Harriet Tubman Elementary School in DC features new sculpture at entrance, titled Enduring Dreams of Home, by WGS.
A new 11-foot Corten steel sculpture now stands at the entrance to the newly rebuilt Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Columbia Heights. Enduring Dreams of Home, designed by Washington Glass School artists Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and Tim Tate, brings together the history of the neighborhood, the legacy of Harriet Tubman and the future of a new generation of Washington students.
The sculpture began with the history provided in the DC Department of General Services’ (DC DGS) call for artists. The site had once been occupied by Washington rowhouses, and the original school was built in the 1960s after the District acquired and demolished homes on the block. That history of architecture, displacement and neighborhood change became an important point of departure for the design.
From original DC DGS call for artists brief to create new sculpture in DC’s Columbia Heights.
Responding to the brief, the artists fragmented a three-dimensional composition of rowhouses, windows and structural forms. At the center is a stylized image of Harriet Tubman. The architectural fragments appear to pull apart around her, suggesting both the physical transformation of the neighborhood and the larger ideas of movement, freedom and change associated with Tubman’s life.
The design evolved considerably during the process. Early studies explored different approaches to Tubman’s portrait, architectural forms and the relationship of the sculpture to the school. An early concept also considered pairing Tubman with Washington figure Mary McLeod Bethune before the design was ultimately refined around a single Tubman figure.
Preliminary design studies for Enduring Dreams of Home
The final sculpture is deliberately open. The Corten steel is cut through in places that allow the viewer to see the school and the surrounding architecture beyond the work. As viewers move around the sculpture, the relationship between Tubman’s face, the fragmented houses and the brickwork behind it continually changes. The sculpture can be seen as both an architectural object and a kind of visual lens into the landscape beyond.
That transparency was an unexpected but important part of the final design. Washington Glass School is known for working with glass, but the artists were drawn to the strength and material character of Corten steel for this project. The steel was approached almost like an opaque panel, with the artists cutting, opening and layering the material until the solid surface became visually transparent. The result connects the material thinking of the glass studio with the physical presence of a large-scale steel sculpture.
Fabrication was completed by Tim Scofield, followed by the complicated task of transporting and installing an 11-foot steel structure in the city. The sculpture had to be maneuvered through narrow Washington streets and carefully positioned on the school grounds. Once installed, the Corten surface began its own transformation, with the steel continuing to weather and develop its characteristic patina over time.
Enduring Dreams of Home now stands outside a school filled with images and stories of Harriet Tubman. Here, however, her image takes on a different form. Rather than a conventional heroic portrait, Tubman is integrated into an architectural landscape that connects the memory of what once stood on this site with the school that stands here today.
Detail of Tubman portrait that is both solid and open. One can see through it to the school and neighborhood beyond.
The sculpture is ultimately about more than a historical figure. It is about home, displacement, transformation and the possibility of a future shaped by the generations who come next.
Tubman’s image becomes a lens through which the viewer experiences the architecture and landscape beyond.
Enduring Dreams of Home Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers & Tim Tate Washington Glass School Corten steel, 11 feet Harriet Tubman Elementary School 3101 13th Street NW, Washington, DC 20010
The Washington Glass School recently welcomed a group of students from the Black History Month Poster Internship Program for an afternoon of studio visits, discussion, and career exploration.
Organized by Jewel Kahn, Education and Public Program Specialist for the M-NCPPC Black History Program, the visit introduced students to the working environment of a professional glass studio while offering an honest conversation about building a life in the arts.
Washington Glass School Co-Directors Michael Janis and Tim Tate spoke with the students about each of their paths. While discussing artistic process and contemporary kiln-formed glass, the conversation quickly expanded to topics that are often overlooked in art education: developing professional networks, creating opportunities, maintaining a sustainable studio practice, and navigating the realities of an arts career.
The students asked thoughtful questions about public art, exhibitions, collaborations, and the importance of community in an artist’s development. The exchange reflected one of the core missions of the Washington Glass School: sharing knowledge, encouraging emerging artists, and helping foster the next generation of creative voices.
We thank Jewel Kahn and the M-NCPPC Black History Program for arranging the visit and wish these talented students continued success as they pursue their artistic goals.
Now in its sixth year, Catching Fire has become an important event for collectors of contemporary glass art, offering access to works by internationally recognized artists while helping support the museum’s educational programs and community engagement initiatives.
The 2026 auction begins with an online silent auction opening June 10 and culminates with a live virtual auction on June 17. Participation is free, and bidders can register online to view available works and place bids throughout the event.
Among the artists participating this year is Washington Glass School Co-Director Michael Janis, whose kiln-formed glass portraitInner Dimensions explores themes of identity, memory, and psychological fragmentation through layered and fused glass imagery.
Created using Janis’ signature sgraffito glass powder technique, Inner Dimensions presents a portrait physically separated into horizontal bands that simultaneously hold together and come apart. The work uses the unique properties of glass as part of its meaning—transparent, reflective, fragile, yet capable of becoming solid and permanent through the process of kiln-forming.
A recent critic described the piece:
“The material doesn’t illustrate fragmentation; it is fragmentation.”
The Catching Fire auction reflects the continuing vitality of contemporary glass as an art form, showcasing a diverse range of techniques, aesthetics, and artistic voices. Proceeds from the event help the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass fulfill its mission of connecting people to glass through exhibitions, collections, education, and community programs.
Artists, collectors, and supporters of contemporary glass are encouraged to register and explore the auction catalog as bidding opens.
Located in Neenah, Wisconsin, Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass is internationally recognized for its collection, exhibitions, and educational programs dedicated to the art, history, and appreciation of glass. Through initiatives such as Catching Fire, the museum supports artists while expanding public engagement with contemporary glass art.
Washington Glass School artists Michael Janis and Tim Tate featured in Rip! Tear! Collage as Critique at the Eye Street Gallery, opening June 11.
There is a particular kind of honesty in the torn edge. Unlike the clean cut, which implies control, intention, the world of the maker, a torn surface tells the truth about force. Something resisted; something gave way. The fragment that remains carries the memory of what it once belonged to, and the wound where it parted is part of the meaning.
When the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities invited 23 District artists to explore collage and assemblage as forms of disruption, critique, and reconstruction, the exhibition they assembled — Rip! Tear! Collage as Critique, opening June 11 at the Eye Street Gallery — landed on something that feels genuinely urgent. This exhibition deliberately expands collage beyond paper: it includes quilting, video, sculpture, ceramics, and, importantly, glass – all aimed at mirroring the “fractured pace and layered realities of contemporary life.” It’s an exhibition grounded in disruption and reassembly.
For Michael Janis – Co-Director of the Washington Glass School and one of DC’s most rigorously conceptual glass artists – this isn’t metaphor, it’s method. His glass practice already is collage-like: each kiln-formed panel accumulates imagery and material in layers. Collage for Janis is not a style but a condition: as he has said, his work “explore[s] raw emotions and the fragility of the soul” by showing how one might present a calm facade while “distracted by inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes”. In this way, Janis’s work embodies the exhibition’s premise that the self itself is a collage – held together by nothing more than the frame we choose to stand inside.
The Face in the Digital Hurricane- Michael Janis, “Within” 2024, Glass Powder Imagery, Electronics, Video, steel, 12”W x 18”H x 1.5”
For Rip! Tear!, Janis contributes a glass-and-video work titled “Within”. The piece centers on an unidealized human face – textured beard, a weary expression – looking out at the viewer. It is literally a portrait in kiln-formed glass powder, where each subtle shift of translucency was carefully applied. Behind and within that glass portrait, however, plays a flickering video loop of abstract light and color patterns. The digital animations pulse and flow behind the face, as if emerging from beneath the skin. In practical terms, this is collage: video and glass combined, layered to form a single image. In conceptual terms, it’s even richer. The face meets the viewer directly, “not performing” for the camera, while the embedded video suggests the private stream of digital noise we all carry in our heads – “the endless scroll” of images and information we can never turn off.
Janis describes Within as capturing “the unbearable contemporary condition of being a person with a screen in your brain.” We present ourselves – our faces – to the world, but behind that public image the “digital hurricane” swirls unseen. The effect is that Within is collage as philosophy: it asserts that identity is inherently fragmented. One reads a visage in the foreground, but the subject is held together by overlapping layers of memory, media, and meaning. This fusion of portraiture and video under glass deepens the show’s theme: collage here isn’t just about cutting and pasting materials, but about revealing how modern life is already a patchwork of contexts. Within fits naturally in an exhibition about reassembly, because it literally reassembles reality – a physical face and a moving digital backdrop – into a new image.
Tim Tate, 12 Souls, 12 Resurrections, 2026, glass, mixed media, video
Tim Tate: Preservation as Resurrection Washington Glass School founder Tim Tate is also featured in Rip! Tear!, with a new sculpture work. Tate’s approach resonates with collage’s spirit of salvage, though he comes at it from a different angle than Janis. As one critic noted, “Tim Tate could truly be described as a mixed-media artist” – his signature reliquaries combine hand-blown glass cases, found objects, electronic circuitry and small video screens. In his work in Rip! Tear!, Tate takes archival photographs – often of queer couples and individuals erased from mainstream histories – and “resurrects” them with an inventive re-creation as a looping video that brings a semblance of life or motion back to the images. A static portrait becomes something like a flickering memory, protected yet animate.
In Rip! Tear!, Tate’s inclusion signals how collage can be temporal as well as material. His work literally preserves and animates the fragments of history. He creates an intimate shrine to personal identity: the glass reliquary is both fragile and enduring, “it might have been found in an old church somewhere, flickering away in the darkness for centuries,” preserving something precious. By doing so, Tate reminds us that collage has always been about putting the forgotten or discarded back into the frame. Where Janis looks inward at our digital selves, Tate looks backward at the analog past. Together they show two sides of the same coin: that both individual identity and collective memory are made of pieces we must hold together.
Washington Glass School in the Exhibition What Rip! Tear! makes visible – and what the presence of Janis and Tate confirms – is that glass has urgent relevance in a collage context. Glass is a medium of paradox: it’s transparent yet opaque, fragile yet millennia-old, immediate yet containing ages. As a material practice, glass itself collages light and shadow. Janis and Tate have spent decades treating glass as a conceptual tool, not just a craft. This exhibition places their work alongside 21 other artists (painters, sculptors, video artists, quilters, etc.) using collage tactics. It opens a conversation about DC’s creative community: about how art can reconstruct meaning from rupture, whether social, personal or historical.
Together, Janis and Tate embody Washington Glass School’s broader mission. Their work pushes glass beyond studio technique into contemporary discourse – into public art, memorial, media theory, and social justice. Seeing Within next to fabric quilts or a sound collage underscores that a glass panel can carry the same weight as any painting or sculpture in discussing today’s fractured world. For WGS, Rip! Tear! is a chance to champion glass as a cutting-edge medium for critique and change.
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 11, 2026, 6–8 PM at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (Eye Street Gallery) . Exhibition Dates: June 11 – August 7, 2026 (Eye Street Gallery, 200 I St. SE, Washington, DC 20003) . Hours: Free and open to the public Monday–Friday, 9 AM–5:30 PM
This gathering is designed for artists working in, or interested in, commemorative practice.
Washington Glass School Co-Director Michael Janis is an invited speaker for Memory, Makers, & Monuments, a two-day workshop exploring the future of commemorative public art in Washington, DC.
Public art today asks more of us than simply placing an object in space. It asks how we tell complex histories, how we involve communities in meaningful ways, and how artists can help shape memory with honesty, imagination, and care. These are questions central to my own studio practice and public projects, and I’m glad to join this conversation with fellow artists, designers, and cultural workers.
If you’re interested in monuments, memorials, civic space, or navigating the public art process, this looks like an important and generous gathering.
Memory, Makers, & Monuments: Public Art Workshop May 14–15, 2026 9:00am–5:00pm ET Free, in-person Location: First Congregational UCC
Attendance is limited to 50 participants.
Register: bit.ly/MemoryMakersMonuments
Organized by the Trust for the National Mall, in partnership with the DC Office of Planning and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and in collaboration with Forecast Public Art. Artists of all media and experience levels, and arts administrators working in public art to join us for a two‑day workshop on commemorative public art and public memory work in the District.
This two-day workshop will focus on expanding access, sharing practical tools, and building a community grounded in learning, care, and exchange. Guest speakers and facilitators represent public artists, designers, cultural workers, and practitioners across disciplines.
THe workshop will explore: Rethinking commemoration beyond traditional monument frameworks; Ethical questions in public memory, including history, harm, erasure, and accountability; Community engagement before, during, and after a project; Navigating RFQs/RFPs, building a team, and project implementation.
Organized by the Trust for the National Mall, in partnership with the DC Office of Planning and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and in collaboration with Forecast Public Art, this gathering is designed for artists working in, or interested in, commemorative practice.
Artists Michael Janis and Tim Tate with their glass/mixed media artwork “The Common Thread”. photo byPete Duvall
This April, Washington Glass School Directors Michael Janis and Tim Tate are featured at Glass 54, Habatat Galleries’ International Contemporary Glass Invitational, held April 22–26 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Known for bringing together leading voices in contemporary glass, the exhibition offers a focused snapshot of where the medium is now—and where it’s heading.
At the heart of this year’s event is a special “show-within-the-show” spotlighting Janis and Tate, whose long-standing dialogue—spanning more than two decades of shared ideas, experimentation, and advocacy—comes into sharp focus through both their individual works and a new collaborative installation, The Common Thread. The piece reflects an ongoing exploration of connection: between artists, between narratives, and between material and meaning.
Detail of “The Common Thread” artwork by Michael Janis & Tim Tate.
For Michael Janis, the works on view mark a continued evolution of his distinctive visual language. Known for his masterful use of sgraffito (drawing with crushed glass frit) and layered glass imagery, Janis creates compositions that are at once graphic and deeply psychological. His figures—often distorted, fragmented, or caught in ambiguous gestures—inhabit charged spaces where identity, perception, and emotional tension intersect.
The new pieces presented at Glass 54 push further into this territory. Faces and bodies emerge through saturated color and bold contour, at times obscured or refracted through reflective and mirrored surfaces. Viewers may find themselves implicated in the work, their own image pulled into the composition—an echo of Janis’ ongoing interest in perception and the instability of truth. These works resist easy narrative, instead offering a kind of visual poetics: suggestive, uneasy, and quietly confrontational.
Tim Tate’s contributions, known for their integration of video, electronics, and sculptural glass forms, provide a compelling counterpoint. Where Janis leans into the psychological and painterly, Tate often engages time-based media and narrative structure, creating works that expand the boundaries of what glass can contain and communicate.
Everything Rises(2026) by artist Tim Tate. photo by Pete Duvall
Together, their collaboration The Common Thread becomes a synthesis of these approaches—a dialogue made tangible. The installation weaves together their shared histories and divergent practices, suggesting that connection is not about sameness, but about resonance across difference.
Presented within the larger context of Glass 54, this focused exhibition offers collectors, curators, and viewers a rare opportunity to experience both the individual strengths and the collaborative energy of two artists who have helped shape the trajectory of contemporary glass.
Michael Janis on glass, public art, and 20 years in the Mt Rainier Gateway Arts District
Michael Janis cutting glass in the Washington Glass School studio in 2025.
Michael Janis is a contemporary glass artist and public art sculptor based in Washington, DC. He is a co-director of the Washington Glass School, an artist-run studio and educational center focused on contemporary glass practices.
In 2026, Washington Glass School marks 25 years since its founding and 20 years since establishing its home in Mount Rainier, Maryland. Janis became co-director of the school in 2005, shortly before the previous studio site in Washington, DC was taken through eminent domain for the development of Nationals Park.
Washington Glass School at 1338 Half Street SE (now Nationals outfield)
Janis is known for narrative glass sculpture, community-engaged public art, and memorial projects addressing identity, memory, and social history. His work appears in permanent museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tacoma Museum of Glass, and the Museum of American Glass, among others. He has completed public art commissions for libraries, medical centers, and civic spaces throughout Washington, DC, the Mid-Atlantic region, and beyond.
Michael Janis riding a horse in front of Washington Glass School, 2012
We spoke with Michael Janis about the history of Washington Glass School, his studio practice, and the role of glass in public art and memorial projects.
Q: Washington Glass School is marking 25 years, with 20 years in Mt Rainier. What does this milestone represent for you?
Michael Janis: The 25-year mark reflects the value of being anchored while continuing to adapt.
Washington Glass School began in 2000 in Washington, DC. I became co-director in 2005, shortly before the original studio site was taken through eminent domain for the construction of Nationals Park. Losing that space forced a reset. We relocated to Mt Rainier and rebuilt the school from the ground up.
The move to Mt Rainier came as we expanded education programs, developed public art work, and built long-term partnerships with artists and communities. Reaching 20 years in the Gateway Arts District shows the importance of stability for an arts organization after a period of displacement and transition.
Interior of Washington Glass School, 2007, teaching at kiln
Q: How did becoming co-director in 2005 shape the direction of the school?
Michael Janis: Becoming co-director in 2005 placed me in a leadership role during a period of disruption.
The loss of the original DC studio meant the school had to redefine the business model, the student base, and the physical layout. We focused on building a tight and adaptable studio space, reworking class offerings, and creating a framework for contemporary glass practices.
Michael Janis teaching an architectural plate glass class at Washington Glass School in 2005.
From the start, we saw the school as both a teaching center and a working studio. That combined role became the basis for how we developed public art projects and community-based programs.
Community workshop for Peppermill Community Center
Q: What is the core mission of Washington Glass School today?
Michael Janis: The core mission is supporting contemporary glass art through education, studio practice, and public art work.
We teach a wide range of glass techniques, including kilnforming, casting, and architectural glass. We also host artist talks, exhibitions, and workshops.
Another major part of the mission involves community engagement. We recently worked with military veterans through an arts therapy program developed by the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. We also work with local residents, students, and partner organizations to create glass components for public art projects placed in civic spaces.
Hot Shop Heroes military veterans workshop, 2023
Q: What kind of art do you make in your own practice?
Michael Janis: I make narrative sculptural glass art.
My studio work focuses on figurative glass sculpture and relief panels. The work addresses identity, emotional presence, and social experience.
In public art, I design large-scale glass installations and memorials for civic spaces. Many of these projects include community participation, where local residents help create glass components that become part of the finished artwork.
Low poly wall artwork “Scattering of Light,” 2024
Q: How does glass function in your public art and memorial projects?
Michael Janis: Glass interacts with light, reflection, and transparency.
These qualities support narrative work in both studio and public art settings. In figurative sculpture, distortion and reflection suggest emotional states. In memorial projects, glass holds collective memory through light and color.
Glass also works well in civic architecture. It allows light to pass into buildings while carrying imagery and text.
Detail of Peppermill Community Center sculpture “Telling Our Stories…”
Q: What are some examples of public art projects developed through Washington Glass School?
Michael Janis: Washington Glass School has served as the studio base for a range of public art commissions.
Recent and ongoing projects include:
A DC Ward 5 community-based glass memorial honoring the enslaved people who built the U.S. Capitol
Glass and bronze sculpted artwork for the Library of Congress Adams Building Monumental Doors
A large-scale glass installation for Laurel Library in Maryland
A public art commission for Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center in Washington, DC
A community-engaged glass project in Historic Kempsville, Virginia
Each project involved collaboration with architects, government agencies, and community members.
Michael Janis at Cedar Hill Medical Center artwork (screen grab from East of the River)
Q: Why is community participation central to your public art process?
Michael Janis: Community participation changes the role of public art.
Local residents take part in creating glass tiles, panels, and imagery. These components become part of the finished artwork installed in shared spaces.
This process builds connection between people and the artwork. In memorial projects, participation also helps address historical and social topics through shared making rather than top-down design.
Q: Where can people see your work in public or in museum collections?
Michael Janis: My work appears in permanent collections such as:
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Tacoma Museum of Glass
The Fort Wayne Museum of Art
The Fuller Craft Museum, Massachusetts
The Museum of American Glass, New Jersey
Public installations appear at:
The Library of Congress Adams Building
Laurel Library, Maryland
Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center, Washington, DC
Community sites throughout Washington, DC
Q: What themes run through your work as a contemporary glass artist?
Michael Janis: The main themes involve identity, memory, and emotional presence.
In the studio, I focus on figurative glass sculpture addressing psychological states and social relationships.
In public art, I focus on collective memory and historical narrative.
Across both areas, light and reflection create a relationship between the artwork and the viewer.
Q: How do you see the future role of Washington Glass School?
Michael Janis: Washington Glass School will continue to support contemporary glass practices.
We will expand education programs, public art partnerships, and community-based projects. Many of the studio’s resident artists become instructors and contribute new workshop ideas.
The school will also remain a working studio for public art production and artist collaboration.
Q: What advice would you give to artists interested in glass and public art?
Michael Janis: Develop a strong studio practice. Learn how to work with architects, engineers, and fabricators.
Understand public art as a long-term commitment to shared spaces and community needs.
Three mild-mannered artists. One studio. Twenty-five years of heat, pressure, and improbable strength.
2026 arrives with momentum, memory, and a few surprises we’re not quite ready to name. Let’s just say: it’s a year shaped by long friendships, shared risks, and the kind of collective energy that doesn’t happen overnight.
We’ll be revealing things as the year unfolds— not all at once, not too fast. That’s part of the fun.
Happy New Year from all of us at Washington Glass School. Keep your eyes open.
Washington Glass School is excited to share that co-directors Michael Janis and Tim Tate are among the artists included in a significant new acquisition by The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida. The museum has received The Dr. Laurence and Rita Sibrack Collection of Contemporary Glass and Ceramics, a gift that brings 74 works by 60 artists into the museum’s permanent collection.
The Baker Museum in Naples, FL
The Sibrack Collection includes works by some of the most influential names in contemporary glass and ceramics, including Dale Chihuly, Judith Schaechter, Amber Cowan, Preston Singletary, Lucio Bubacco—and now, Michael Janis and Tim Tate. This collection spans nearly every major glass technique, from flame-worked to blown and cast, and reflects a deep appreciation for material, form, and light.
The Baker Museum’s decision to fully integrate these works into its broader holdings marks a continued shift in how museums value glass and ceramics—not as separate from fine art, but as essential parts of its story. For Janis and Tate, who have each spent decades advancing contemporary glass as a narrative and conceptual art form, this recognition is especially meaningful.
“Our work is about storytelling through material,” said Michael Janis. “Being included in a collection like this, which treats glass as a vehicle for meaning and not just decoration, affirms why we do what we do.”
Tim Tate added, “What the Sibracks have built is not just a personal collection—it’s a statement about the relevance and emotional range of glass today.”
Rita and Dr Laurence Sibrak
The Sibracks, longtime supporters of Artis—Naples, were first inspired by a 2000 exhibition of Chihuly’s work at the museum. Their decision to make this donation stems from a long commitment to both the institution and the idea that art should be lived with, shared, and accessible to all.
This acquisition places the work of two DC-based artists into one of the most respected collections in the region, further establishing the impact of the Washington Glass School on the national stage. We’re proud to see Michael and Tim’s work recognized alongside such powerful voices in the field and grateful to the Sibracks and the Baker Museum for helping bring greater visibility to the language of glass.
The collection will be celebrated in the upcoming exhibition “The Passion of Collecting: Stories in Glass and Ceramics from the Sibrack Collection,” opening January 10, 2026 at The Baker Museum and remaining on view through the fall.
Following is a complete list of artists in the The Dr. Laurence and Rita Sibrack Collection of Contemporary Glass and Ceramics: Dean Allison, Adrian Arleo, Michael Behrens, Susan Beiner, Alex Bernstein, Charles Birbaum, Christina Bothwell, Peter Bremers, Emily Brock, Lucio Bubacco, Jim Budde, Nancy Callan, Dale Chihuly, A-Mi Choi, Amber Cowan, Dan Dailey, Stefen Dam, Laura Donefer, Michael Glancy, Peter Hora, Agnes Husz, Jannet Iskander, Martin Janecky, Michael Janis, William Kidd, Sabrina Knowles, Velarde Kukuli, K. William LeQuier, Dianne Martin Lublinski, Emma Luna, Robert Mickelsen, Shelley Muzylowski Allen, Harumi Nakashima, Sybelle Peretti, Lindsay Pichaske, Jenny Pohlman, Clyfford Rainey, David Regan, Colin Reid, Ross Richmond, George Rodriquez, Davide Salvadore, Judith Schaechter, Livio Seguso, Preston Singletary, Carmen Spera, Kristen Stingle, April Surgent, Matthew Szösz, Etsuko Tashimu, Tim Tate, Tip Toland, Margit Tóth, Hidenori Tsumori, Sam Tuffnell, Janusz Walentynowicz, Patti Warashina, Ann Wolff, Loretta Yang and Mary Ann Zynsky.
To learn more about the museum and the artists in the collection, visit artisnaples.org.
Michael Janis “The Pale Dawn” photo credit Pete Duvall.
Co-Director Michael Janis’ glass sgraffito panel “The Pale Dawn” will be part of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass’s Live Auction “Catching Fire” on June 11 – an artful virtual auction featuring over 100 glass artworks and experiences with proceeds supporting the participating artists and the BMM Glass educational programs. Bid on silent auction items June 4–14, with a live virtual auction June 11th at 6:45pm CST.
The work “Pale Dawn” is a portrait that leans into quiet tension—between realism and abstraction, softness and structure. The figure is set against blocks of muted olive and turquoise, with black powdered frit forming the clothing and gradually dissolving into the white background. There’s a sense of stillness in her gaze, but also a bit of mystery in how the form starts to fade at the bottom.
Michael Janis studies for “The Pale Dawn” showing how color and pattern were investigated.
We’ve included some of the early studies for color and detail to show how the piece came together—those small experiments helped evolve and shape the final direction.
