Washington (State) Museum of Glass Showcases Washington (DC) Glass School Directors

Sculptures by each of the Washington Glass School Directors – Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers and Michael Janis- were acquired for the permanent collection of the Tacoma Museum of Glass (MOG).

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.

The artworks by the Washington Glass School artists will be part of a yearlong exhibit Boundless Curiosity: A Journey with Robert Minkoff, opening April 2, 2022.

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.

BOUNDLESS CURIOSITY: A JOURNEY WITH ROBERT MINKOFF

Opening April 2, 2022 thru 2023

Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock Street, Tacoma, WA 98402

www.museumofglass.org

2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition: Symbiotic Presence

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The 2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition: Symbiotic Presence is installed at the Brentwood Arts Exchange. A diverse array of works from glass sculpture, to painting, to video art represents this year’s theme of the strength and willpower of artists, bringing people together to help heal fractured communities.

View of Brentwoood Arts Exchange installation of Symbiotic Presence.

View of Brentwoood Arts Exchange installation of Symbiotic Presence.

Maryland’s Prince George’s County artists will tell their stories and explore our community relationships in this year’s county juried exhibition, featuring work from thirty-two local artists. 

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Erwin Timmers’ cast recycled glass sculpture “One Another” is featured in the exhibit. Works by four Washington Glass School artists are exhibited.

This exhibition was juried by Shanti Norris. The Prince George’s County Juried exhibition is sponsored by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Department of Parks and Recreation, Prince George’s County, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division. This exhibition will be physically installed at Brentwood Arts Exchange Main Gallery and presented digitally for online viewing.

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Virtual Gallery Tour and Artist Talk via Facebook Live: Saturday, January 9 at 2 pm

November 9, 2020 – January 9, 2021

A video walk-thru is online – click on link below to jump to video

2020 Prince George’s County Juried Exhibition:Symbiotic Presence

The Future of Art: Glass Art Fair 2020

Many art fairs have been moved online due to the global pandemic. Now, as a way to provide access to the best of art glass – Glass Art Fair has been formed. This new online art fair provides a unique opportunity with virtual experience – where all are invited to learn and explore each artist featured and share on their personal social media. The future has “arrived so much sooner,” said the creator of Glass Art Fair,  “If galleries and fairs are closed, how can we sell art? Creating an online art fair platform is something we envisioned as an important part of what we do.”

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artist: Tim Tate. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.

New for 2020, the Glass Art Fair online art fair features over 60 artists creating using glass as their art medium, opening online to the public on Sunday, November 1st, 2020. This art fair will be online the same time as the Sofa Chicago art fair (rebranded Intersect Art Fair).

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artist: Michael Janis. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.


Glass Art Fair hopes collectors on their laptops and iPads will take more time with the work than those darting through a Navy Pier or a Miami beachfront tent. 
“We have the ability to have multiple images and detail shots – When people are visiting the online platform, they aren’t walking through for 45 seconds. You’re going to have their attention for so much longer.”

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artist: Wilfried Grootens. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.

This online presentation will continue for the month of November with more presentations as works become available. Each artist has the availability to edit and add artwork throughout the month so please check back in for updates often. The works on the site are available for purchase.

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artist: Christina Bothwell. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.

Expect more of what you love at the Glass Art Fair.

artists:  Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.

artists:
Jennifer Caldwell and Jason Chakravarty. Image courtesy Habatat Galleries.

Final Week of CLICK-IT! Online Exhibition

Works by Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty, Jeff Zimmer, F Lennox (Lenny) Campello, Teri Bailey and Steve Wanna.

Works by Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty, Jeff Zimmer, F Lennox (Lenny) Campello, Teri Bailey and Steve Wanna.

We’re down to the final week the “CLICK-IT!” online exhibit!. Showing works by these talented artists (Teri 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) to the public and hearing the wonderful feedback has been so rewarding. It means a lot to us that we can share their world with the world and an appreciation for the works/sentiments/technical brilliance can be appreciated.

Works by Sean Donlon, Michael Janis, Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty, Joseph Ivacic and Tim Tate.

Works by Sean Donlon, Michael Janis, Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty, Joseph Ivacic and Tim Tate.

Those who have yet to visit the exhibition should grab the chance to see these truly wonderful works online – click HERE to jump to online exhibit!

Works by Cheryl Derricotte, Sean Hennessey, Erwin Timmers, Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty and Carmen Lozar.

Works by Cheryl Derricotte, Sean Hennessey, Erwin Timmers, Jennifer Caldwell & Jason Chakravarty and Carmen Lozar.

Artists For Racial Justice” exhibit and fundraising for non-profits that can help with equality with art as a tool for healing and peace to help at this time.

Artists for racial.equality.justiceClick HERE to jump to the fundraiser arts page.  

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

WGS Featured Artist: Steve Wanna

CLICK IT! Featured Artist: Steve Wanna

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Steve Wanna is a multi-disciplinary sound and visual artist whose work includes music, sound design for dance collaborations, sculpture, installation, photography, and works for mixed media. Born and raised in Lebanon, he immigrated to the United States with his family as a teenager, eventually receiving a doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Maryland in 2004.

Steve’s work is driven by his belief that under the right conditions beauty can emerge without the need for direct intervention. He creates abstract, experimental fixed works and installations in a variety of mediums and formats that include sound, 2-D work, sculpture, video, and photography. His work is informed by the principle of emergence as defined in systems theory and Buddhism. His process often involves an element of controlled randomness, taking great care to prepare the initial conditions for a process whose final results are largely out of his control.

As a composer and sound artist by training, the perception of the passage of time is a strongly recurring theme in Steve’s work.  Whether sonic or visual. he creates fixed works and installations that deal with mainly three different manifestations of this concept: fixed works that represent or capture a single moment in time, fixed works that are the result of a long process, and works that are themselves processes in perpetual unfolding.

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

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

Steve Wanna: As an experimental artist, I don’t have one set process in place. My work and process depend on the idea underlying a project and the materials in use. My inspirations vary from the literary to the scientific. I often have to invent new techniques for using materials in unconventional ways to realize my ideas, and I like the work to embody that process. My approach can be described as contained chaos, and most of my work hovers at the boundary between control and disorder: I carefully create containers or frameworks in which I then allow some process to unfold, almost completely unhindered. There’s an element of controlled randomness that allows processes and materials to come together to directly shape the final work, without constant intervention from me.

Steve Wanna, "Myth of Creation - CE181231.1036", Acrylic, powder pigment, resin, plaster, mixed media; 12" x 6" x 1.5"

Steve Wanna, “Myth of Creation – CE181231.1036″, Acrylic, powder pigment, resin, plaster, mixed media; 12″ x 6″ x 1.5”

I can describe the process of one of the works currently on offer. It comes from an ongoing series called Myths of Creation. Each work in the series is a record of a unique event, an instant of time, forever frozen. The idea was inspired by images from NASA’s Hubble Telescope of cosmic events like supernovae: what we see are records of ancient events that occurred eons ago but still have impact and immediacy. I wanted to capture that feeling. Each work is made by exploding various materials onto a prepared board. The resulting explosion becomes the work—each piece is a record of the very instant of its creation. The titles, which bear the date and time of the event, reflect this. The works are fixed finally in clear cast resin, which adds a depth and enhances the sense of these works as frozen moments of time, records of specific, cataclysmic events.

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

Steve Wanna: I have four works in this show that come from three different series, including, Myths of Creation, which I describe above. One thing that is difficult to convey in photographs is the depth and impact these pieces have. There’s a three-dimensional, sculptural quality that isn’t immediately obvious—the materials aren’t flat on the board but have texture and depth, and the cast resin enhances that. It’s also important to understand that when I create these works, I experience them as a viewer: each time I make a drop I don’t know what the result will be exactly and the work is being created anew for me. I find this an incredibly exciting and addictive feeling. 

Steve Wanna "...she who makes the moon the moon" - Scape #4", synthetic wax blend, paint, LED light, mixed media;6.25" x 6.25" x 3"

Steve Wanna “…she who makes the moon the moon” – Scape #4″, synthetic wax blend, paint, LED light, mixed media;6.25″ x 6.25″ x 3″

 

WGS: How have you handled the COVID-19 lockdown? How have you adapted?

Steve Wanna: I ended up catching the virus very early on, around mid-March, when very little was known. I struggled to get information and a test, but was lucky in that I didn’t require hospitalization. I had a range of symptoms that all cleared up eventually, except for two that lingered—some persistent weakness in smell and taste.

Like many artists, I wasn’t able to do much creatively. Free time isn’t helpful when it’s filled with anxiety and uncertainty on a global, national, and personal level. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things soon, even though we still don’t have a clear path forward with this pandemic. But I do feel a sense of urgency to move one with life and try to figure out what things might look like in the future.

 steve.wanna.mix

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

Steve Wanna: I’m a composer by training and only recently went into visual art full time. I almost went into architecture, which I suppose is close to art. I also have a fascination with material sciences, physics, and philosophy. I still fantasize about being in a filed that somehow combines all those. Art comes pretty close. If I weren’t an artist I would still have to be involved in some creative activity. I don’t think I would know how to exist without that. I cook a lot and I relate to cooking in very much the same way: I like to experiment and see what happens. I think I’m addicted to discovering new things through play and experimentation and to making stuff.

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

Steve Wanna: Both. All my work has an element of chance or controlled randomness, but I’m also a very careful and meticulous planner. My personality is not impulsive and I’m even a bit of a control freak and that spills into my art practice. I use randomness as an antidote to being overbearing when it comes to making art—it helps get me out of the way of the work.

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

Steve Wanna: Most of my work relies on a process that I carefully put in place specifically to get me out of the way of having to make decisions like that. It’s a different way of thinking but I’ve found it to be more relaxed and open. It creates enough space to allow me and the work to coexist happily. The work is usually finished when the process is complete. I may have to make additional adjustments or modifications, but I try to stay true to the work and not insert unnecessary distractions into the work or my thinking.

Click here to jump to Steve Wanna’s artwork in CLICK-IT!

WGS Featured Artist: Cheryl Derricotte

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

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. Cheryl_Derricotte_Working.In.The.glass.Studio.art.sculpture.american.clickit.wgs_contemporary

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

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!

Tim Tate & Michael Janis Collaborate

The Collaboration…..

"All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" Michael Janis & Tim Tate; 2019, fused glass, cast glass, sgraffito imagery, steel; 6'-0" x 9'-0"

“All That Is Solid Melts Into Air” Michael Janis & Tim Tate; 2019, fused glass, cast glass, sgraffito imagery, steel; 6′-0″ x 9′-0″; Photo credit: Pete Duvall.

Michael Janis and Tim Tate have worked together as Co-Directors of the Washington Glass School and Studio for more than 15 years, working on their own individual work, teaching and creating a functioning arts studio in the nation’s capital. 

Michael Janis creates imagery with crushed glass powder his signature "sgraffito" technique.

Michael Janis creates imagery with crushed glass powder his signature “sgraffito” technique.

This summer, the two artists decided to build on that rich and storied history by collaborating on an impressive piece that would both combine and challenge their individual, and strongly, narrative work. 

Tim Tate works on the glass panels for the collaborative artwork.

Tim Tate works on the glass panels for the collaborative artwork.

 “All Things Solid Melt Into Air” is the title of their 6’ x 9’ wall installation, comprised of 54 separate kiln cast glass insets. To create this work, the artists made 42 separate bas-relief plaster molds, 12 sgraffito glass powder drawings, 12 lost wax glass castings and 4 months to produce this spectacular and monumental work.

Detail of "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air"

Detail of “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air” Photo credit: Pete Duvall

Referencing mankind’s interaction with nature as the artwork main theme, Tim and Michael set about to produce an experience that people will want to engage with…on a tactile basis.  One can explore each of the olive tinted glass tiles to feel sentiments and poetic visions of the artists, or step back and just enjoy the piece as one would enjoy a bird’s song. They are both immensely proud of this work, which will be shown at the Habatat Prime exhibit during SOFA Expo in Chicago, (October 31, 2019 – November 3, 2019).

Habatat Prime
Location: Roosevelt Collection @ 1023 S. Delano Court East, Chicago, IL 60605
Habatat will have transportation to and from the space that is 3 miles from the Pier.

Report from Miami Art Fairs

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from SCOPE Art Fair 2017

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from SCOPE Art Fair 2017

It may snow along the East Coast this weekend, but down at Art Basel Miami Beach, it was all sunshine and beach parties and artwork and music everywhere. A fun thing about Miami is you get to spend hours in Lyfts and cabs going across causeways to and from the beach exhibits. context.art.fair.miami.2017.alida_anderson

Washington Glass School artists were represented at a number of the incredible art fairs that took place during Art Basel / Miami Art Fair week.

Erwin Timmers new work was dazzling!

Erwin Timmers new work was dazzling!

At Context Art Miami – Alida Anderson Art Project showed artists Erwin Timmers, Laura Beth Konopinski and Audrey Wilson.

Audrey Wilson and Laura Beth Konopinski at Context

Audrey Wilson and Laura Beth Konopinski at Context

Congrats to our own Laura Beth Konopinski, who was selected by Julian Navarro, the fair director as one of the standout women artists at the fair!

Tim Tate's works shone brightly at SCOPE Miami

Tim Tate’s works shone brightly at SCOPE Miami

Tim Tate and Michael Janis were featured by Habatat Galleries at two art fairs – SCOPE Miami and Form Art Fair. Tim’s new wall pieces were a hit at SCOPE – with many reacting to the artwork’s content.jennifer.scanlan.scope.tim_tate.glass.miami.art.fair

Tim's work was the most photo'd works at Miami Beach.

Tim’s work was the most photo’d works at Miami Beach.

The newest art fair “Form” opened across the street from Art Basel. Run by the same group that presents SOFA Chicago, the artwork focused on media specific art.

Michael Janis' work at Habatat Galleries space at the FORM Art Fair.

Michael Janis’ work at Habatat Galleries space at the FORM Art Fair.

There was alot of glitz and glamour and celebrity-sightings during the week.

Artist Chuck Close came thru the show.

Artist Chuck Close came thru the show.

As did these glitterati.

As did these glitterati.

When Art Basel first came to Miami in 2002, it was a satellite art fair and an end-of-the-year anchor to the Basel, Switzerland main event held in the summer. But in a perfect storm of palm trees, parties, a surge of interest in art (or at least the lucrative art market), and an Instagram explosion, it’s now become the biggest annual art event in North America, attended by some 85,000 people. And as the fair morphs into two dozen satellite fairs and a weeklong full calendar of art and fashion happenings, it’s also a venue to show how the art by a new generation of artists is being made.

Washington Post Reviews Michael Janis Solo @ Littleton Gallery

The Washington Post published the following review of Michael Janis’ solo show “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows” being exhibited at the Maurine Littleton Gallery through Oct 15. Art critic Mark Jenkins  describes Michael’s skill as “extraordinary. Jenkins also enthuses that Janis’ glass artwork combines “the stateliness of stained-glass windows with the vivacity of pop art”. Have a read of the full text below:

Michael Janis. "Radiance," 2016, glass, glass powder imagery, steel; on view at Maurine Littleton Gallery. (Michael Janis/Maurine Littleton Gallery)

Michael Janis. “Radiance,” 2016, glass, glass powder imagery, steel; on view at Maurine Littleton Gallery. (Michael Janis/Maurine Littleton Gallery)

By Mark Jenkins October 8, 2016

Michael Janis

If Michael Janis worked with pencil or charcoal, his draftsmanship would be impressive. But the D.C. artist draws photorealist portraits with pulverized glass, placing the powder exactly with tiny tools. Which is extraordinary.

Most of the pieces in “Echoes of Leaves and Shadows,” at Maurine Littleton Gallery, include depictions of pretty young women. These gamines, who might be ballerinas or French New Wave stars, are rendered in granulated black glass fused by heat to clear glass sheets. The pieces aren’t just black-and-clear, though. Janis overlays and underlies patches of translucent colored glass, and often adds such 3-D glass elements as butterflies or flower petals. Aqua and orange are common in this array, among other hues. In one picture, an abstract yellow-green swirl contrasts the subject’s slightly darker green eyes.

Janis employs many variations, slicing faces into three equal parts or contrasting them with panels of textured glass. There are ceramic busts garlanded with glass leaves, and portraits embellished with near-opaque peacock- or dark-blue circles. The latter combine the stateliness of stained-glass windows with the vivacity of pop art — half medieval cathedral, half 1960s Vogue.

Michael Janis: Echoes of Leaves and Shadows On view through Oct. 15 at Maurine Littleton Gallery, 1667 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-333-9307. littletongallery.com.

Witness Tim Tate’s Infinite Mirror Sculpture

Artist Tim Tate has been pulling traditional craft into new realms and depths. Tim shared his newest series “Witnesses of Wonders” and the work is incredible. In this series,Tim has been using elements that were 3-D printed at Catholic University’s modeling department combined with infinity mirrors to expand the sensation of unlimited space in the artwork. 

From Tim’s artist statement about his series:

Tim Tate, "21st Century Guernica"; Glass, Cast Images, LED; 36" x 36 x 4". In this piece a ring of translucent refugee boats float in the center, all with no where to turn to. The center ring is shared with red poppies, the symbol for war remembrance in England. The outer edge is made up of individual images from the powerful Picasso painting entitled Guernica.

Tim Tate, “21st Century Guernica”; Glass, Cast Images, LED; 36″ x 36 x 4″. In this piece a ring of translucent refugee boats float in the center, all with no where to turn to. The center ring is shared with red poppies, the symbol for war remembrance in England. The outer edge is made up of individual images from the powerful Picasso painting entitled Guernica.

“I try to entice the viewer to look deeply into and completely experience my windows into alternative dimensions. My works create an optical and bodily illusion of infinity through apparently limitless space. There is an intimacy created by viewing deeply into a circular opening, as if peering through a portal to witness another endlessly repeating reality.

Tim Tate, 21st Century Guernica - detail .  Said Tim about the imagery of the refugee boats, " Refugees right now are trying to escape unspeakable atrocities and protect their families who are turned away at country after country. This is the shame of our decade. "

Tim Tate, 21st Century Guernica – detail . Said Tim about the imagery of the refugee boats, ” Refugees right now are trying to escape unspeakable atrocities and protect their families who are turned away at country after country. This is the shame of our decade. “

 

The constant repetition of imagery also speaks to us of timelines: ones that go endlessly into the future or extend endlessly into the past. These repetitions reference society mired into static social patterns, some good, some bad.

Tim Tate. "21st Century Guernica" detail.    "Picasso made his painting in mostly tones of black white and gray "to drain the life out of them". I drenched them in red and returned color to them because this horror is happening right now in this world....in fact this very second." said Tim Tate.

Tim Tate. “21st Century Guernica” detail. “Picasso made his painting in mostly tones of black white and gray “to drain the life out of them”. I drenched them in red and returned color to them because this horror is happening right now in this world….in fact this very second.” said Tim Tate.

We look inside these portals as if seeing into a dream, fully realizing that this is but an illusion. But even though we know it is a illusion that should not stop us from freely examining it, and hopefully seeing another world at the same time.

Tim Tate, "The Endless Cycle"; 36 x 36 x 4"; Glass, Aluminum, Poly-Vitro, electronics

Tim Tate, “The Endless Cycle”; 36 x 36 x 4″; Glass, Aluminum, Poly-Vitro, electronics

Uncomfortable with any single defining time, I prefer sliding through the centuries; from 19th century Victorian techno-fetishism, to mid and late 20th century references to endless mirrors and studio glass to 21st century electronics and political focus. Perhaps all my work can be defined by how uncomfortable I am with definitions.” Tim Tate.

For more images of Tim Tate’s newest works – click HERE to have a look at his website

Tim Tate, "The Endless Cycle". Said Tim about this work: "For every man shown here, 1000 people died last year because of gun violence. For every gun shown here, a child dies every day. A hard lesson we have to learn from Orlando.....only by joining together can we hope to curtail gun violence."

Tim Tate, “The Endless Cycle”. Said Tim about this work: “For every man shown here, 1000 people died last year because of gun violence. For every gun shown here, a child dies every day. A hard lesson we have to learn from Orlando…..only by joining together can we hope to curtail gun violence.”