of cast glass and powdercoated metal. The inset glass panels in the artwork incorporates artistic references to renowned photographer Ansel Adams – with artistic takes on his photos of still lifes, architecture, and landscapes; his love of nature, and sculptural interpretations of Adams main instrument – cameras.
Plaster mold in kiln
Christina gets the shot!
Convoluted Positions
Duball crew works in the kilns
First firings in kiln
Ansel Adams’ photographs were the inspiration for the sculpted works within the public art.
The powder coated metal structure is arranged in triangular format to reference the classic photographers camera tripod. The shape also gives greater strength both structurally and in profile. The vertical structure supports the LED lighting and allows an even light to the glass wall panel opposite. The glass panels are inset into a removable grid section that is bolted to the structural frame. Each cast glass panel is set into silicone within metal angle surrounds. The metal base has a removable section to allow access to electrical source to tower.
Co-Director Michael Janis performs the QC.
The steel framework for the Rockville, MD public art sculpture.
Dimensional inset panels made of handmade cast glass presents tactile images of nature and objects that refer to Ansel Adams work and career. The varied nature of the artwork mounted in separate panels would invite investigation and exploration.
Shay Summers coldworks one of the artwork inset panels.
The gorgeous, illuminated tower is made up of colorful, tactile cast glass that defines each corner of the site. The inset glass panels are varied, but color coordinated with accent color panels to give a vibrancy to the design. The tapering form leads viewers eyes upward to a unique finial endcap, a cast sculpture that makes a fun, witty and distinctive statement. Dimensional inset panels made of handmade cast glass presents tactile images of nature and objects that refer to Ansel Adams work and career. The varied nature of the artwork mounted in separate panels would invite investigation and exploration.
Erwin Timmers reviews the artwork installation.
The installation onsite of the glass and steel artwork.
Sparkling in the daytime and backlit with energy efficient LED, the glass artwork in “Compositions in Light” will always be a visible presence on the street. The metalwork and thickness of each glass panel make the artwork strong for a streetscape environment. In the history of American conservation, few have worked as long and as effectively to preserve wilderness and to articulate the “wilderness idea” as Ansel Adams. He spent decades in the battle to protect the environment. Helping reinforce the background of Ansel Adams as an environmental activist are the color directions for the artwork. Blues and greens are the colors most associated with nature and the environment.
The interplay of sculpture, the colors & quality of cast glass and the prominent location makes this an integrated urban design that brings focus to the site. The freestanding nature of the installed artwork encourages visitors and residents to walk around the artwork and experience a dynamic sense of place. A sense of playful fun caps each sculpture and helps define the paired artworks. United by form, colorful towers reinforce their connection to the artwork of Ansel Adams with finials inspired by the master photographer’s artwork.
The artwork at night is lit from within with energy efficient LED.
“Compositions In Light”
Project Address: 33 Monroe St, Rockville, MD 20850
Client: Duball, LLC
Maryland’s Rockville Town Center Phase II includes 400 apartment units; 250 market-rate luxury apartments and 150 senior affordable apartments to be owned and managed by the Housing Opportunities Commission.
Artwork Project Team: Erwin Timmers, Christina Helowicz, Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Shay Summers
