The Glass Art Society (GAS) is heading to Detroit, Michigan, US, for its 2023 Annual GAS Conference (7-10 June 2023) and registration opens on 14 November 2022.
From the city’s world-class Cultural District of museums, dining, music and entertainment, to the underground, authentic, and resourceful arts scene, the Motor City of Detroit offers a unique glimpse into the history and future of American innovation.
The next GAS Conference will focus on the community, collaboration, and crossover that are prevalent in Detroit. The organisers invite you to share your experiences and expertise in support of GAS’s mission to connect, inspire, and empower all facets of the global glass community.
Important dates:
14 November 2022 – Registration, exhibition and scholarship applications open
2 January 2023 – Early bird registration ends, Goblet Grab and Silent Auction form open
6 February 2023 – One-day passes, research presentations, and portfolio review open
3 April 2023 – Conference schedule available
30 April 2023 – Last day to participate in GAS partial payment plan
London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) has received an endowment that will award six annual scholarships of £35,000 each year over the next 20 years. These Märit Rausing Scholarships in Ceramics & Glass have been provided by Julia and Hans Rausing.
Hans and Julia Rausing are supporting creatives in ceramics and glass with their generous gift.
The scholarships will be open for the next academic year and will be for suitably qualified UK students who apply to study MA Ceramics & Glass at the RCA. This is a one year, 45-week course. The funding will cover full fees and contribute towards living expenses and materials, opening higher level study to people from a wide range of financial backgrounds.
The donation of £6.1m has been made in honour of Hans’ mother Märit and is the largest scholarship gift made to the RCA. The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust is an independent, grant-making charitable fund supporting organisations and charities in the UK.
RCA Vice-Chancellor Dr Paul Thompson said, “The Märit Rausing Scholarships in Ceramics & Glass will make an incredible difference to our students, as well as to the fields of ceramics and glass, which have been under real pressure from course closures and loss of facilities in recent years. We are very grateful to Julia and Hans Rausing for this generous gift.
“Financial circumstances should not be a barrier to world-class education and these scholarships will enable us to offer more places to gifted individuals whose passion and skill lie in Ceramics & Glass.”
Julia and Hans Rausing commented, “Ceramics and glass are some of the most tactile and expressive materials available to the artist and the MA at the RCA allows students to fully develop their skills, share ideas and to find their own voices in a beautiful artform.
“We are pleased to collaborate with the RCA and launch this new scholarship programme at one of the finest art institutions in the world. In the words of the RCA, the MA looks to launch a new generation of artists and designers to enrich our world in imaginative and meaningful ways.
“We hope recipients of the scholarships over the next two decades will go on to join the enviable list of former RCA students who have enjoyed flourishing careers in a discipline loved by Märit.”
The Ceramics & Glass MA at the RCA provides a creative interface where personal concerns and global perspectives intersect. Students are encouraged to question, examine and respond to social, cultural and material challenges. The areas of research studied arise from the broad scope of the two disciplines, and inform what is taught on the programme. Advances in technology are explored, while traditional methodologies are challenged to create new and unique approaches.
Previous students include Ashraf Hanna, artist and a ‘Best In Show’ winner at the British Glass Biennale.
Karen Browning studied architecture before cast glass captured her attention. Her glass work was awarded ‘Best in Show’ at the recent British Glass Bienanale. Linda Banks finds out more.
You have a background in architecture. What led you to start working with glass?
I was using glass in both my installations and in architecture designs and wanted to know how to cast large columns of glass, and also more about the material, its properties and how to form it. Therefore I enrolled on the MA Glass course at Swansea Institute in 2001.
What glass techniques have you used and why do you prefer casting?
I have mainly use casting as this is the technique that originally intrigued me about glass. Recently I have been fusing and lampworking and plan to explore this more in the coming years with the development of my neon pieces.
You have done many installation pieces. How did your practice take this direction?
I was making installations, mainly light-based, before I got into glass. After studying Architecture, I did an MA in Site-Specific Sculpture at Wimbledon College of Art. My work was always a crossover between architecture and sculpture. Installations are still an important part of my practice.
What is your creative approach? Do you draw your ideas out or dive straight in with the materials?
Generally, I spend a lot of time thinking about the work that I plan to make, visualising and examining the piece and the process of making it in my head. Then I tend to make it, sometimes producing tests beforehand. I don’t usually sketch, unless it’s a drawing or a diagram for getting something fabricated. However, with the new fused glass and neon panels, I have started to do more preliminary sketches and drawings, which I am enjoying.
‘Double Trouble’ by Karen Browning. Photo: Simon Bruntnell.
What inspires your work?
Mainly it is the site that inspires me. Coming from a site-based background, initially when I started making glass, I found it difficult to make non-site-specific work. There were a few years when I barely made any finished pieces. I was just learning the processes and how the materials worked and handled.
‘Oops..a neon leak!’ is one of Karen Browning’s installation pieces. Photo: Karen Browning.
What message(s) do you want to convey through your art?
I don’t really have a message, as such. I just like to get people to look at a place, or something, by highlighting an element of it.
Waxes ready for casting after having been shot.
What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why?
I have many favourite tools, each for a different job. I love my shipping containers, because they are so flexible for the studio, workshop, for storage and on site. I have a favourite trowel for modelling – a trusty Makita drill, as well as an old Mill Bastard file that I found up a track in Death Valley.
Do you have a favourite piece you have made? Why is it your favourite?
My favourite piece is usually the one that I am working on at that moment. However, having said that, I am very fond of the ‘Miss. Spent-Youth’ series, because it is about my family and my childhood.
‘Miss. Spent Youth 2’ won Best in Show at the British Glass Biennale 2022. Photo: Simon Bruntnell.
Where do you show and sell your work?
I mainly show and sell with London Glassblowing. I have exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, at the British Glass Biennale, Collect, Liuli Museums Taipei and Shanghai. I was also selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize.
‘Fiddleford Mill’ by Karen Browning. Photo: Steve Russell.
How did you feel to have your work awarded ‘Best in Show’ at the 2022 British Glass Biennale?
I was incredibly proud, honoured, and amazed in equal measures. I was so happy that I won an award for a piece that is quite personal.
Where is your glass practice heading next?
I keep moving forward, but I also re-look at past ideas, as they often turn into something else. I’m excited to be able to develop some new work with neon in the coming months.
Is the global energy crisis affecting your practice?
Yes, every firing is much considered. But all aspects, from materials and availability to crate building and shipping, are affected.
About the artist
Karen Browning in action. Photo: Jo Garrett.
Karen Browning gained a degree in Architecture before taking an MA in both Glass and Site-Specific Sculpture. She set up her own studio in Dorset. In addition, she has been head assistant to glass artist Colin Reid since 2004.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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