Category Archives: narrative glass

Norfolk’s OK SPARK Gallery Showcases Narrative Glass Art

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Norfolk, VA’s  Okay Spark Gallery will be hosting an exhibit of work by 5 artists from the Washington Glass School titled “DC Five – A Glass Narrative” – from February 5th through March 6th, 2016. 

Glass artists are moving out of their disciplinary confines and now draw from multiple media and disciplines.  The exhibitions will examine the art of storytelling, personal experiences and social commentary through sculptural works in glass.  Artists from DC’s Washington Glass School (Audrey Wilson, Erwin Timmers, Tim Tate, Sean Hennessey and Michael Janis) have a conceptually derived focus to their works. The artists’ interests and practices occupy areas between disciplines and media – dissolving and redrawing the boundaries along the way.

Audrey Wilson‘s kilncast pâte de verre sculptures and multi-media works are metaphors evoking our endless manipulation of environment, our need for control, and our longing for a meaningful union with nature and the other, in a supreme balance of power and delicacy.

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Audrey Wilson, “Preparation of a Primary Beam in a Pure State”, kilncast glass, found objects. Photo by Pete Duvall.

Erwin Timmers is one of the DC area’s leading ‘eco-artists’. Recycling, waste, the environment and how they relate to society are recurring themes in his work. His works are made from recycled glass. 

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Erwin Timmers, kilnformed recycled glass sculptures. Photo by Pete Duvall

Tim Tate merges traditional craft with contemporary digital media, often working with electronics and video components.

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Tim Tate, “Beware the Marquis”, cast poly-vitro, video. Photo by Pete Duvall.

Sean Hennessey regards glass as ideal for layering dimensional images and text in works that translate ideas concerning human experience, history and space.

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Sean Hennessey, “Drink Me”, kiln cast bas-relief glass, LED.

Michael Janis tells his stories using delicate crushed glass powder manipulated and fired into glass panels. 

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Michael Janis, “Waiting for my Shadow to Fall Back to Earth” Kiln formed glass panel with glass powder imagery. Photo by Pete Duvall.

This diverse and eclectic exhibition at OK SPARK Gallery opens February 5, 2015. Click HERE for gallery website.

DC Five – A Glass Narrative

February 5th through March 6th, 2016, Opening reception Friday Feb 5th, from 6-8PM .

OKAY_SPARK_LogoOkay Spark Gallery 

801 Boush St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 779-5784

Okay Spark is the only contemporary craft gallery in Norfolk, VA, and is located two blocks from The Chrysler Museum of Art. norfolk-va

Norfolk, Virginia is a pretty creative place. The city has a growing number of eclectic neighborhoods like the Norfolk Arts District and Ghent that are populated with art spaces and galleries like Okay Spark Gallery and the renowned Chrysler Museum of Art, a newly renovated, 220,000-square-foot attraction filled with European paintings, contemporary American art and a world-class glass art collection. 

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The DC5 doing their kiln mojo dance.

Posted in DC5, gallery, narrative, narrative glass, norfolk | Tagged , , ,

Silvia Levenson @ Katzen Arts Center

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Silvia Levenson @ American University Museum

Silvia Levenson “She Flew Away” cast glass, steel wire

Artist Silvia Levenson believes her work is an expression of her soul. She uses glass not for its natural beauty, but for its potential as a narrative medium. In her exhibition Identidad, (January 24 – March 15, 2015 at the American University Museum in the Katzen Arts Center), Ms Levenson channels her identity as a survivor of the Argentinian Dirty War and her emotional connection to the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in order to push the bounds of her skills as a glassmaker and produce refined glass work. 

Silvia Levenson was born in Buenos Aires, the capital and largest city of Argentina. She and her family went into hiding for almost three years as political activists opposing the military dictatorship of General Jorge Rafaél Videla. In 1981, during the disappearances of the so-called Dirty War in Argentina, they fled the country and immigrated to Italy, where they eventually attained dual Argentine-Italian citizenship. Between 1976 and 1983, the Argentine military dictatorship kidnapped, tortured, and killed about 30,000 people known as “los desaparecidos” or “the disappeared.” Thirty percent of those kidnapped were young women, many with children by their side or in their womb. These children were later stripped of their identity and given up for adoption. 

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Levenson studied at the Martin Garcia School of Graphic Design in Buenos Aires. She acquired glass-making skills at the Musée-Atelier du Verre (Sars-Poteries/FR) at workshops with Antoine Leperlier (pâte-de-verre, 1991) and Vincent van Ginneke (casting, 1994). Silvia Levenson lives in Lesa/Italy and Buenos Aires. In 2004, Levenson received the Rakow Commission Award from the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center presents a lecture titled “The Strange World of Silvia Levenson” featuring Washington Glass School Directors Tim Tate and Michael Janis to be held on Thursday, January 29, 2015, 6:00-7:00 pm at the Katzen Arts Center. 

RSVP by Jan 22, 2015 to museummembership@american.edu 

Identitdad by Silvia Levenson

January 24 through March 15, 2015

Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016

Posted in american university museum, jack rasmussen, Katzen Center, narrative glass, silvia levenson

Emotional Leak

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The UK has some great glass artists – ones that are moving narrative or content driven glass forward. Erin Dickson and Jeffrey Sarmiento are two such artists, and they had collaborated on this work titled “Emotional Leak”. Both artists work out of England’s University of Sunderland, and with access to waterjet cutters, have exploited that resource to their artistic end. From Erin’s artist statement: “my works takes on…the intersection of glass and architecture. As an architect by training, and more recently a glass designer, I use my own experience to evaluate how glass can be manipulated to suit both intentions. When glass is used in architecture, it is too often viewed as a separate component passed to glass ‘specialists’ or artists for manipulation, it is allowed to become a dissected part of the building. My aim is to remove glass from being just a ‘window’ and enable it to become an architectural design element of its own. My work looks at non-traditional methods of using space and light, using glass to manipulate a viewer’s experience of place.”

 Dickson/Sarmeinto, Emotional Leak, 2011: waterjet cut glass with steel and rubber base about 9.5 x 4 x 4 ft 
Below is a video of the construction of Emotional Leak – 

Emotional Leak Construction from Sarmiento Glass on Vimeo.

Posted in architecture, content driven glass, erin dickson, jeffrey sarmiento, narrative glass, uk, university of sunderland, waterjet cut fused glass

Getting GAS’d Up – Glass Art Society Conference Opens in Toledo

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>In recognition of the Toledo Museum of Art’s role as the cradle of the American Studio Glass Movement, GAS will be holding its 2012 conference in Toledo, Ohio, June 13 – 17, 2012. 
Toledo is welcoming again artists from around the world to celebrate the achievements of the past and to explore the seemingly endless possibilities of glass. Professor Tim Tate will be on a panel with Matthew Szosz, Alexander Rosenberg and moderated by Andrew Page. The discussion is titled: Post Studio Glass    and will discuss how:
The work in glass being shown in galleries and art fairs still focuses on formalist object on a plinth. A new generation of glass artists is breaking with the existing glass art field to apply new strategies. Panelists speak with GLASS Quarterly editor Andrew Page about this generational shift and its implications.

POST STUDIO GLASS PANEL A Look at the New Parameters 
for Work in Glass
Saturday,June 16 at 1:45-3:15pm in the Seagate rooms 202-208


Click HERE for the conference program pdf.

If you are going to GAS, be sure to avail yourself of all the exhibitions that are part of the Studio Glass Movement’s 50th Anniversary. One of the shows (just outside of Toledo in the suburb of Perrysburg, OH) is a great mix of art work by artists that work with narrative imagery. Artwork by leading glass artists April Surgent, Therman Statom, Tim Tate, Marc Petrovic, Susan Taylor Glasgow, and Michael Janis.

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June 11- Sept 14, 2012

Walter E. Terhune Gallery

Owens Community College

30335 Oregon Rd, Perrysburg, OH 43551


Posted in april surgent, GAS, Glass Art Society, marc petrovic, michael janis, narrative glass, owens community college, perrysburg, Post studio glass, susan taylor glasgow, Tim Tate, walter e terhune

WGS Scores a Double in Glass Art Magazine: Michael Janis and Erwin Timmers Featured Artists

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Michael Janis’ narrative imagery made from crushed frit powder is the cover story in the May/June issue of Glass Art Magazine.

The May / June issue of Glass Art Magazine features a WGS two-fer, with a feature on the ecologically sustainable designs by the “King” of recycling, Erwin Timmers, AND a cover spread on the dreamlike glass panels by Michael Janis.

The Erwin Timmers’ review delves in depth into how Erwin makes sculpture from recycled and diverted waste materials .

“Working Green“, the article by Colleen Bryan, features the leader of the eco-art movement Erwin Timmers , and reviews his environmental philosophy and how Erwin practices his passion in his approach to his artwork and medium. Some great photos by Pete Duvall of Anything Photographic of Erwin’s beautiful glass sculpture work are showcased among the 5-page spread.  

Glass Art Magazine Editor Shawn Waggoner writes about Michael Janis’ artwork in the latest issue.

In the cover article “Pushing Powder – Michael Janis’ Glass Frit Drawings“, editor Shawn Waggoner writes about how Michael Janis‘ imagery touches on the subconscious, and that his narrative glass artwork seems to ask questions rather than answer them. Her article also discusses how Michael was able to have his work became part of the US Art in Embassies permanent collection (now on exhibit in Europe), comments about his work from Corning Museum’s curator of Modern Glass, and Michael’s recent Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Sunderland, England, where, as a Fulbright Specialist, he was teaching at the UK’s National Glass Centre.


Click HERE to jump to the Glass Art Magazine website.


If you sign up as a subscriber to Glass Art Magazine – there are subscriber benefits – such as links to articles online on how Michael Janis’ and Tim Tate’s Fulbright Scholarship to the UK’s University of Sunderland worked out and more! Click HERE to jump to the online magazine.

Posted in Art in Embassies, contemporary art glass, erwin timmers, fulbright scholar michael janis, fused glass, glass art magazine, narrative glass, shawn waggoner, sustainable art design, US Department of State