On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes. In a coordinated attack, these events forever changed the face of modern-day America. Artists, like all of us, struggled to comprehend the unfathomable destruction and loss of innocent life. They responded the way they knew best – through their art.
Eric Fischl; “Tumbling Woman, Study,” 2012, glass, 12 x 18 x 14 in.
Artist Eric Fischl‘s somewhat controversial homage to the 9/11 victims, was expressed in his “Tumbling Woman” sculpture series. The awkward, unnatural pose — the woman is on her back, her legs lifted and held together to her left side — is meant to evoke the bodies that leapt from the World Trade Center towers. It’s a powerful, striking, vulnerable visual -particularly in glass – even without knowing the reference. Fischl said he felt an urgent responsibility to address the terrorist attack through his work, for the public, to help people make sense of what had happened. That is what art does at its best, he said, adding he saw his sculpture as “a sincere gesture of expressing the pain and vulnerability. Those feelings were part of the tragedy.”
Michael Janis; “The Tower”, 2009, glass, glass powder imagery, steel, 19 x 37 in. (photo by Pete Duvall)
In a similar tribute theme is Michael Janis’ “The Tower” from his tarot series of glass panels. That piece was selected in 2009 to be part the Corning Museum of Glass‘ (CMOG) ‘New Glass Review’. Tina Oldknow, CMOG’s curator of modern glass from 2000-2014, and the senior curator of modern and contemporary glass from 2014 until her retirement in September 2015, wrote this commentary on the Janis artwork and how the submissions that year showed a narrative influence. She wrote:
“To introduce my narrative category…(t)he more literal representations included the stories told by Debora Coombs, Ian Mowbray, and especially Michael Janis. … On the other hand, a truly big and dangerous event is depicted in Janis’s “The Tower” Tarot Card. Anyone familiar with the tarot knows that the tower, the 16th card of the major arcana, does not bring glad tidings. I was impressed by Janis’s powerful, sad, and appropriate interpretation of this card as a literal reflection of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.”
On this 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we are reminded that art can document a time and place forever, as it often represents an exploration of the human condition. It’s a memory device that tells a story that is multi-layered, complex and paradoxical. The stories told through art are vulnerable to interpretation and thus keep the moment alive.
Recalling the devastation that came that day is painful for many. Yet we must remember the past, or we deprive ourselves of its lessons for overcoming our present struggles and divisions.
Each year, the Corning Museum of Glass conducts a worldwide competition to select 100 images of new works in glass. Objects considered excellent from any of several viewpoints- such as function, subject matter, aesthetics, and technique – will be chosen. The works are chosen by a changing jury of curators, artists, designers, art dealers, and critics.
The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2013. In late November or early December, a jury selects 100 images from the submissions.New Glass Reviewis published every spring by The Corning Museum of Glass in conjunction with Neues Glas(New Glass), published by Ritterbach Verlag, Frechen, Germany, andGLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, published by UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, New York.
You can apply online – (2013 is the last year for paper applications). Click HERE to jump to Corning’s online application. Entry deadline – Oct 1, 2013.
Corning Museum of Glass has posted its annual Call for Entries in the museum’s New Glass Review publication.All glassmakers, artists, designers, and companies are invited to participate in New Glass Review 33. Only glass designed and made between October 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011, may be submitted for this annual survey.
From CMOG’s website:
Each year, The Corning Museum of Glass conducts a worldwide competition to select 100 images of new works in glass. A committee drawn from designers, artists, curators, and critics makes the selection. The publication is intended to keep its audience, which includes museums, artists, libraries, collectors, scholars, and dealers, informed of recent developments in the field. Objects considered excellent from any of several viewpoints—such as function, subject matter, aesthetics, and technique—will be chosen. The objects selected will be published in color with the names of the makers and brief descriptions of the pieces.
Participants are requested to complete the entry form, submitting a total of three digital images illustrating one work per image. Slides and transparencies will not be accepted. Three images of different pieces are preferred, although participants may send multiple views of one or two pieces. Digital photographs, which should be made using the highest-resolution setting on the camera, must be of actual objects designed and made between October 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011.
The New Glass Review competition will be judged in early December. All entries, accompanied by a $20.00 USD entry fee, must be postmarked no later than October 1, 2010, and sent to: New Glass Review Curatorial Department The Corning Museum of Glass, One Museum Way Corning, New York 14830-2253, USA.
Each year, The Corning Museum of Glass conducts a worldwide competition to select 100 images of new works in glass. A committee drawn from designers, artists, curators, and critics makes the selection. The publication is intended to keep its audience, which includes museums, artists, libraries, collectors, scholars, and dealers, informed of recent developments in the field. Objects considered excellent from any of several viewpoints—such as function, subject matter, aesthetics, and technique—will be chosen. The objects selected will be published in color with the names of the makers and brief descriptions of the pieces.
Participants are requested to complete the entry form, submitting a total of three digital images illustrating one work per image. Digital photographs, which should be made using the highest-resolution setting on the camera, must be of actual objects designed and made between October 1, 2009, and October 1, 2010.
>Published by The Corning Museum of Glass(CMOG), New Glass Review is an annual survey of glass in contemporary art, architecture, craft, and design created in the previous year.The works are chosen by a changing jury of curators, artists, designers, art dealers, and critics, which, over the past 25 years, has included Dale Chihuly, Clement Greenberg, Stanislav Libenský, Richard Marquis, David McFadden, Yoriko Mizuta, Lois Moran , Jean-Luc Olivié , Tom Patti, Ginny Ruffner, Bertil Vallien, and Toots Zynsky. Museum jurors have included Thomas S. Buechner, the Museum’s founding director, and modern glass curators Susanne K. Frantz, Tina Oldknow, and William Warmus.
This year is the 31st annual review, and the jurors were Jon Clark, Professor, Tyler School of Art, Rosa Barovier Mentasti, independent art historian, curator, and critic, Zesty Meyers, artist and owner R 20th Century, and Tina Oldknow, the Corning Museum’s Curator of Modern Glass. The jurors selected 100 works from 888 international artists that sent over 2,500 images of work for the competition.
The Washington DC area is represented by some familiar names – the Washington Glass School’s Michael Janis; Washington Glass School alumni Jeff Zimmer, and Weisser Glass Studio’s Nancy Weisser.
The book of work is published in Germany and the copies have just arrived stateside. Congrats to the artists!
Michael Janis Touching With A Lighter Hand kilnformed glass, glass powder imagery 95 cm x 50 cm
Jeff Zimmer 1/1000th the Space Between Me and You (In a Deadrise) layers of enamelled & sandlasted glass in glass lightbox 545 x 225 x 210 mm/21″ x 8.75 ” x 8.25″
Nancy Weisser Broken Memories assembled kilnformed glass 305cm x 762cm
Click Here for the New Glass Review 32 “Call for Entries”
Since 1979, the Corning Museum of Glass has published its annual New Glass Review, which documents new work in glass art, architecture, craft, and design. New Glass Review is the only peer-reviewed journal in the field of contemporary glass.
Each year, artists around the world submit images of their recent work to the Museum. This year an international jury selected artwork submitted from 888 artists from over 43 countries – making a total of over 2,500 submissions for consideration. The jury included Jon Clark, Professor, Tyler School of Art; Rosa Barovier Mentasti, art historian, curator and critic, Venice, Italy; Zesty Meyers, owner, R20th Century, New York, and Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, Corning Museum.
As of the time of publishing this post, some of the artists included in this years review are: Sara Gilbert, Bernd Kniel, Kait Rhoads, Masahiro Sasaki, Nancy Weisser, Jeff Zimmer and myself, Michael Janis. I am honored to be selected again this year for inclusion in the publication, due out in May, 2010.
Each year the Corning Museum of Glass conducts a worldwide competition to select 100 images of new works in glass. A jury of designers, artists, curators and critics make the selection. Only glass designed and made between Oct 1, 2008 and Oct 1, 2009 are accepted for this survey. Deadline Oct 1, 2009. $20 entry fee. Last year, Washington Glass School’s Michael Janis was one of the artists selected.
>The 30th edition of a prestigious and important annual selection of the best works in glass worldwide – New Glass Review (Neues Glas) has been published – and included was my work titled “The Tower” from my series of glass panels based on imagery from Tarot Cards.
The Tower by Michael Janis
That piece was selected as part a 100 glass artwork comprehensive study put out each year by the Corning Museum of Glass. 1,047 individual artists from 44 countries submitted a total of 2,974 images for selection by the judges. The judges for this years review included: artist Mieke Groot; glass blower extraordinaire, Dante Marioni; the head of the Rhode Island School of Design glass program, Rachel Berwick, and Corning Museum of Glass’ Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass. The publication, printed in Germany, includescommentary on the piece by Tina Oldknow :
To introduce my narrative category…(t)he more literal representations included the stories told by Debora Coombs, Ian Mowbray, and especially Michael Janis. … On the other hand, a truly big and dangerous event is depicted in Janis’s “The Tower” Tarot Card. Anyone familiar with the tarot knows that the tower, the 16th card of the major arcana, does not bring glad tidings. I was impressed by Janis’s powerful, sad, and appropriate interpretation of this card as a literal reflection of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
My artwork got votes for inclusion by Mieke Groot, Dante Marioni, and Tina Oldknow.
The Corning Museum of Glass hosts a yearly international review of glass in a publication from Germany called New Glass Review (Neues Glas).
This year’s judges included Rachel Berwick, Department Head of Glass, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island; Mieke Groot, independant curator, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Tina Oldknow, the Curator of Modern Glass for Corning Museum, Corning, New York; and Dante Marioni, glass superstar, Seattle, Washington.
A total of 1,047 artists from 43 countries sent 2,974 images of work for consideration. Of these 100 were selected for inclusion in New Glass Review 30,and I am thrilled to be one of those 100! The publication is due in May, and the images will be part of the Corning Museum’s Rakow Research Library.
