Janis & Tate @ Toronto’s Sandra Ainsley Gallery

Michael Janis & Tim Tate at Toronto’s Sandra Ainsley Gallery June 4 – July 30, 2022

Toronto, Canada’s famed Sandra Ainsley Gallery present the narrative glass artworks by WGS Co-Directors Tim Tate and Michael Janis. The show, titled “One Story is Not Enough” featured works by each artist as a solo, and a number of their collaborative wall murals.

Michael Janis’ imagery in frit powder is reflected in the gallery’s piano surface.

When Michael Janis and Tim Tate met, almost 20 years ago, they discovered a shared fascination of narrative sculpture- one that seeks to arrive at an image that is both unflinchingly candid in physical representation and psychologically evasive. Working together, they are interested in the simultaneous read of an immediately recognizable image that asks the viewer to linger over history and meanings that unfurl more slowly. Mark, line and material become an extension of touch in the act of representation. The relationship of hand to subject, negotiated through the material, can elicit a response of both visual and tactile.

“The Poetry of Everyday Objects” by Michael Janis & Tim Tate, 2021; Size:6H x 6W’; Cast Glass

With these confines they create work in many techniques, but if you stand slightly back and see their history a huge thread of interconnected stories weave through their work from day one. The beauty comes into focus and the viewer sees the edges of a world not dissimilar to this one, but so much more thoughtful.

Detail – “The Poetry of Everyday Objects”, Michael Janis & Tim Tate

They present this glimpse into that alternative world, seemingly unstuck in time somewhere between past and future.

Tim Tate, Lenticular series, 2022, each panel 41″H x 41″W, lenticular prints

Sandra Ainsley Gallery
The Warehouse
100 Sunrise Avenue, Unit 150
Toronto, Ontario Canada M4A 1B3

Arts & Healing at Inova Schar Cancer Institute

The dedication of the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA took place Monday, July 8.

artwork collection glass

Inova Schar Cancer Institute located at 8081 Innovation Park Drive, Fairfax, VA 22031

The Arts & Healing Program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, a department of Inova Fairfax Hospital, is a collaboration with the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, and uses art in its many forms to help support people in treatment and recovery and their loved ones. This innovative program includes a robust permanent art collection and ongoing exhibitions, performing arts events, and other workshops.

Opening dedication ceremony of the Arts & Healing program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute.

Opening dedication ceremony of the Arts & Healing program at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute.

The Arts & Healing Program is a resource for families, loved ones and the community to support Inova Schar’s core mission and philosophy to provide patient-centered care. New acquisitions and special site-specific artworks many DC area artists – including WGS’ Michael Janis, Tim Tate, and Allegra Marquart are in the new collection as well as works by Foon Sham, Valerie Theberge, Alan Binstock, Wendy Ross, and Susan Hostetler. 

Artists Alan Binstock and Valerie Theberge with Arts Director Shanti Norris.

Artists Alan Binstock and Valerie Theberge with Arts Director Shanti Norris.

 

Sculpture by Foon Sham at the new Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA.

Sculpture by Foon Sham at the new Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA.

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at Inova Schar Cancer Institute is dedicated to exhibiting fine art that explores the innate connection between healing and creativity. Through a rotating exhibition schedule, the gallery features contemporary artists that address a diversity of significant themes, including spirituality, social change, multiculturalism, health, environmentalism and community.

One of the large commissioned artworks is a site-specific installation work by glass sculptor Michael Janis. The Washington Glass School blog has asked Michael to outline the work’s meanings and the processes he used to create the monumental recognition wall.

 

Dwight Schar Recognition Wall at Inova Schar Cancer Institute

Dwight Schar Recognition Wall at Inova Schar Cancer Institute

Inspired by the story of Dwight Schar, founder and chairman of homebuilding and mortgage giant NVR, and donation by he and his wife to develop the cancer research institute that now bears their names, I worked at creating glass pieces that have both visual and spatial depth. Mr Schar’s mother died very young, lacking of good healthcare, and Mr Schar saw the creation of a cancer center and affording them the equipment and facilities needed to advance their treatments and research as a way to repay the community that supported his home building company.

Artist Michael Janis talks to the tour group about his unusual glass technique.

Artist Michael Janis talks to the tour group about his unusual glass technique.

 

The artwork installation is a tribute to his history and largesse. A rendering of Dwight Schar made of crushed glass powder overlaps cast glass squares that depict references homes and community, as well as the advancements that science and research could bring to the world. In the center of the artwork installation, cancer awareness ribbons are the focal point, in its natural clear state, allowing all symbolic cancer awareness colors to be seen within. The end framing panels are a special iridescent glass that has many colors that shift intensity depending on the viewer perspective.

Inova Schar Center made in kiln-cast glass.

Inova Schar Cancer Institute fired in kiln-cast glass.

The central portrait of Mr Schar is made from crushed black glass powder. The fine powder was carefully manipulated with scalpel and brushes to form the detailed likeness and took many hours and kiln firings to complete. 

The clear glass ribbons have become the symbol of the new Inova Schar Institute – and Washington Glass School was later commissioned to make smaller versions of the ribbons as commemorative sculptures for valued benefactors and volunteers to the new Cancer Center. inova.schar.glass.ribbon.award

Lisa Ellis receives recognition for her work in creating the arts program at Inova Schar Institute.

Lisa Ellis receives recognition for her work in creating the arts program at Inova Schar Institute.

Bullseye RCBA Gallery Opens Painterly Glass Exhibit

>Bullseye Glass had earlier this year opened their new facility in the California’s Bay area near the Silicon Valley/Berkely/San Francisco corridor of Emeryville, CA. The place is called Resource Center Bay Area (RCBA) and this facility (the third of BE owned centers) offers workshops, supplies and a gallery.

RCBA, Bullseye Glass’ new home in California. 4514 Hollis Street, Emeryville, CA

One of the upcoming exhibits at the RCBA Gallery opens this coming Saturday, Aug 4, 2012. Titled: Facture: Artists on the Forefront of Painterly Glass, a number of the works were shown at BE’s Portland gallery early this year in a show of the same name. The exhibit will showcase kilnformed glass paintings (mostly frit on sheet glass) from the artists Abi Spring, Kari Minnick, Martha Pfanschmidt, Ted Sawyer, Jeff Wallin, and WGS’ Michael Janis.

Jeff Wallin Residue of a Figure Study

kilnformed glass

from the BE website:

Facture: Artists at the Forefront of Painterly Glass is a group exhibition that explores many of the concerns of contemporary painting, but does this exploration with glass. Painting exists in a continuum with centuries of tradition while simultaneously embracing aspects of sculpture, installation and collage. Painting today goes beyond pigment on a surface; it is an approach to image making that encompasses the ways in which a material is used to construct a work, how an artist approaches a subject, and even how an image is conceived. The artists included in Facture are constructing paintings using glass.

Michael Janis Observation of Signals

kilnformed glass and steel 

Glass, unlike traditional painting materials, is both surface and solid. Value and intensity can be created on the suface as well as volumetrically. Paintings made from glass are image and object; illusion and reality, and these artists, at the forefront of this young method, are scratching at the boundaries of both.

Martha Pfanschmidt Last Year

kilnformed and coldworked glass

View the exhibition: Bullseye Resource Center Bay Area Gallery, August 4 – October 20, 2012.

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 4, 3–5pm. 4514 Hollis Street, Emeryville, CA 94608
Go to map & driving directions

Bert Weiss Master Painting on Glass Class

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Bert Weiss mixes his secret ingredient (7-Up) with his enamels. It is crisp and clean – and no caffeine.

Artist Bert Weiss’ three-day master glass painting technique class is underway this weekend. Bert’s special techniques includes mixing metallic oxide colorants with glass and create oil paint like-washes. The big class is working magic in the kiln!. – Some shots of the class in progress:


Bert outlines the mixing process.


The class firings are reviewed in the morning.

Bullseye Gallery Features Painter(ly) Glass Artists

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Michael Janis Observation of Signals
2011 Kilnformed glass


Jeff Wallin Kate
2008 Kilnformed glass

Bullseye Gallery – located near the Bullseye Glass Center in Portland, Oregon – has a special exhibit opening soon that focuses on artists that work.
Titled “FACTURE -Artists at the Forefront of Painterly Glass” the exhibit asks
what advantages do the materials and processes found in glass provide that can’t be found in other painting media.


“FACTURE -Artists at the Forefront of Painterly Glass”

January 4 thru February 25, 2012
Bullseye Gallery, Portland, OR

Works by Michael Janis, Kari Minnick, Martha Pfanschmidt, Ted Sawyer, Abi Spring, and Jeff Wallin
Artist Reception: Wednesday, January 4, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

A panel discussion will be held with the artists moderated by Bullseye’s Michael Endo on Sunday January 8 from 2pm–4pm.

Bullseye Gallery offers contemporary art objects and experiences examining the potential and complexity of kilnformed glass. The gallery also explores glass in the built environment, inviting art into architecture through collaborations with artists, designers, architects and clients.

The gallery hosts artist lectures, panel discussions, and events which encourage dialogue about the concepts and processes driving contemporary art.

Bullseye Gallery
300 NW 13th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
Phone: 503.227.0222

Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat 10:00AM – 5:00PM