2011,2012 Presentations, Demonstrations, and Other AGA Events
To RSVP: fredschomer@cox.net
September 19, 2011 7:30 pm - Ethan Stern
Details for this presentation are on the home page.
October 12 - 16, 2011 - Trip to Penland/Asheville
Details for this trip are under "Travel".
November 7, 2011 - Lawrence Morrell
Larry's work includes Fine Art glass sculptures with illumination, large and small scale works primarily in glass, functional artwork such as glass walls, tables, doors and stairs embedded with fiber optic and LEDs, Carved glass sculptures with textures and surfaces inspired from Scanning Electron Microscopy, Bioengineering and Synthetic Biology.
He created large scale glass installations in New York City such as the Vietnam Veteran's War Memorial and the facade of the Millennium at Times Square Hotel.
View his works at this website.
December 5, 2011 - Mary Shaffer
Artist Mary Shaffer creates sculpture from slumped glass, bronze, found objects, stone, light, fire, fiber-optics, sound, and performance.
"Mary Shaffer brought art to glass and glass to Art." John Perrault, Critic & Poet, NYC
January 16, 2012 - Jay Musler
Arizona Glass Alliance is proud to present a demonstration by the internationally known glass artist and sculptor, Jay Mussler, at 7:30 PM on Monday evening, January 16. The demonstration will be held at Circle 6 Studios, which is located at 1424 E. Virginia in Phoenix, and we thank John Longo, the owner of Circle 6, for his cooperation in allowing us to use his facility.
Jay Mussler has long been one of the most recognized glass artists and sculptors. His “cityscape” bowls, such as the one shown below, are found in many major collections, as are his beautiful “masks” and flame work pieces. He is a master of both flame work and blown glass, with a marvelous sense of both color and humor that shines through in much of his work. Jay’s masks are wonderful abstractions of age old traditional forms using both new materials as well as new shapes. Even better, you’ll find Jay to be a very warm and engaging person, one that you’ll very much enjoy meeting.
Jay has had many solo exhibitions at major galleries such as Habatat, Heller and Marx Sanders, and he’s been a guest lecturer at well known institutions around the country including UCLA, Pilchuck and the Renwick, as well as Germany and Japan. Jay’s work is included in the collections of museums around the world, including the Metropolitan, the DeYoung, the Smithsonian and the Corning to name just a few.
As usual, to reserve your spot for what promises to be a fascinating evening please email Fred Schomer.
January 30, 2012 - Matt Eskuche
Matt will come to the Scottsdale location to present to our group during his exhibition at the U. of A Museum of Art in Tucson around January 26 as part of the 2012 celebration.
As Matt explains on his Website: "the trash glass i've been making for the past few years is culled from several of my sensibilities. by creating these objects of mass production by hand, using craft and art traditions, i express a futility in the end product... "why would someone spend all that time making the same trash that you could just pick up in the street?"
some of my interest lies with taking a realistic look at the products we consume and how that effects economies, environments, and land and humanitarian rights. another factor has to do with confronting planned obsolescence, ultra-convenience, and the ineffectual ways we generate and dispose of capitalism's vast wastefulness.
through the work, i may promote dialogue about the evolution of social behaviour surrounding consumption… or maybe the use of government for the purposes of extreme wealth for the few, with little regard for the many… in the end, and all throughout, i just like trash, and can make it, and can sell it. who could know?
February 6, 2012 - Cappy Thompson
“Like the Medieval artists who painted on stained glass and the Greek artisans who painted clay pots,” says Thompson, “I paint pictorial narratives. My work is pulled in opposite directions by the panel and vessel forms. With a long history as a public art form, stained glass is an architectural medium that belongs to the collective. The vessel, on the other hand, exists on an intimate scale, relating to the individual in its form and function. This conflict finds expression in my work as a desire to communicate broadly on the one hand and an impulse to go deeply into the personal on the other.”
February 15, 2012 - Shelley Allen
Blue Rain gallery will be sponsoring a private reception for AGA in connection with the opening the following evening of a show of work by Shelley Allen. Shelley will attend the reception and give a talk on her work.
March 8, 2012 - Henry Halem
Henry will be speaking at SMOCA under the joint sponsorship of AGA and the museum. This event is part of the 2012 celebration
March 18, 2012 - Hands-on at Bandhu Dunham studio in Prescott
Bandhu is a member of the Arizona Glass Alliance and most of us are familiar with his work. This will be a great experience for anyone who is curious about working with glass. View his website.
More details to come.
April 9 - Alex Fekete
Artist Statement (from Prism Gallery)
Translucent, fragile, fluid yet hard, free blown Glass and its magical depths became my creative friends and explorer over a decade ago. Over this time span, transparency, translucency, bottomless variety of form and unyielding nature of Glass gained my affection permanently. Maybe that’s why I allow Glass to retain its “creative license” to complete my ideas – anywhere between its extremely hot and super-cooled liquid stages. I am fascinated by Glass’ ability to take in and contain light resulting in reversed plasticity.
To be honest, I do respect Glass in its naturally polished state, however I find only occasional use for it in my creative processes. Sandblasting allows me to better define objects endowing them with more palpable volume and “readability”. If there is polished surface, I use it sparingly, mostly to highlight form-defining curves or to emphasize distance. In the deliberate absence of color, it’s the purity of form buttressed by the power of negative space takes on the center stage.
Objects I create can be characterized by simple, almost graphic representation of space and volumes. Glass in the state of flux unified with my imagination both participate in the process of creation. This way, Glass lives as an active and indispensable ingredient, in much more than just literal way.
In the creative process itself, I spend endless hours searching for what to include, but predominantly exclude, looking for that bare minimum, capable of supporting my idea before it dissipates. Testing the idea in hot and cold shops follow. Making it happen, is then only matter of hours (quite a few), some skill and luck.
