Ethan Stern – Contemporary Glass Artist

March 3 , , , , , ,

Drop Duo by Ethan Stern, 2011

Glass is not a forgiving material. It demands an involved process and requires careful planning and manipulation. As the most direct way for Ethan Stern to leave his mark, engraving has become his voice within the medium. The process of carving is a reductive one; material cannot be added once it is removed. This action of continuously revealing layers adds a significant amount of weight to each step and the choices made, allowing the process to play the ultimate role in defining the relationship between the surface and form of each piece

“At the most basic level, my work is an ongoing exploration of abstraction and the expressive qualities of form, color, texture and light. I use glass as a catalyst to help answer questions about how we see our environment, the objects we use everyday and the spaces we occupy. I am very aware of how my physical surroundings influence the qualities of each piece. I live in an urban area and work in an industrial part of Seattle. I cannot help but allow the hue of the day and the contrast between the engineered and natural landscapes permeate my sense of beauty. Translating this information into my recent work has led to imagery and form inspired by design, architecture and the visual deconstruction of my surroundings.

In the past, my formal investigation has been limited to shapes that are flattened and sculpted to have geometric edges and tight corners creating a strong silhouette. I have been drawn to this way of working not only as a means to explore pure form, clean lines and minimal composition, but to create a canvas for texture and pattern on the surface. While these forms have allowed for a significant amount of exploration, I have become interested in a more direct investigation of the role architecture plays in my artistic practice and the human interaction with physical surroundings.”

Stern’s newest work attempts to examine how objects on a human scale can be viewed as architectural. How much does scale influence our interpretation of beauty and perfection? Drawing from the idea that architecture can be more than a building, more than a large square structure which functions before it speaks, Stern feels challenged to investigate how we relate to the objects we live with. Can balance and contour dictate how we interact with the materials around us? If standing in front of a building hovering above you feels imposing, what happens when its form has no right angles or tilts and curves like the human form? Through blown glass objects reflective of these architectural forms, Stern investigates how our urban environments directly influence our human experience, while allowing the work and process to interact with the public in new and exciting ways.

Ethan Stern lives and works in Seattle, WA. where he operates Diamond Life Studio. You may learn more and view works at www.ethanstern.com. Ethan will exhibit new works at the Hawk Gallery in Columbus, OH on March 31st 2012.

Invisible Designers in Contemporary Art Glass

February 2 , , , , , , ,

 By Matthew Cummings

Sam Stang, Greg Fidler, Michael Schunke, Katherine Grey, Boyd Seguki and Lisa Zerkowitz….If you are a fan of design – especially of contemporary art glass – you probably haven’t heard of these names. If these names are indeed foreign to you then I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the quality and originality of these contemporary American Glass Designers/Craftsmen. The Studio Glass Movement began in 1962 at the Toledo Musuem of Glass in Ohio. It was a workshop thrown together by Harvey Littleton and Dominic Labino that changed the face of glass production. As Americans have no true lineage in glass, we had to learn first through trial and error. Then we pushed forward by absorbing the techniques and approaches from other countries long-standing glass traditions, such as the Czech Republic, Italy, German, and England.

This set the tone for globalization in the Studio Glass Movement (a predominantly American movement) long before the world became flat again through the digital mediums. In contemporary glass design, we can still see the aftereffects of this journey towards material forefathers in the aesthetics and decorative techniques. The selection of work that I have chosen includes pieces influenced by Northern European Ceramics, and Italian Glass, both specifically from mid century designers.

The craftsmen influenced by ceramics are given the opportunity of translating the stunning work of Carl Harry Stahlhane, Stig Lindberg, and Meindert Zaalberg into glass and utilizing the inherent qualities of the material to find new shapes. The highest gloss possible in ceramics is easily surpassed by the natural finish of glass and bulbous forms are quickly created by the introduction of the craftsman’s breath in the vessel. The designers influenced by the Italian tradition find themselves in a wonderfully interesting dialogue between American and Italian Glass. The tradition that so heavily influenced the development of the Studio Glass Movement now finds itself surpassed by the creativity/ingenuity of the young american movement (within this context).

The Venetian Golden Age is generally considered to have occurred between 1930-1960 with a plethora of quality designers working on the island of Murano. Most importantly, the glass company Venini inviting designers from other backgrounds to work at the factory. Since the Venetian Golden Age, the level of creativity has slightly dwindled with the exception of a few individual maestros… Lino Tagliapietra, Livio Seguso, Davide Salvedore, ect. In the 1990s, Seattle passed Murano as the epicenter of glass design and sculpture. While some of the glass shown here is influenced by the Italian Glass tradition, it could actually be considered the most viable steward of that lineage.

 

Explore further

Two Tone Studio is the production studio of glass craftsmen Boyd Seguki and Lisa Zerkowitz. This husband and wife team blend contemporary design and everyday utility. Their series of cocktail-specific vessel sets are wonderful in their response to the each cocktail in terms of color, functionality, and traditional vessel shape. Two Tone Studio is located outside of Seattle and both Boyd and Liza graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Ipso Facto Studio was founded by Greg Fidler and Brent Cole. The glass is currently produced by Greg at his studio in Bakersville, NC. The Form Studies are beautiful novellas of mid-century Swedish ceramic designs. They come in a variety of colors and each form is unique.

IBEX was founded by Sam Stang, David Levi, and Dimitri Michaelides in St. Louis and operated from 1985-1991. This powerhouse glass company produced designs that have been copied and distributed throughout the country.

You can find a selection of their designs at Vetri Gallery in Seattle.

After IBEX dissolved, Sam Stang began producing his own unique and production glass vessels. His work showcases a mastery of Venetian techniques applied to modernist forms. He now works out of Augusta, MO with his wife Kaeko Maehata.

Michael Schunke’s limited edition designs, marketed under Nine Irons Design, are shown throughout the country and produced in his West Grove, PA studio. He is one of the world’s preeminent goblet makers.

http://www.nineironstudios.com/

Katherine Grey is a contemporary glass artist who also produces some incredible functional designs that often fit neatly inside of each other. Katherine is the only craftsperson on the list that doesn’t run a production studio, but I love the work so much that it demanded to be included.

Matthew Cummings – Contemporary Glass Artist

January 1 , , , , ,

Matthew Cummings is an artist producing contemporary artwork about the way we see the world around us and more specifically, how we fabricate systems to understand this world. The systems that Matthew chooses to deal with range from topographical maps that visually represent a change in elevation to the abstractions produced by electron microscopes of the infinitesimally small. Since 2003, Matthew has been exhibiting his glass sculptures throughout the United States and featured in several magazines including the international publication, Glass Quarterly. He graduated from Centre College in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Glass and Painting, under the tutelage of Stephen Rolfe Powell. After college, Matthew traveled throughout the country to study firsthand with expert glassblowers in order to master his craft. In 2009 he embarked upon a new aesthetic journey spurred by the On Perception Series. This recent work is realized through glass sculptures, video and glass installations, paintings, and drawings. Matthew earned the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Illinois State University in 2011. Currently, he maintains a sculpture studio in Louisville, KY where he produces sculpture and painting about the fragility of perception.

View Matthew’s art on his website!

The On Perception series are novellas for how we see and what a line or lines moving through space can mean. Since the beginning of philosophy, we have always used visual analogies to describe concepts and theories of knowledge…think Plato’s Cave and the Cartesian Theater. Since we can never actually see these things, I look to fields of study that visualize the unseen and push the boundaries of our concept of the world, such as Particle Physics, Quantum Physics, Astronomy, and Microscopy. The aesthetics of each field of study influences the visuals of my abstractions and allow the work to become metaphors for how we ‘see’ the unobservable.

-Matthew Cummings