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Apply to exhibit at Ireland Glass Biennale 2023

Ireland’s National College of Art and Design (NCAD) invites glass artists to apply for the Ireland Glass Biennale (IGB), which runs from 20 April until 20 August 2023.

The 2023 IGB seeks to present and provoke international perspectives, explorations and manifestations of glass as creative expression. It will highlight the contemporary glass practices of international artists, designers and crafts practitioners.

The open call invitation extends to both established and emerging practitioners and there is no application fee.

Alongside the event will be a series of talks and events expanding the ideas and themes that emerge from the exhibition selection.

IGB will be curated through an Open Call process and direct invitation, with the final selection made by a panel of expert jurors. Selected participants will be notified no later than 13 February 2023.

The IGB will be held at the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle Gardens, Ireland.

The application deadline is 20 January 2023.

For more information and the application form click here.

The IGB is part of the Creative Europe: Imagining Sustainable Glass Network Europe (ISGNE) project. It is co-funded by Creative Europe and is supported by the OPW.

Stained glass inspired by Colombian writer

A contemporary stained glass piece inspired by the work of a Colombian writer was created recently by experimental glass artist Surinder Warboys.

The glass art was made for a pair of writers who have travelled, written about, and had a great love of, Latin America and the Caribbean.

While Surinder had not travelled to those regions herself, she had read a book by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, which had led her to read nearly everything else by him. The couple shared her enthusiasm for García Márquez, although they had read him only in the original Spanish.

Her proposal for the starting point for the stained glass window was that they select a passage from his writing and send it to her. The words they chose were from One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The words they chose were these, translated into English:

“A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin, through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors and smothered the animals who slept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.”

Surinder explains, “My work is experimental by nature and I work directly with the glass without preconceived designs to show the client. Therefore it is important to engage clients as the window takes form. Studio visits were made and, at intervals, images of progress were sent to them. They were fellow travellers on a stained glass exploration!”

The panel itself was a complex work, involving etching, painting, staining, enamelling and laminating of flashed antique glass onto clear float glass. It is a palimpsest, in which underlying stained text from the float glass is faintly visible through the textures of the etched, painted and stained layer of the antique glass. The glass was etched and stained several times to achieve the quality of dappled light in the letters.

“I enjoy making discoveries as I work, particularly engaging in new techniques such as writing on glass using a quill and silver nitrate, of an ink-like consistency,” Surinder continues. “Peacock feathers, that had been naturally shed and brought back from the village where I was born in the north of India, were used as symbols, generating not only connections with flight and travel, but also the culture of writing, as quills have been used in the expression and spread of ideas across the globe since ancient times.”

The finished panel.

Surinder is tutoring a three-day short course at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation in Sussex from 28 November to 1 December 2022. For more information call: 01243 818291 Or email: college@westdean.ac.uk

For further information on Surinder’s Experimental Painting on Glass, and other, courses, visit her website: www.myglassroom.com

Main image: Detail of the experimental piece featuring words from a special passage of text.

Buy unique glass art via CGS online gallery exhibitions

Remember to visit the Online Exhibitions page of the Contemporary Glass Society’s (CGS) website, where you can view present and past shows of a broad range of contemporary glass work by CGS members. In particular, make a note to visit the Christmas show ‘Access Happiness!’, opening on 7 November 2022, to view and buy unique glass gifts direct from the makers.

All CGS members are invited to showcase their glass art in galleries presented on different themes through the year. As mentioned, entries are available to buy direct from the artists, too, if you see something that particularly captures you. Click on an image to find out more about the work, from the artist who made it.

The online exhibitions are part of CGS’s ongoing programme of 25th anniversary celebrations running throughout 2022.

The Human Condition

The Autumn exhibition is themed around ‘The Human Condition’. In preparation for this, members were asked to consider the questions, ‘What makes us human?’ and ‘What characterises the essentials of human existence from birth and continues throughout our lives?’.

CGS Chair, Susan Purser Hope, commented, “CGS members were invited to ponder on birth, growth, emotion, aspiration, conflict and mortality, or simply demonstrate through their glass what makes them who they are. By celebrating their own personal condition, artists were able to let their glass do the talking. They show us what they love, hate, fear and what they hope for.”

The Human Condition is the featured exhibition until 30 October 2022, after which it remains in the Online Gallery permanently, but makes way for the following ‘Access Happiness!’ show, which goes live on 7 November 2022.

Buy glass gifts for Christmas

In the Access Happiness! online exhibition, CGS members will be celebrating what makes them happy and how they can spread joy through their glass work. It is the final online show of this bumper year of activities – both in person and online – that have marked the CGS’s Silver Jubilee.

Access Happiness! features glass art that is for sale at affordable, accessible prices, ranging from £50-£500. So have a look at this display of special Christmas present ideas, or treat yourself to a unique work of art. As well as enjoying your new art piece, you will be supporting creative people.

Access Happiness! opens on 7 November and runs until 30 December 2022. Make a note to view the show as soon as you can, so you won’t miss out, as many items are one-offs.

Image: Julia Kastler’s ‘Heart Space’ panels feature in the CGS’s Human Condition online exhibition.

Korean culture and glass fashion accessories at International Festival of Glass

One of the highlights of the recent International Festival of Glass and British Glass Biennale was Hot Hanbok/Cool Glass, a celebration of Korean culture in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre UK.

These glass crowns made a fitting match for two regal hanbok outfits. They were designed by Eunsuh Choi, who explained that she had used national symbols such as the Palace, Rose of Sharon, Phoenix, and Dragon for her designs, to show the dignity of the king and queen and the dignity of Korea. They are made from flameworked borosilicate glass, 23 carat gold paint and faceted glass beads. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

Featuring classical music by the Kasper Trio and contemporary dance by Ye Rin Lee and Jie Sheng, the evening culminated in a dramatic fashion show fusing colourful Korean clothing (hanbok) and wonderful wearable glass, with a specially designed soundtrack by Jun Seok Kim.

Detail of the back of one of the glass crowns. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

Candice-Elena Greer, the event curator, worked with 35 international glass artists from seven countries, supported by Dr Jung Taek lee from London Hanbok, who introduced the meaning behind the colours, patterns and symbolism of traditional and contemporary hanbok. Known for their flowing lines and voluminous forms, the hanbok designs were perfect for glass adornment. Some of the hanbok were flown over from Korea for the show by the design company Danha, which is famous for dressing K-Pop group Blackpink.

Specially composed music was part of the event showcasing Korean culture. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

Candice-Elena explained, “The challenges of making glass wearable should not be underestimated. The skill with glass techniques which cover such a breadth and range alone requires years of mastery, then to work this around the body and complement a hanbok. They [the artists] had to overcome technical challenges of wearability, how the glass responds to movement and eventually how the person wearing it will feel.”

Opal Seabrook’s ‘Dragon Shield & Ceremonial Moon Blade’ (right in picture) used multiple layers of hand cut, sprayed, hand painted, kiln-formed glass, along with wooden and leather accessories. On the left is ‘Leather Harness with Glass Pendants/Norigae’, by Katerina Handlova. The glass part is made using hand blown crystal clear glass with golden mica, optical moulds and sandblasting. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

Festival organiser Michelle Keeling added, “It was the first time we have held a major event in the middle of the British Glass Biennale, with the models and audience surrounded by the gleaming Biennale glass. It brought music, movement and magic into the heart of the exhibition.”

In addition, a documentary of the event will be available to watch soon.

Main image: A fusion of Korean fashion, music and intricate glass accessories at the Hot Hanbok/Cool Glass event. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

Final winners announced at British Glass Biennale

While most of the awards at this year’s British Glass Biennale were announced previously, a few had to wait until the end of the event.

Tim Rawlinson was the winner of the 2022 People’s Prize, sponsored by Warm Glass UK, for ‘Echoes of Light’ (main image).

Sandra Young was the winner of the Young Collectors’ Award, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers, for her flameworked piece, ‘World Dragon’.

Sandra Young’s ‘World Dragon’ captured the hearts of young visitors. Photo: Simon Bruntnell.

Moonju Suh won the Guild of Glass Engravers’ Award for ‘Happiness Diary, Five Glass Dolls’.

Moonju Suh’s ‘Happiness Diary, Five Glass Dolls’ was selected for an award. Photo: Andy Kruczek.

In addition, Theo won Robbie the Raven in the Young Collector’s Award raffle. Robbie the Raven was blown by Stewart Hearn and awarded by Barbara Beadman, Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers, which sponsored the award. Theo and hundreds of other children voted for Sandra Young’s ‘World Dragon’.

Theo (centre) won Robbie the Raven in the raffle having voted for ‘World Dragon’ by Sandra Young (left). His award was presented by Barbara Beadman (right). Photo: Andy Kruczek.


Main image: Tim Rawlinson’s ‘Echoes of Light’. Photo: Sylvain Deleu.

In Our Hands glass exhibition in Canada

Glass artist Mary Louise White’s ‘In Our Hands’ exhibition celebrates “the power we hold in our hands through the beauty of glass”.

The many glass hands in her exhibition are cast from the hands of volunteers. As she explains, these are “the people who willingly lend helping hands behind the scenes, without fanfare and without seeking anything in return. Each hand is as unique and special as the person behind it”.

She continues, “Each hand holds a cast glass Earth Egg, symbolising the future of life on planet Earth, and the potential each of us holds to influence the outcome.

The central hand is the only one with a red ‘vein of life’, described by the artist as a “happy accident”.

“Transparent, clear glass is intrinsically beautiful. It transmits light and is metaphorically rich and deep. It acts as a lens, directing light, amplifying details, and illuminating features.

“Once formed, glass is always glass. It can never return to the physical and chemical components from which it is made. In that way, it is eternal, and yet it also has an inherent fragility, and can be shattered in an instant. The properties of glass thus bring a silent awareness of the permanence and impermanence of all things.

“This project is an invitation, funnelled through the beauty of glass, to work individually and collectively to protect the fragile systems that make life possible on our pale blue dot.”

Each participant was asked to write a few words about their hand. These were printed on posters and hung on the walls in the installation gallery.

“The posters contribute a sense of play and offer a challenge to find and match the glass hands with the texts,” states Mary Louise. “They provide insight into the people behind the hands and the richness that each hand/person contributes to one another and to the community.

“The lighting in the space creates shadows and reflections of the hands which are cast onto the walls and the ceiling. It is visually beautiful and magical. The effect seems to confirm that the reach of influence of each single hand can be farther than intended or imagined.

“The focal point is the elevated hand of the artist, the red streak of life blood pointing to a quest for understanding.

“All the hands but mine were made using beautiful, transparent, clear virgin cullet. I cast my own hand of scrap glass. One of the scraps, it would seem, was a striker glass, a glass which appears to be clear before firing, but strikes to another colour at temperatures above 1500F. The red vein of ‘life blood’ did not become visible until I divested the piece from its mould after firing. It seemed perfect! A truly happy accident.”

The In Our Hands exhibition is on until 29 October 2022 at Gallery 3, St Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre, St Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Website: http://stepac.ca

Main image: Each cast glass hand holds an ‘Earth Egg’.

Fired Up: Glass Today exhibition at Wadsworth Atheneum

Over 50 glass artists making everything from studio glass to American flameworking are showing their work at the ‘Fired Up: Glass Today’ exhibition at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Connecticut, US (on until 5 February 2023). These glassmakers have been selected because they are pushing boundaries, forging new paths, and inspiring people in support of this art.

Work is on display by the following artists; Chris Ahalt, Joshua Bernbaum, Alex Berstein, Peter Bremers, Hamm Brushand, Moshe Bursuker, Nancy Callan, Dale Chihuly & James Carpenter, Dale Chihuly, Ben Cobb, David Colton, Amber Cowan, Matt Eskuche, Micah Evans, Beccy Feather, Wesley Fleming, Wesley Fleming & Jupiter Nielsen, Kiva Ford, Kiva Ford & Jupiter Nielsen, Dan Friday, Hannah Gibson, Sidney Hutter, Joseph Ivacic, Martin Janecky, Yoshinori Kondo, Caroline Landau, Jiyong Lee, Shayna Leib, Liza Lou, Carmen Lozar, Dante Marioni, Jason McDonald, Robert Mickelsen, Jonas Noël Niedermann, Kelly O’Dell, Kelly O’Dell & Raven Skyriver, Joe Peters & Peter Muller, Michael Schunke, Matteo Silverio & Stefano Bullo, Raven Skyriver, Paul Stankard, Megan Stelljes, Lino Tagliapietra, Tim Tate, Daisuke Takeuchi, Demetra Theofanous & Dean Bensen, Kim Thomas, Cesare Toffolo, Alex Ubatuba, Norwood Viviano, Zoe Woods, and Ben Young.

In addition to the exhibition there is a programme of related events, including an informal concert on the Glass Harmonica, a musical instrument developed by Benjamin Franklin, on 17 December 2022.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103, USA. Opening hours Thursday-Sunday, Noon-5pm. Find out more via the website: https://www.thewadsworth.org

Image: A detail of Megan Stelljes’ ‘Neon Wallpaper III’ (2022), featuring neon with sculpted glass.

Last chance to see BSMGP touring exhibition at Manchester Cathedral

Stained glass panels

Manchester Cathedral is the final venue for the British Society of Master Glass Painters’ (BSMGP) touring exhibition, which has been travelling to locations around the country to mark its centenary in 2021. The cathedral hosts the display until 24 November 2022.

The organisation’s contemporary stained glass panels featured in this show were all made by BSMGP members especially for the organisation’s 100th year. The 30cm square works have been travelling to different venues across the UK since September 2021, mounted in special display screens.

Over 80 stained glass artists, from the UK and overseas, submitted work for the centenary exhibition. There was no limit on style or materials, resulting in a great variety of subjects and methods. Some artists entered more than one piece, taking the total to over 100. Of these, 60 panels have been chosen for the touring exhibition.

Venues have included the Stained Glass Museum at Ely Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, plus the International Festival of Glass, Stourbridge.

Manchester Cathedral offers the final chance for visitors to view the stained glass in person. The display is on until 24 November 2022 (9.30am to 4pm) and entry is free of charge. Manchester Cathedral is in Victoria Street, Manchester M3 1SX.

If you cannot visit in person, you can view the 110 panels submitted to the centenary exhibition online at the BSMGP website via this link. You can also read the artists’ statements about their inspiration for their stained glass pieces. Some of the artworks are for sale.

Image: Six of the stained glass panels in the BSMGP’s centenary exhibition, demonstrating the diverse styles of the artworks.

Three exhibitions at the National Glass Centre

Three exhibitions of contemporary glass are on show at the National Glass Centre (NGC) in Sunderland until March 2023.

Harvest: Fruit Gathering

The exhibition ‘Harvest: Fruit Gathering’ features the work of Rachael Woodman and Neil Wilkin, acclaimed as two of Britain’s leading artists working in hot glass. They have worked collaboratively for almost 40 years, but this exhibition is their first opportunity to present their work together. This new work is inspired by the natural and spiritual world.

You may have noticed some of Rachael’s work (‘Joyful Assembly’) and Neil Wilkin’s ‘Gloriosa’ flower in the background behind Huw Edwards when the BBC presented the news from the NGC in mid-October.

This event is on from 15 October 2022 to 12 March 2023 in the NGC Gallery.

Glass Prize Research

In the NGC’s Research Gallery Catherine Forsyth and Helen Pailing present their research to date after they were awarded bursaries to develop new work as part of the NGC Glass Prize.

This Prize was funded by the Garfield Weston Foundation through the Weston Culture Fund.

Helen Pailing commented on her research, “During the pandemic, we were frequently advised against coming into close contact with others. I had my first baby in 2020 and a second in 2021, so it has felt like a paradoxical situation for me, as I have never before had so much skin-to-skin contact with others.

“It has been fascinating to see the tiny hairs on my babies as I watch them grow. This led me to think more deeply about how hairs are the receptors to convey touch sensation. Making hairs out of glass, that break when touched, became a way to start exploring ‘matrescence’ – the physical, psychological and emotional changes that occur during the process of becoming a mother – during this extraordinary time in my life. The work makes reference to rituals and mementos, and seeks to acknowledge moments that are both precious and often precarious.

“As well as space and time to focus on my practice, the bursary allowed me the opportunity to flamework with Zoe Garner, have regular mentoring sessions with Helen Maurer, visit Collect art fair in London and work with musician Marc Rigelsford, with whom I collaborated to make the short film ‘Transition’. Thank you to Glass and Ceramics students Hannah Masi and Hannah Peverley for their assistance.”

This display is on now until 12 March 2023.

40th Anniversary Exhibition

To mark the 40th anniversary of the University of Sunderland’s Glass and Ceramics department in 2022, another ongoing exhibition at the NGC features the work of some of the most influential students and teaching staff to have worked in the department.

Artists participating include Emma Baker, Effie Burns, Vanessa Cutler, Mike Davis, Sasha Delabre, Marco Andre Rodrigues Goncalves, Laura Johnston, Bridget Jones, Joanna Manousis, James Maskrey, Joanne Mitchell, Jeffrey Sarmiento, Angela Thwaites, Göran Wärff and Cate Watkinson.

‘40 years of Glass and Ceramics’ is presented in the Balcony Gallery until 12 March 2023.

The National Glass Centre is located in Liberty Way, Sunderland SR6 0GL, UK. Find out more on the website.

Image:  A detail of Rachael Woodman’s ‘Fruit Bowl – purple lustre’, (2022). Photo: Stephen Heaton.

Apply to be featured in Corning’s New Glass Review 43

The US-based Corning Museum of Glass has published its highly regarded New Glass Review annually since 1979. The publication has an enviable reputation as a showcase of an international contemporary glass, documenting the innovation, dexterity and creativity of artists, designers and architects working in this challenging material.

Corning Museum of Glass is inviting submissions for edition 43. As well as examples of contemporary glass, submissions can include video works in which glass plays a fundamental role, and video documentation of performances using glass. The work must have been made between January 2022 and January 2023. Anyone from a beginner student to the most established artist can submit their work for consideration.

Most years, the Museum receives around 1,000 submissions from artists, designers, and organisations in more than 50 countries. These submissions are reviewed by a panel of curators, scholars and artists, led by the Museum’s curator of post-war and contemporary glass. In total, 100 images are ultimately selected for publication.

As the Museum explains, “What appears in New Glass Review is not what is ‘best’ in glass in a given year (what an impossible task!). Instead, it is a collection of works, chosen by individuals from across the worlds of glass, arranged to spark new ways to see and think about this incredible material and the people who use it expressively.”

Inspired by two landmark exhibitions, ‘New Glass: A Worldwide Survey (1979)’ and ‘Glass 1959’, New Glass Review has documented glass on a global scale and brought unprecedented critical and popular attention to the material, its makers, and designers.

Both the 1959 and 1979 exhibitions showed the prevailing concerns of glassmakers and thinkers. In 1959, industrial glass reigned; the exhibition was full of elegant sets of colourless glasses, decanters, and vases. By 1979, studio glass had made its mark, and the submissions were full of the whimsy and experimentation that characterised the movement.

Find out more and submit your application via this link.

Image: ‘Optisk II’, by Ben Orozco, featured in New Glass Review 42.