Category Archives: washington post

Washington Post on the DC Glass Scene Seen at Artomatic

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Washington Post article on 2024 Artomatic exhibit

Great review of Artomatic culture event in the Washington Post. Art critic Mark Jenkins enjoys the all-sorts arts experience and singles out the glass art for comment, including using WGS artist Michael Janis’ artwork titled “Waiting for the Moments that Never Come” as the illustrative work for the show. Writes Mark:

“…Among the various business and governmental sponsors of this year’s Artomatic is a small but internationally renowned arts group, the Washington Glass School. The Mount Rainier, Md., studio has taken a large chunk of the building’s fifth floor to showcase the elegant creations of co-founders Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers and several other glass virtuosos. Tate, who credits Artomatic with playing a significant role in his career, is showing a sculpture that riffs on Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” The provocatively androgynous update positions eight glass figures — male, female and combined — in a circle surrounded by mirrors and lights that simulate a sense of endless replication…”

In the galleries: Artomatic: Unpretentious, approachable, convivial – Review by Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, April 5, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2024/04/05/art-gallery-shows-dc-area/

By contrast – have a read about how the Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik thought of the 2004 Artomatic exhibit:

…”The result is the second-worst display of art I’ve ever seen. The only one to beat it out, by the thinnest of split hairs, was the 2002 Artomatic, which was worse only by virtue of being even bigger and in an even more atrocious space, down by the waterfront in a vacant modern office building. I won’t dwell on the art. And I certainly won’t name names…There may just be a few decent things hidden in the mix — with so many thousands of objects on display, the law of averages says there must be. But three hours’ worth of looking didn’t spot too many. Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it’s hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.)

Artomatic 2004: Hanging Is Too Good for It by Blake Gopnik

November 10, 2004

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/11/11/artomatic-2004-hanging-is-too-good-for-it/353b4ecd-8d74-475b-9386-63d5acd048db/

Artomatic runs thru April 28th. 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Posted in 21st century glass, american glass, art glass, artists of the washington glass school, bullseye glass, cool glass, fused glass, gay glass, glass art, mark jenkins, twenty first century glass, washington glass school, washington post, Washington School of Glass | Tagged , , ,

Washington Post Tips On Collecting Art: Buy Glass

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Washington Post Weekend Section Suggests Visiting Washington Glass School on December 14th!

Washington Post Weekend Section Suggests Visiting Washington Glass School on December 14th!

DC’s Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper, The Washington Post has tips on how to start – or build – an art collection without breaking the bank. WaPo’s Stephanie Williams writes tips on how to find affordable (real) art. winter.gateway.artist.by.the.tracks.washington.post.art.open.studio

Posted in artists by the tracks, open house, open studio, Tim Tate, washington glass school, washington post

Washington Post on “Artists Against Gun Violence” Exhibit

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Washington Post Art Critic Mark Jenkins reviewed the group show, “Artists Against Gun Violence” mounted to underscore the message of the March for Our Lives, curated by Molly Ruppert.

Detail of Tim Tate's "Endless Cycle".

Detail of Tim Tate’s “Endless Cycle”.

In the review (click HERE to jump to review online) Mark writes: “…the most elaborate entry is glass artist Tim Tate’s 3-D assemblage of concentric circles of guns, flowers and male nudes. It’s a frozen merry-go-round of beauty, peril and vulnerability, in which every translucent figure represents 1,000 people killed by guns last year.”

Artists Against GunViolence Through April 9 at the Third Floor, 4200 Ninth St. NW; the Reading Room at Petworth Citizen, 829 Upshur St. NW; and Upshur Street Books, 827 Upshur St. NW.

Posted in mark jenkins, molly ruppert, petworth citizen, washington post

Washington Post Reviews Michael Janis Solo @ Littleton Gallery

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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.

Posted in american glass, art, art glass, contemporary artwork, contemporary craft, fused glass imagery, kiln-formed glass, mark jenkins, michael janis, mike janis, scraffito, sgraffitto, sgrafitto, washington post

Washington Post on Zenith Gallery:Fresh

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Washington Post’s Sunday Arts section featured Tim Tate’s artwork on exhibit at Zenith Gallery.

This weekend, the Washington Post newspaper’s Arts Section had a great review of the Zenith Gallery anniversary show “Fresh” – which features our Professor Tim Tate. The review, written by Mark Jenkins, includes a mention of Tim’s recent show at American University Museum – so it’s a bit of a two-fer! 

Click HERE to jump to the Post’s review online .

 Zenith Gallery : Fresh
Through Aug. 31 at Zenith Salon, 1429 Iris St. NW; 202-783-2963; www.zenithgallery.com

Posted in mark jenkins, Tim Tate, washington post, zenith gallery

Nancy Donnelly in the Washington Post

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Glass artist Nancy Donnelly has a solo show of her latest glass artwork on exhibit at VisArt’s “Common Ground Gallery” in Rockville, MD. (Through March 24, 2013). Nancy’s kiln-shaped glass sculpture and wall reliefs reference natural forms in glass, glass enamel, steel, concrete and transparent color. The Washington Post newspaper has a review of her show in today’s (Friday 15 March) paper – what a great review!  Excerpt below is from WaPo art critic Mark Jenkins’ article.

From The Washington Post, Friday, March 15, 2013:

“Nancy Donnelly

D.C. artist Nancy Donnelly does landscapes, still lifes and figure studies, all traditional genres. But hers have an added aspect, because they’re translucent. Six years ago, Donnelly began working in glass, which makes even the thinnest of her works sculptural. “Transmission,” her show at VisArts at Rockville’s Common Ground Gallery, encompasses rectangular compositions with just a hint of depth, pieces in which certain elements protrude from the plane and works that are fully three-dimensional.

The last category includes flower arrangements such as “Bouquets,” whose simplified forms suggest pop art’s directness but whose colors subtly shift along the length of the glass fronds. Among the near-flat objects are nature scenes such as “Sea and Sky I” and the more abstract “Tribute to William Morris,” a homage to the Victorian-era designer and theorist that employs a subtle black and green palette. Perhaps the most striking sculptures are those in which well-rounded female nudes, rendered in bluish or greenish glass, emerge from contrastingly hued blocks. They’re metaphors for creation and liberation, making them pertinent not just to one artist who has found her medium.

Transmission

on view through March 24 at Common Ground Gallery, VisArts at Rockville, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville; 301-315-8200; visartsatrockville.org.”

Look at the Post online – click HERE.

Posted in common ground gallery, Nancy Donnelly, Transmission, VisArts, washington post

Breaking Headline News… Washington Glass School in Washington Post

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>The Friday Washington Post  newspaper had a couple of articles that featured Washington Glass School instructors – Mark Jenkins gives a review of Rockville’s VisArts 25th anniversary exhibit “Review, Review” that featured two of Professor Tim Tate’s glass artwork sculptures. 

The Dec 21st Washington Post uses Tim Tate’s “Lexicon Primer” (inset and detail of glass) as the teaser for the VisArts exhibit review.

The Weekend Section also featured Washington Glass Artists – Sean Hennessey and his lovely wife, Rania Hassan.  

Rania & Sean – together they are one of DC’s power arts couples

Sean and Rania were judges of the Washington Posts’ Holiday Wrapping paper contest for kids, and the winning design, by Carolin Vorona was featured in the section, along with a pull-out printing of the paper.
From the Post article about the selection of the Carolin’s work:“Each of the entries had something I liked,” Hennessey says. “Some had a great use of patterns, others had a sophisticated use of color and many had a fun sense of imagination. The glittery snowmen had a balanced sense of all of the above.”

10 yr old Carolin Vorona’s snowman entry. The judges particularly liked the Western snowman, complete with mustache, hat and horseshoe, but the sensitive and insightful use of the glitter medium cinched the win.

 Click Here to jump to the article and photo gallery of the honorable mentions.

Posted in Rania Hassan, sean hennessey, Tim Tate, VisArts, washington post

Artomatic Gets Ready = Get Ready for Artomatic!

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Artomatic is a multi-week, multimedia arts event held in the Washington, DC area since 1999. 
Washington Glass School has a long relationship with the DC-area arts showcase of visual art, music, film, performance, poetry and fashion. Tim Tate’s artwork at Artomatic 2000 was seen by the curator of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Museum, and that show both got his work into the Museum’s permanent collection, and his sales at the show provided the seed money that started the Washington Glass School. Artomatic at Tenleytown’s old Hechinger’s space is where Tim Tate first saw the sculpture work of Erwin Timmers and they later teamed up to start the School & Studio. 
Michael Janis’ first showing of his glass artwork was at the glass room at Artomatic 2004, where the Washington Post’s art critic Blake Gopnick slammed the show in his review “Hanging is too Good For It” – but noted about the glass: “Some of the glasswork looked all right. (Glass is such a gorgeous medium it’s hard to screw it up, and you need some basic training even to begin to work in it.)”  High praise indeed. 
In 2007, the show was held in Crystal City, VA, in the old Patent Office. As a result of this Artomatic, Maurine Littleton Gallery began showing Michael’s artwork.

Photographer Tracy Lee captured the essence of the Artomatic mystery.

At that Artomatic, drama ensued after Tim Tate’s artwork “The Rapture” disappeared under mysterious circumstances. After the Washington Post “Reliable Source”reportedthe disappearance of the artwork, and newspaper reporter Amy Argetsiner, was sent a ransom demand ($10,000 in monopoly money) from someone named “The Collector ” – along with a “proof of life” photo of the rocket from the artwork in front of the previous day’s newspaper. The reporter went to the late night ransom drop in a city park and tried to catch the perpetrator as it all went down.  In the next day Washington Post, the story was almost full front page of the Style section, along with their prime suspects.

The Artomatic ransom note sent to the Washington Post’s Reliable Source

The Post cast dispersions (along with thumbnail mug shots) onto : “Tim Tateglass sculptor, original victim 

Why him?: With a well-known flair for publicity, Tate was suspected by many at Artomatic of faking his own sculpture’s disappearance.

He says:”I categorically deny it.”

Alibi: Tate was by our side when we met The Collector at the ransom drop last year, so unless he’s part of a broader conspiracy . . .

Michael Janis glass sculptor, friend of Tate’sWhy him?: Artomatic gossips theorize that Tate’s Washington Glass School colleague may have helped pull off the stunt.

He says:”I’m denying any kind of involvement.”

Alibi:”Michael is too serious” for pranks, says DCArtNews blogger Lenny Campello.

 Jesse Cohen art photographer, overseer of the Artdc.org forumWhy him?: Like the author of The Collector’s manifestos, a big booster of the local arts scene; resembles the man at the ransom drop (young white guy, dark hair).

He says:”No . . . I thought it was really crappy of anyone [to take Tate’s art].”

Alibi: Skinnier than the man we saw.

 Kirk Waldroff  printmaker and glass artist, colleague of Tate ‘sWhy him?: Has The Collector’s build, coloring; his voice mail sounds like the man we talked to on the phone; Tate is a little too insistent that Waldroff can’t be The Collector.He says:[In a voice mail message] “No, I’m not The Collector”; says he’d be glad to talk more but he’s leaving town in a few minutes. (Hmm, getting too hot around here?)Alibi:”He seems too cool to be pulling stuff like that,” says a fellow artist. “He’s in a band.””

Tim Tate created a new sculpture from the returned component, and the work was auctioned  for the benefit of Artomatic.Tim Tate later created a new sculpture made from the remains of the old, and it was auctioned for the benefit of Artomatic; the drama of “The Collector” was never solved.

UK artist Stephen Reveley’s fused glass, photo by Caroline Angelo

In 2009 the Artomatic was held at a new building near the new Nationals Baseball Statdium near Navy Yard Metro. This exhibition featured many glass artists from England. That year the Sunderland City Council had sponsored artists represented by Creative Cohesion to show glass, ceramics, paintings, bands and more, as part of the Sunderland, UK / Washington, DC Sister City agreement.

Artomatic 2012 is set to open May 18 – who knows what will be the result of this year’s show!Have a look a the great video made by 2012 Artomatic :

Posted in artomatic, cohesion glass network, creative cohesion, crystal city, sunderland, the collector; reliable source, washington post

Cast Glass Sweeties

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Debra Ruzinsky

Sugar Bomb #3; Cast glass, 2011


Debra Ruzinsky
Bombshell, 2011

Debra Ruzinsky‘s cast glass artwork was recently praised by the Washington Post Art Critic Michael O’Sullivan in a review of glass sculpture that was on exhibit at Long View Gallery. In the review, Michael wrote: “My guilty pleasure sits all the way in the back of the 5,000-square-foot gallery… There you’ll find two small sculptural works by artist Deborah Ruzinsky, mounted on pedestals in front of large glass doors that, on sunny days, suffuse the room with light. The works’ titles, “Sugar Bomb #2” and “Sugar Bomb #3,” are apt. Cast in green and orange glass using Jell-O molds and artillery shell casings, they’re pure, explosive eye candy.

Staring at it, I feel like a monkey in front of a ball of shiny, shiny tin foil. Isn’t contemporary art supposed to be ugly — or at least less superficial?…

On the one hand, glass is pretty. It’s hard not to like the way it looks: the luminous color, the way it plays with light. On the other hand, maybe glass is only pretty. How do we know that the beauty is also capable of brains? The rest of the show is proof that it is.”

Debra was in the glass school this weekend coldworking her pieces of cast glass sculpture for a show at Vermont’s Brattleboro Art Museum this July 15-Oct 23. The group show “Glass in All Senses” promises to be an amazing collection of pieces by diverse artists. Debra’s work is from her sculpture series “Sweet Escape”. The work will feature cast glass sweets and rockets.

Debra checks her cast glass wafer ramp for smoothness.


Check back later for links to the Brattleboro Museum show.

Posted in cast glass, debra ruzinsky, lost wax casting, michael O'Sullivan, washington post

Washington Post asks "Is Glass Only Pretty?"

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Washington Post reviews Washington Glass School 10th Anniversary Show at Long View Gallery

The Washington Post newspaper arts critic Michael O’Sullivan has a lengthy review of the Long View Gallery 10th Anniversary exhibition : Artists of the Washington Glass School – The First 10 Years. Michael finds artworks that move him and question if contemporary art must be ugly – if only to be less superficial.

In his review of the retrospective show, Michael O’Sullivan writes: “On the one hand, glass is pretty. It’s hard not to like the way it looks: the luminous color, the way it plays with light. On the other hand, maybe glass is only pretty. How do we know that the beauty is also capable of brains? The rest of the show is proof that it is”…“For the artists of the Washington Glass School, the embrace of glass’s very materiality — in essence, its glassiness — is a tentative one. There are stories to be told, and glass is just one way to tell them.”…

Debra Ruzinsky Sugar Bomb #3

Jeff Zimmer “Fog Of Communication III” photo by anythingphoto.net


And of artist Jeff Zimmer’s work, Michael writes:

“One of the quietest, least assuming works in the show is “Fog of Communication III” by Jeff Zimmer. A moody, fog-bound landscape, it’s also mounted on a light box, and features multiple, sandwiched layers of sandblasted and enamelled glass to create something halfway between a vintage black-and-white photo and a 3D shoebox diorama. It isn’t especially pretty, or even eye-catching.
But it catches — and fires up — something else. And that’s the imagination. “

Click HERE to jump to the full Washington Post article.

The Washington Post also goes into the background story of one of the largest works in the show – “The Three” by Elizabeth Ryland Mears and William “Tex” Forrest.

Elizabeth Ryland Mears with William Forrest “The Three” photo by anythingphoto.net

Michael writes “But the vaguely anthropomorphic thing could just as easily be read as an allusion to another example of cinematic horticulture (not to mention a tribute to the strangely powerful influence of Janis, Tate and Timmers on the art-glass scene). To my eye, it looks like one of the pod plants from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

Click HERE to jump to the full Washington Post description of the Liz Mears / Tex Forrest work


Jennifer Lindstrom What is Home?


Click HERE to jump to the Washington Post’s photo gallery of some of the works in the show.

The WGS 10th anniversary show at Long View Gallery will be on exhibit until June 19, 2011.

Featured artists include: Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers, Elizabeth Mears, Syl Mathis, Lea Topping, Robert Kincheloe, Alison Sigethy, Dave D’Orio, Anne Plant, Jeffery Zimmer, Teddie Hathaway, Jackie Greeves, Kirk Waldroff, Debra Ruzinsky, Tex Forrest, Diane Cabe, Robert Wiener, Nancy Donnelly, Sean Hennessey, Cheryl Derricotte, Jennifer Lindstrom, Michael Mangiafico, Allegra Marquart and m.l.duffy.

There is an artist talk on Sunday, June 05, from 3-4 pm. There is a 10 Year Anniversary celebration that will be held at the Long View Gallery, Sunday, June 19, from 2-5 pm.

Washington Glass School: The First 10 Years
LongView Gallery
1234 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Posted in 10th anniversary, american, long view gallery, michael O'Sullivan, studio art glass, washington glass school, washington post