Timothy Horn, Gorgonia 17, nickle-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass
(Image: Curtis Speer)
A thrilling end to a less than thrilling year; Timothy Horn’s Gorgonia 17 has just been acquired by the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC.
What a truly joyful Christmas treat, makes a heart glad. Congratulations Tim.
Cheers all round!
We just had a missive from our fave glass curator, Michael Scarrone, with a pictorial spread of Wagga Wagga’s National Art Glass Gallery’s summer show, Peter Minson: Six Decades of Reflection.
To quote Michael…“The latest exhibition we have here is a solo effort from Peter Minson. I visited Peter a couple of years back on one of my treks to Canberra and was gobsmacked at the variety of working styles and techniques he has developed and perfected in his working life as a glass artisan. The art glass works were not created specifically for this exhibition, rather I have chosen from his studio several works from the huge variety of his working styles and displayed them in groups so as to represent the breadth of his palette.
I think it is vitally important that the National Art Glass Gallery honour’s glass pioneers like Peter Minson and brings attention to the impact they have had on the Australian studio glass scene. As you know Peter has mentored, taught, displayed and demonstrated for over 60 years; what a monumental achievement. Peter told me he had never had a solo exhibition. It is so great that the National Art Glass Gallery not only display new or mid career artists but can offer art glass pioneers like Peter the opportunity to display his wares.”
Which is one of the pivotal aspects of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery’s importance in the scheme of Australian Studio Glass. The NAGG isn’t predicated on only the Pick of the Pops and/or the latest kachingable darling being lionised by the commercial glass gallery scene. Its charter instead is to record and represent the sector as a whole; like a living collective treasury of a constantly evolving and exciting art/craft movement that took hold here – like a veritable fulgurite lightening strike – in Australia (and in Wagga Wagga most particularly) back in the early 1970’s.
Peter Minson is the latest in a long line of stalwarts of the Australian Studio Glass Movement to be showcased at the NAGG during Michael’s 21-plus year tenure as the Curator of the National Art Glass Collection, joining a stellar cast of germinal movers and shakers: Stephen Skillitzi, Julio Santos, Gerry King, George Aslanis, Denis O,Connor, Nick Mount, Stephen Proctor, Elizabeth Kelly, Judi Elliott, Rish and Alistair Gordon, Kirstie Rea and Emma Varga.
…it’s time once more for that most lustrous of opportunities, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery’s National Emerging Art Glass Prize.
We’re talking exhibition, all expenses paid masterclass study trip to Scotlandia, cash in the hand and – last but certainly never least – major kudos.
Get on it!!!
A declaration of rampant self-promotion!!
The Gang is pleased to announce its upcoming annual event at the Hideout – Prisoners of the Crown holds an Open Studio Day on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of Ned’s hanging day (11 November 1880), which this year it falls on Sunday 10th November.
Anyone visiting the environs of the Bega Valley/Wyndham on the Far South Coast of NSW is welcome to swing by for a mooch around the workshop studios (contemporary jewellery and glass) and our in-house Courtroom gallery. And of course there’s the additional lure of booty with the Lucky Mugshot Prize. Drawn at the end of the day, this year’s winner will leg it with a pair of Ginger’s cast silver Crownie earrings.
For the vast majority of you who are entirely unfamiliar with our practice, you can check out previous Annual Open Studio Day chat here and here and here.
And there’s plenty more to explore at prisonersofthecrown.com
Doors swing open at 10.30 and slam shut at 3.30pm. Don’t stress too much if you miss it, there’s always next year(!)
Prisoners of the Crown is situated in the Old Police Station and Courthouse, in the village of Wyndham, a scenic 20 minute drive inland from Pambula, on the Far South Coast of NSW. We’re easy to find, just keep an eye out for Maurice de Ute…
Very late mail on the Tom Malone Prize (we’ve been a tad distracted) but just wanted to send a big congrats to winner Mark Eliot for his fabulous piece…
Mark Eliott, Down at the water table, 2018, borosilicate glass – blown and hot sculpted, recycled Australian Red Cedar, water, 58 x 69 x 16cm. Photograph: Richard Weinstein
‘It all started down at the local (where else?), after a solid rain. We were having a good natter over a drink when we accidentally bumped branches under the table. Next thing mycorrhizal fungi connected and it was all on for young and old. Since reading Peter Wohlleben’s The hidden life of trees, I am no longer able to see these organisms merely as chunks of wood with bark and leaves on, but as entities with some kind of undeniable intelligence and character. Instead I now commit the different sin of anthropomorphising them. In this 3D cartoon the human/canine story is incidental while the trees take centre stage.’
Very cool. Ticks all our boxes; topical, humorous, beautifully made. Totes deserving of the win.
Meanwhile, we also really like Jeremy’s work (notwithstanding that it’s at the polar opposite end of the aesthetic range!)…
Jeremy Lepisto, Structure 2 (from the Aspect series) 2018, kiln formed and fabricated glass, 25.2 x.25.2 x 25.2. Photograph: Rob Little
For the full story/field of finalists go to the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s Tom Malone 2019 announcement, here
[…we’re heading straight out to share a bevie with our trees. (n)Ed.]
An exhibition and book launch celebrating the continuing practice of one of the Australian Studio Glass Movement’s pioneer members, Denis O’Connor, has kicked off in Wagga Wagga…
Grace Cochrane, author and former Senior Curator of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, will be doing the honours at the official opening and book launch (An Unlikely Address: A Regional Gallery and the Genesis of a Collection; Wagga Wagga Art Gallery) on Friday 14th December, 6 – 8 pm…though the exhibition is already up and open for viewing for all you art/glass lovers travelling to/through Wagga Wagga in the interim.
Worth the trip, big time.
Just in on the international tom-toms…
Dread & Delight: Fairytales in an Anxious World, a group exhibition curated by Emily Stanley at the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Included in the show is ‘Mother-Lode’, a 9 ft long x 6.5 ft high baroque carriage encrusted in crystallized rock sugar, alongside works by 21 artists including David Hockney, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith And John Baldessari. Weatherspoon Art Museum, cnr Spring Garden and Tate Streets, Greensboro, NC. Reception: 5-7pm Saturday, August 25. Exhibition runs till December 9, 2018.
Timothy Horn, Mother-Lode, 2008 Crystallized rock sugar, plywood, steel.
Install of Mother-Lode at the Weatherspoon Art Museum here.
Great company Tim – how marvellous.
STOP PRESS (as in BUT WAIT, THERE”S MORE!!):
Timothy has just posted…
“Extremely grateful to the Powerhouse Museum (MAAS) in Sydney for the recent acquisition of Gorgonia 15. A special thank you to curator Eva Czeris-Ryl for making this happen. This work is part of the exhibition Fantastical Worlds curated by Eva Czernis-Ryl at the Powerhouse, alongside works by Alexander McQueen, Kate Rohde and Timorous Beasties. Exhibition runs till January 2020″
Looks like a road trip to Sydney is in order….
Michael Scarrone from the National Art Glass Gallery at Wagga Wagga has sent the following news….
The 2018 National Emerging Art Glass Prize winner Rose-Mary Faulkner is currently on her art residency in Scotland. Rose-Mary has received an all-expenses-paid trip, two masterclasses and a conference at North Lands Creative Glass facility in Scotland with her work acquired into the National Art Glass Collection, as well as $4000 prize money. North Lands is internationally recognized as the best institute for the study of glass art in Europe.
Lucky Rose-Mary, eh! So, for the interminably curious, Rose-Marys’ journey can be followed via the NEAGP blog link and – for a broader squizz at her practice – go to her website.
Meanwhile for those of you not in the loop, here’s a little background on the winning work…
Rose-Mary Faulkner, Continuum 2017, kiln formed glass and decals
Artist statement:
My current work presents a study of my own body from the restricted, subjective line of sight we have of ourselves, aiming to map the female figure through abstracted and layered photographic imagery in order to analyse form and surface. I investigate ways to observe and experience the body, expressed visually through soft dappled imagery, evocative of feeling and sensation. Exploring decals techniques, I transfer photography to glass with water and heat, combining several related images before further manipulating the surface. Continuum presents a mapping of my form – its shape, folds and colours – and its delicacy is enhanced with a skin like surface and sensation.
[Thanks for the headz-up, Mikey. We enjoy following these residency blog feeds. n(Ed)]
The winner of the prestigious National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2018 was announced at the exhibition launch at the National Art Glass Gallery last Friday evening….
Rose-Mary Faulkner Continuum, kiln formed glass with decals (19x290x.3cm)
Rose picks up an all-expenses masterclass study trip to North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland (plus some spending money!) and the work itself goes into the National Glass Collection.
Other stand-outs were…
Namdoo Kim, Expendable Being, glass/core-casting
…and…
Clare Peters, Hope Upheld, multiple layered fused glass, 22ct gold text, Mallee root base
Looks like a cracker show, most definitely worth the road trip – you’ve got until the 29th of July to catch it.
For those unfamiliar with the prize, for backchat go here.
glass central canberra 