Archives: Online Exhibitions

This Contemporary Glass Society online selling exhibition: ‘Small but Magnificent’ was launched on 3rd July 2023.

It features 61 CGS Member Artists who responded to the following:

“As the saying goes, “It’s quality not quantity that counts”. So artworks do not need to be large, dominant or take up space to be of value or to inspire. Smallness can be just as magnificent as a huge piece of sculpture.

This online selling exhibition is looking for little pieces of gorgeousness which are no bigger than 15cms in any aspect. They can be jewellery, beads, bowls, small artworks – really anything that is little, beautiful and inspiring. Flaunt that glass – let it be small but magnificent!”

Most work is for sale!  Please contact the artist directly.

Bordering on the Herbaceous.

Summer is coming! Those long days of sunshine and flowers when we spent so much time out and about. Imagine those beautiful sculpture gardens that you visit, those ornate structures peeking out from herbaceous borders or glass works positioned amongst the flowers and trees.

Our online exhibition is an invitation to share the gorgeous work that you have created decorating garden borders or acting as a sculptural focal point. We want to celebrate works that are designed and made specifically for the great outdoors. Almost all the work is for sale, so brighten up your garden.

Work is for sale! Please contact members directly to purchase work.

The pandemic was a frightening and challenging period for us all. For many it meant illness and the loss of loved ones, for others loneliness and isolation. However, there were those for whom lockdown gave the opportunity to stop and review both their lives and their creative practice. Out of misery there came a flowering of ideas and new work.

We asked members if they were one of those able to create something new and interesting during lockdown. As we launch into a new year, our first online selling exhibition of 2023 offers an insight into this flowering where darkness turned to light.

It is fascinating to not only see what they made but also to hear about their experience behind it.

(An exhibition for CGS members only.)

“Holiday Heaven” Online Exhibition

2022 has been a fantastic year for contemporary glass! Not only has it been the International Year of Glass but the Contemporary Glass Society also celebrated its 25th anniversary. In addition, the International Festival of Glass was held at Stourbridge for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

To mark the Commonwealth Games being held in Birmingham in 2022, CGS decided to dedicate its exhibition at the Festival to the amazing countries and people of the Commonwealth. So over 100 glass artists took a magical mystery tour and produced postcards featuring the richness of countries ranging from Australia to Maldives, from New Zealand to Malta, from Singapore to Tanzania. Commonwealth countries are diverse – they are amongst the world’s biggest, smallest, richest, and poorest countries. We celebrated their sites, fauna and flora, sea world, agriculture, and industry and just their uniqueness in a small piece of glass holiday memorabilia.

Over 50 of these small and unique artworks from the original exhibition were sold but CGS still has a range of marvellous pieces which can be seen below.

All these Holiday Heaven pieces are for sale and looking for a home to fly to.

Please contact admin@cgs.org.uk if you are interested in becoming the proud owner of a piece of Commonwealth magic!

CGS is most grateful for the generosity of our sponsors for the event, Mark Holford and Alan J. Poole

(All work priced from £50 – £500) from 7^th November – 30^th Dec

The end of the year and Christmas is coming!  Celebrate what makes you happy and how you can spread joy through your work. “Access Happiness!” is an affordable selling show with accessible prices. (All work priced from £50 – £500).

Introduce others to an amazing range of special Christmas presents, inspire them to look at our gloriously unique work and enable them to support creative people at the same time.

Thank you to all those CGS glass artists that submitted work.

“The Human Condition”
5th September – 31st October. Then permanently in our Gallery area.

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So, what makes us human? What characterises the essentials of human existence from birth and continues throughout our lives?

We invited our CGS Members to ponder on birth, growth, emotion, aspiration, conflict and mortality or simply demonstrate through their glass what makes them who they are.

Celebrating their own personal condition to let their glass do the talking. They show us what they love, hate, fear and what they hope for.

We challenged our members to create work that is a celebration of the natural world in which we live – EARTH/ SEA/ SKY.

This response could take the form of:

· Combining different glass making techniques to create a new piece of glass work.

· Collaborating with another member who uses a different glass technique to create a joint piece of work.

· Combining different materials or found objects to create a new piece of glass work. (At least 50% must be glass.)

· Collaborating with another artist from a different discipline to create a joint piece of work in different materials. (At least 50% must be glass.)

(This exhibition features work that is not included in the London Glassblowing exhibition of the same name.)

4th July – 29th August

Stop and look up! Here is a chance to look to the stars, to view our universe from beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The study of Astronomy includes objects that we can see with our naked eyes, like the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the stars but also includes objects we can only see with telescopes or other instruments, like faraway galaxies and tiny particles.

As an Astral being, use your imagination to create something from this world or form outer space. Dare to go where no-one has gone before…..

This was the theme that we asked CGS Member Glass Artists to respond to.

The show was launched on 2nd May – (27th June 2022).

“We are all increasingly concerned about the planet and our impact upon it. How do we live more sustainably especially as we work with a material that does little to help our carbon footprint?
This exhibition challenged glass artists worldwide to produce work using recycled glass in some form – this could be an empty wine bottle, old glass containers through to scrap glass that they would normally throw out.

We invited glass artists worldwide, to enter a CGS online selling show that responded to the above topic. We will be sharing the 48 artists on our socials over the coming weeks to highlight their work and inspiration.

If you have any questions about these gallery exhibitions, or taking part in our next shows, please email info@cgs.org.uk

This show was launched on the 7th March 2022.

All our shows from now on have the capability to be selling shows.

Buyers should please contact the artists directly.