2008 Lisa Fondo:
"Glass and metal art are not the first mediums that come to mind when considering an art gallery's offerings. However, many galleries have round that carrying these niche mediums has been a profitable investment that bas diversified their sales and overall clientele.
Although glass and metal art are sometimes considered crafts, and its practitioners craftsman, the work by the fine artists in this article certainly challenges the generalization.
Craft Vs. Fine Art
The debate continues among many gallery owners and artists as to the distinction between craftsman and artist. "We straddle the line of art and craft, engineering and design," says Angelique Jackson of Jancik Arts International. "Craft is round in the shop drawings and glass and metal frame fabrications while art is found in the interpretations and results."
Livia V. Garson of Glass Place Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyo., has been specializing in glass art sculptures since the 1980s when artists working behind the Iron Curtain were able to introduce their work to American galleries and collectors. She is of the opinion that glass art offers a myriad of possibilities for an artist and gallery. "The glass medium gives infinite possibilities to be played with; the tire of life is given the chance by artists to create new and unique pieces each day, from classic to contemporary shapes."
Dale Chihuly is arguably the best known, living glass artist in the world. He is an interior designer, ceramic artist and painter, but it is his work in the medium of glass that has garnered the most acclaim. Chihuly offered the following advice to anyone considering a career as a glass artist in the fine-art realm. "I would tell them to figure out what they want to do," he says. "Do they want to be an artist, designer, or do they want to be a craftsman? Naturally, the hardest thing to be is an artist."
The Transition to Fine Art
Initially a student of interior design and architecture, Chihuly realized he wanted to concentrate instead on glass. Chihuly enrolled in the University of Wisconsin's hot glass program--the first of its kind in the United States--established by Harvey K. Littleton, founder of the Studio Glass Movement. After receiving a degree in sculpture, Chihuly enrolled in the ceramics department at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and later established the renowned glass program at RISD.
"Back when I first started, I wanted to get a job as a professor, which I got at RISD, so that allowed me to have a glass shop and earn an income and be able to do my own work," he explains. "Some professors can do that, but some can't; it is not an easy thing to do."
Artist Max Gold, known as "The Father of Fusion Art," began his career as a glass artist for a more pragmatic reason. "I ran out of canvas, and there were some sheets of glass in the apartment building I was living in; I loved the way the reverse painting looked," Gold says.
The process then evolved into something different--sculptures that merge digital art and original reverse glass paintings. "My first glass sculptures came about a few years later when I would layer multiple sheets of painted glass; I only painted about 20 percent of each sheet, negative space was as important as the painted part."
Metal artist Jason Mernick started his career working in glass but made the transition to metal. "I like the element of tire in my creative process--there's no hesitation," he says. "I have been given credit in the industry for developing 'torch painting;' that is, I use tire the way painters use paint."
From Concept to Finished Works
Working in hard metals and glass can prove challenging, at times, for fine artists.
Mernick works with stainless steel, aluminum and copper at his studio in Lake Mathews, Calif. The designs he produces are free flowing and spontaneous. "I just begin, and the process takes me," he explains. "One thing leads to another. The keys are knowing when to stop and how one works with spontaneous developments."
Chihuly works with hand-picked teams in his Seattle studio to create works of art that vary in scale from small free-flowing pieces to large-scale installations that require serious planning.
Jancik Arts International provides large pieces for corporate and private clients. Known for its stained-glass domes, most pieces require strict specifications. "The right and left sides of our brains need to work together in order to create a work with structural integrity; we must use calculus to determine the surface area of a curved dome," Jackson says.
Brad Lorang, a metal sculptor from Oregon, incorporates various techniques, including engraving and heat-applied patinas, to create textural and reflective effects on the metal.
"The work I am now doing has really been more than a 30-year process of adapting techniques I learned along the way for my own specific purposes; each new corner I turned has taken my work a little further off the beaten path," Lorang says.
Defining Form and Function
Las Vegas-based artist Dale Mathis creates high-relief wall sculptures that challenge and defy many physical and artistic boundaries. A typical Mathis artwork is mechanical with hand-carved, moving gears and neon-lit areas. Weighing 80 pounds or more, the metallic mixed-media sculptures are created with what the artist has dubbed a Steampunk style.
"Steampunk is a mixture of old and new, Victorian era meets today," Mathis explains. "It's a blending of different forms and ideas, materials and function. I'm an artist and an engineer."
Artist Henry Jerome has also taken a unique approach to the functionality of his work. He has made a townhouse his personal gallery, allowing potential clients to view his glass and granite works in a home setting.
Works by many fine glass and metal artists can be found in private collections while corporate collections, museums and sculpture gardens hold pieces of monumental scale.
Translation to Sales
Maggie Munro, owner of Munro Gallery in San Diego, uses the glass art she features in her display window as a way to attract a diverse clientele into her store. She came across some fine-art glass and jewelry at an industry trade show a few years back and began carrying it in her gallery as a way to pick up some additional income and diversify her clientele. The initiative took off, bringing her an increase in holiday buyers and purchases from homeowners, corporations and interior designers.
Kelly's Fine Art Gallery in Joseph, Ore., has been offering hand-blown glass and metal art, in addition to bronze sculpture and paintings, for the past 10 years. Owner Kelly Wick began offering the two niche mediums as a way to add more color and variety to her offerings. She says glass and metal art appeal to collectors with contemporary and more rustic home settings and offers the following advice when selling these genres.
"For glass, proper lighting is very important," she explains. "I recently purchased a well-lit display case for some of my glass, and my sales went up significantly. Selling glass and metal require a personalized sales approach, like any other type of art. I stay in tune to what the client is interested in, tell them why I love the artwork and get excited about it with them.""
Fondo, Lisa. "Glass & metal art: in a time when new business is paramount, these niche mediums offer glaring possibilities." Art Business News. November 1, 2008. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35970592_ITM
2008 Lotta Lewenhaupt.The Swedish jury for Elle Deco’s seventh annual EDIDA/ELLE Deco International Design Awards has presented its choice: Kosta Boda designer Åsa Jungnelius is 2008 Designer of the Year.
Lotta Lewenhaupt, editor-in-chief of Swedish Elle Interiör, writes:
“Suggestive is a word that often comes up when describing Åsa Jungnelius’s works. With good reason: thought-provoking and beguiling, most everything Åsa does sends out double signals. And this is often extremely intentional; she likes to challenge and question conventions such as what is true or false, ugly or attractive. As always, the answer is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Åsa has her own way of commenting on phenomena such as consumerism and shopping, expressed even before she was hired at Kosta Boda in the form of a giant glass lipstick with obvious references to brand-name tubes. Once at Kosta Boda she continued with her Make Up series, which includes oversized bottles of nail polish and a serving dish with a relief pattern very reminiscent of the oft-imitated logo of a certain purse brand.
“Just like their creator, everything that Åsa makes is clear and confident. She is consistent; she follows her own path and has done so since she left school at 17 to become an apprentice glassblower at the National School of Glass in Orrefors. The addictive, intoxicating effect of glass as a material becomes evident when we see that Åsa has also worked in blowing rooms in the UK, Italy, Kenya and the United States (Pilchuck) over the years. In 2004 she earned a degree from the Ceramics & Glass department of the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Her degree exhibition featured, among other things, a pair of transparent glass stiletto shoes and a crystal chandelier, which later appeared in Liljevalch’s Formbart exhibition in 2005, along with a pair of candlesticks that looked like melted wax. The latter is now a part of her Mysstake series at Kosta Boda.”
Åsa received the award at the Elle Interiör design gala in Stockholm on 3 February 2009, and the complete statement of the jury will be published in the February issue of Elle Interiör, which will be released in connection with the Furniture Fair in Stockholm."
Lewenhaupt, L. "Asa Jungnelius named 2008 designer of the year by Elle interior." September 2, 2009. Accessed October 26, 2009. http://www.kostaboda.se/index.php?id=press&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=238&tx_ttnews[backPid]=40&cHash=c832576018
2008 Evan Schauss:
Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online
2008 Lisa Orkin Emmanuel:
"CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) --
Artist William Carlson dips the large steel ladle into the blazing furnace and fills it with liquid glass. With sweat pouring down his face, he quickly moves to a graphite mold he has made and pours in the seething yellow-colored liquid.
He is making glass wall tiles with an imprint of fiber knots in them that he will remove with tweezers. This will leave a fossil of the knot. The tiles will then be hung together in a grid format. Carlson says he is trying to start a discourse about language with the way he lays out the fiber.
Glass art is attracting more admirers and collectors today, and gaining more attention as a fine art, as artists explore more with the medium. Meanwhile, prices for pieces are on the rise.
"It's a maturation of the field. More and more we are seeing people interested," said Michael Heller, vice president of the Heller Gallery in New York, where glass art is sold. "More and more collectors have also started to realize the value of work that has integrity."
The artistic content of glass art has developed over the last decade or so, artists say.
"It's kind of coming of age where craft is no longer the title of the work. Craft is the means to an end. ... It really is the strength of the concept and power of the image," says Carlson, who also teaches at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.
Fran Kaufman, director of the contemporary art fair palmbeach3, says the reason glass art is on the rise is because many collectors aren't purchasing just one type of art anymore, but varying the kinds of art they collect. Prices are also getting higher, which is enticing people to buy it.
"Prices getting higher, that is appealing to collectors. People are looking beyond the more traditional glass pieces. ... Collections are not so specific anymore," Kaufman says. "I think the experimentation has grown more."
Mark Lyman, director of the two annual shows called SOFA, which take place in New York and Chicago, says that 10 to 15 years ago an expensive glass piece would cost between $50,000 to $100,000. Now, such works can reach anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.
"It's a very active market for them," Lyman says of the glass pieces. "It's really come along. ... We're seeing a lot of growth and strength."
In an effort to expand public awareness, collectors Sheldon and Myrna Palley of Miami donated about 100 pieces that they have been amassing since the 1970s to the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum. The exhibit opened last month.
They say they have about 200 more works at home. The collection at the museum includes a piece by William Morris that looks like a prehistoric artifact with cave paintings on it. Next to it, attached to a metal stand, is a glass shaped to resemble a horn. It was created in 1992. Christina Bothwell's glass yellow baby with ceramic head and extremities also sits on one of the shelves.
Myrna Palley says they scour fairs and work with well-known glass art dealers to decide what they will buy.
"When you go to a cafeteria and there's all this food, how do you know what to pick?" Myrna Palley says of her experience buying glass art. "It just calls me."
Sheldon Palley says the feeling of power in Tom Patti's small glass objects really pull him to them.
"It's very architectural. They are like huge buildings, even though they are small," he says.
Patti, whose studio is in Pittsfield, Mass., says he also sees an increased interest in glass art.
"I think the interest in glass is continuously growing, getting larger," Patti says. "It's been accumulating. It's just something that if the art form is strong, it inherently progresses in many avenues. ... The museums are not just collecting it, they are seeing it as an applied art form that can be incorporated as part of the building itself."
Some artists credit Seattle-based Dale Chihuly for getting their art more publicity. His colorful glass works have reached audiences across the United States and throughout the world.
Studio glass was introduced into college programs in the 1960s and then increasingly explored by students. It really started being considered art after 1960 when artists began to work in their own studios and not in factories. Around the same time, a non-industrial glass furnace was created, which opened up opportunities for creative use, artist Carlson says.
Now, a common recipe for the material is sand or silica mixed with sodium carbonate, lime, magnesium carbonate and any additives that may change the color.
Wisconsin-based artist Beth Lipman, who creates glass still lifes inspired by Dutch, German and Italian paintings of the 1600s, says she feels a definite shift in the way her art is perceived.
"I think people are kind of hungry for more of a dialogue," Lipman says. "There is this overall shift of looking at the capitalist community that we're living in and being mindful about what you are using your money for."
(This version CORRECTS city of Tom Patti's studio to 'Pittsfield, Mass.')"
Emmanuel, L.O. "Glass art is attracting more collectors." June 27, 2008. San Francisco Chronicle. accessed September 8, 2009. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/27/entertainment/e130950D25.DTL
2008 Pauline Dubkin Yearwood:
"Visitors to the 15th-anniversary SOFA Chicago (Sculptural Objects & Functional Art Fair) at Navy Pier will view a spectacular installation in glass, among other always-impressive works from 100 galleries in 16 countries. "Chandelier" encompasses three of those objects and many others besides and is a visual meditation on no less a theme than the opposing pull of the good and evil sides of human beings.
A Tel Aviv showroom, Litvak Gallery, is spending $100,000 on the installation by Italian glass artist Lucio Bubacco.
How an Israeli gallery came to represent one of the top Italian glass artists in the world at first seems a puzzle, but Orit Topuol, a gallery spokesperson, explained it all in an e-mail exchange from Tel Aviv.
"The Litvak Gallery was established in 2006 by Muly Litvak, an art collector and Internet entrepreneur," she writes. "The gallery supports new and leading artists and assists them by promoting their work internationally." It also commissions large-scale projects from well-known "master artists" and commits to promoting them internationally, she writes.
As for the SOFA installation, titled "Eternal Temptation," Topuol writes that "Muly Litvak is an avid glass collector. His personal collection incorporates pieces from some of the world's leading glass artists, including Lucio Bubacco, one of (his) favorites. Since Bubacco is a master glass artist and is represented solely by Litvak Gallery, the two decided to collaborate on a project."
Bubacco, born in the Italian city of Murano, where he still lives, has been a glass artist since age 15 and is considered one of the world's foremost proponents of the "lume" glass technique, which involves hand-forming figures in glass and incorporating them in blown and cast vessels. He draws his imagery from Greek, Roman and Byzantine art and medieval and Renaissance theater, and often treats classic themes like love, birth, death, heaven and hell, according to a recent catalogue.
Mark Lyman, SOFA's founder and director, writes in an introduction to the show that the Litvak installation "personally raises the bar for the SOFA Fairs and at the same time matches the extraordinary surreal artistry of Bubacco."
Visitors to last year's SOFA who marveled at American glass artist Dale Chilhuly's spectacular chandelier might imagine "Eternal Temptation" to be similar, but Topuol, the gallery spokesperson, says it is not. Chilhuly's chandeliers, she writes, "are created using an entirely different technique. ... Bubacco uses lampworking to create his pieces, with each piece figuratively expressing specific topics and themes."
"Eternal Temptation" is composed of 15 major pieces, each containing dozens of elements, she writes. The centerpiece is a representation of "Man on his Journey through Life" with scenes of "Inferno" (hell) and "Paradiso" (heaven). Three chandeliers also represent Inferno, Paradiso and "the artist's fantasy chandelier." On the periphery are four vases, two depicting Inferno and two Paradiso along with five "watchers," all surrounding the centerpiece.
In the piece, Bubacco "shows his greatness as a surrealist figurative artist, with phenomenal human body sculpting, architectural instinct, and dramatic skill, combined to make an unforgettable impression on the viewer," Topuol writes.
"Eternal Temptation," she continues, "simply stretches the lampworking technique to its limits. (The piece) deals with ambitious topics, focusing on existential and moral dilemmas without taking a stand. Good and evil, paradise and inferno are portrayed as both tempting and threatening by the artist. In 'Eternal Temptation' Bubacco poses the ultimate question of the human dilemma: with the duality of good and evil evident in every direction, which path is the right path to take, and does the path we take even matter in the end?"
A catalogue description of "Eternal Temptation" calls it "a combination of architecture ... and theater. (Bubacco's) architecture is constructed by means of a series of extended vessel forms, chalices, goblets, vases and chandeliers; his theater by means of a cast of many hundreds of small figures who enact the story of Eternal Temptation played out simultaneously in heaven and hell."
Unlike most of the works shown at SOFA, "Eternal Temptation" is not for sale. Later Bubacco and the Litvak Gallery will select eight scenes from the piece, from which the artist will crate "variations" that will be offered for sale, Topuol writes. She adds that while the piece is making its debut at SOFA, it will eventually be exhibited at other fine art fairs and museums as well as at the gallery.
Meanwhile SOFA celebrates its 15th year with its biggest fair yet, giving viewers a look at art objects from galleries as far-flung as Argentina and China. The United States is represented by 14 Chicago galleries, among many others. Special exhibits, besides "Eternal Temptation" and other works in glass by Bubacco, include more work from the Association of Israel's Decorative Arts and a celebration of the Racine (Wisconsin) Art Museum.
A special exhibit will feature works by Israeli artists Yael Herman, Noa Hagiladi, Rory Hooper, Alon Meron and Noa Nadir. The entire exhibit will be housed in a one-of-a-kind cavelike structure designed by architect Guy Zucker, a first-of-its-kind exhibit at SOFA.
In addition, a lecture series featuring museum curators, professional art advisors, artists, collectors, interior designers, critics and art market journalists will take place throughout the duration of the show (visit www.sofaexpo.com for schedules).
The artwork on display ranges from Japanese ceramics to hollowware by Scandinavian silversmiths to contemporary furniture to avant-garde American and European jewelry and much more. but-in answer to a question that still gets asked-no sofas."
Yearwood, P.D. "Glass that shatters expectations: Israeli gallery goes beyond the chandelier." Chicago Jewish News. November 7, 2008. Accessed November 2, 2009. http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/story.htm?sid=7&id=252443
2008 Bill Van Siclen:
" The first thing you see as you enter “Chihuly at RISD,” the sometimes dazzling but ultimately disappointing Dale Chihuly exhibition at Rhode Island School of Design, isn’t one of the artist’s flamboyant blown-glass sculptures. Instead, it’s a copy of Chihuly’s signature blown up to billboard size and rendered in a swirling semi-abstract scrawl. As it turns out, it’s a strangely appropriate way to start the show, which opens Saturday at RISD’s new Chace Center complex on North Main Street. For one thing, the free-form twists and turns in Chihuly’s signature look a lot like the free-form twists and turns in his sculptures. And the color of the signature — a venomous shade of acid-green — seems appropriate for an artist whose titles (among them, Citron-Spotted Ebony Venetian with Coiled Lilies and Black Basket Set with Cadmium Orange Lip Wraps) often read like shopping lists for a color-crazed Impressionist. Unfortunately, Chihuly’s super-sized John Hancock is also appropriate in less flattering ways. As much a showman as he is an artist, Chihuly is best known for his large blown-glass sculptures — dramatic works whose lush colors and fluid shapes often evoke shells, flowers, baskets and other organic forms. During the 1970s and ’80s, these eye-catching, technically challenging pieces helped rekindle interest in glass as a medium for serious contemporary artists. Along the way, Chihuly, a Tacoma, Wash., native who graduated from RISD in 1968 (with a master’s degree in ceramics) and later founded the school’s studio-glass program, became the most famous American glass artist since Louis Comfort Tiffany. In recent years, however, Chihuly has spent much of his time seeking ever larger and more grandiose stages for his work. In 1995, a Chihuly-led team of glassmakers transformed the streets, bridges and canals of Venice into a giant outdoor glass gallery. The result, dubbed Chihuly Over Venice, also spawned a coffee table book and a video documentary. Other high-profile projects include the lobby ceiling of the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and Chihuly at the V & A, a 2001 installation at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. While these projects have helped introduce Chihuly’s work to a wider public, they’ve also taken a toll on his reputation. A 1999 survey of American art critics, for example, ranked Chihuly in the top 10 in both the “name recognition” and “most overrated” categories. More recently, a prominent West Coast critic (Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle) slammed Chihuly for indulging in “empty virtuosity” and mere “decoration.” (Ouch!) The result is a kind of mid-career stalemate, in which Chihuly and his work remain hugely popular with everyday museum-goers while eliciting yawns — or worse — from a growing number of artists and critics (and, it must be said, from many of Chihuly’s fellow glassmakers). It’s a pattern that “Chihuly at RISD,” which features about a dozen large sculptural ensembles as well as a smattering of smaller works, seems likely to repeat. After making their way past the king-size “Chihuly” signature, the first thing visitors see is a smaller version of the famous glass-filled ceiling at the Bellagio Resort. In many ways, it’s a great way to start the show. Not only does it evoke one of Chihuly’s most famous artworks — the Bellagio ceiling — but it introduces many of the artistic concerns — lush color, the transformative properties of light, sensuous form — that have occupied him throughout his career. If you’ve never experienced a Chihuly exhibit before, prepare to be dazzled. On the other hand, if you have seen a Chihuly show before, you may have a different reaction: déjà vu. Indeed, ceiling installations have become something of a staple at Chihuly exhibits — the equivalent of a rock band kicking off a concert with a couple of crowd-pleasing oldies. Next up: a huge wall filled with the poster-size “drawings” Chihuly likes to make in between glass-blowing sessions. Here again, casual museum-goers will probably be impressed by the sheer scale of the installation, which suggests a cross between a Jackson Pollock painting and an IMAX screen. On the other hand, there’s a lot more doodling than drawing in these pieces, most of which look as if they were tossed off in a few seconds. Next, it’s on to one of the show’s highlights: a trio of blown-glass chandeliers. Though Chihuly has been making these show-stopping works for a long time now, the ones at RISD, all of which were completed in 2008, are among the best I’ve seen — visually striking and inventive, yet surprisingly elegant and understated (at least by Chihuly’s standards). Then again, “understated” is not a word I’d use to describe to Mille Fiori, one of several large installation-style pieces in the exhibition. Located in the same area as the chandeliers, Mille Fiori consists of dozens of tube-shaped glass sculptures that seem to sprout, like a crop of mutant tulips, from a mirrored black floor. The result is quintessential Chihuly — technically challenging, dramatically presented and beautiful to look at, yet with more than a hint of calculated slickness and showmanship. Indeed, you could also imagine Mille Fiori and its two companion installations — the lilac-hued Neodymium Reeds and the neon-lit Glass Forest — as high-end Christmas-window displays. Museum visitors will also find several displays devoted to Chihuly’s smaller table-top sculptures, including examples of his Venetians, Baskets and Navajo Blanket Cylinders series. Of these, the Venetians make the strongest impression, perhaps because they represent Chihuly at his most flamboyant and over-the-top. (Chihuly being Chihuly?) The pieces from the Baskets and Navajo Blanket series, meanwhile, all date from 2008, suggesting that Chihuly has begun mining his past work in much the same way that aging rock stars mine their back catalogs. Meanwhile, Chihuly’s influence on other glassmakers is the focus of “Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years,” a small companion exhibit installed just outside the Chace Center’s main gallery. Besides giving props to some local talent — many of the artists are based in Rhode Island — the show highlights the diversity of contemporary art glass, with some artists emphasizing fluid shapes and colors (Toots Zynsky), others referencing art history (James Watkins) and still others treating glass as an offshoot of minimalist sculpture (Steven Weinberg, Howard Ben Tre). The show also features several older Chihuly sculptures, including one of the original Navajo Blanket Cylinders that helped launch the artist’s career back in the mid-1970s. Though small and nearly colorless by Chihuly’s current standards, it has a freshness and unassuming beauty that’s missing from many of his more recent works. Indeed, it may be the best Chihuly of the bunch." Van Siclen, B. "Chihuly glass dazzles, with a touch of deja vu." Sept. 25, 2008. Acc. November 2, 2009. http://www.projo.com/art/content/wk-artscene25_09-25-08_VJBM3P4_v18.323c1e.html
