Glass Art Association of Canada

B E H O L D

Summer 2022 Members' Exhibition

The Glass Art Association of Canada invites you to view our summer's members' exhibition, BEHOLD.

This members' exhibition focuses on emerging, mid-career and established artists from across Canada who employ glass as their primary medium. See how these artists approached the concept!

Thank you for visiting.

Diana Fox
President of the Glass Art Association of Canada

GAAC Board of Directors
Gosia Martyniak
Amee Raval
Marcia DeVicque
Ankeeta Kitras
Ariel Hill
Andrew Beauchamp
Courtney Downman

Website Coordinator
Gabriela Wilson

*please note this is an online exhibition hosted by GAAC. If you have any questions or inquiries about a specific piece, please contact the artist directly, you can also check out their GAAC artists profile for more work and contact info.

Wishes Dishes, set of 3

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
12cm H x 4cm W (each)
Materials:
Blown glass; high-fire decals
Description:
Small enough to fit in your hand, these vessels can hold precious objects or special wishes.

Artist

Joanne Andrighetti Joanne Andrighetti

Joanne Andrighetti has been working in glass for 40 years. She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Crafts and Design program. Joanne moved to Vancouver in 1989 where she has operated several glass studios and a gallery and co-founded Terminal City Glass Co-op. In addition to her personal craft practice, she teaches both glassblowing and flameworking.

Hummingbird Detail

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
20cm x 15cm x 10 cm
Materials:
Borosilicte
Description:
The influence of mother nature, the environment and sustainability have been realized for me. Accommodated with time, the past three years have been allotted to hummingbirds, exploring their anatomy, colors, and habits. I will move onto the chickadee next, though plan throughout my lifelong career as an artist to extensively observed the beautiful birds of Alberta and North America and other places indicative to home for me Ornithology is the study of birds; this grouping of work is a contemporary study into their delicate and elegant presence. The sounds that emerge from these innumerable musical leaders besiege all of us. Presenting sanctimonious moments, allowing us to separate and supplement what swamps and defines our attention momentarily, for a life expressing content with existence.

Artist

Alana Biffert Alana Biffert

Alana Biffert; BIOGRAPHY Alana Biffert’s studio practise is expansive, often driven by the exploration into various techniques. Biffert’s accumulative skills are built in both hard and soft glass. Her obsession for this material is mirrored by the depth of her skill set, materialized through her passion for the Arts. A European upbringing constructed the first decade of Biffert’s life in the glass culture of Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Glass engulfed her childhood with a dream of becoming a glassblower. Biffert took home a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass from Alberta University of the Arts in 2008. Through volunteering locally, she landed a life changing job as a Glass technician at Red Deer College. Opportunities blossomed and after working with several well-known local artists, Biffert spent the next two years in her pursuit on a professional level. Welcoming every opportunity, Biffert worked with various talents in New Zealand, Australia and Croatia

D’hier à demain / From yesterday to tomorrow

Year:
2019
Dimensions:
10 x 60 x 45 cm
Materials:
Verre thermoformé et impressions 3D peintes / Fused glass and painted 3D prints
Description:
Nous sommes sur une vague, coincés entre le passé et l’avenir. Cette vague, notre surf laisse des traces sur la planète. Là où nous allions, le territoire était propre. Après notre passage, il l’était beaucoup moins. Et l’on continue à voyager. On ne sait se retenir! Aujourd’hui, trop peu sont ceux qui réalisent que nous sommes isolés sur une toute petite planète très fragile et qu’il ne reste plus beaucoup d’endroits “propres”. (Cette pièce peut être vue à la Boutique d’Espace VERRE à Montréal.) === We are on a wave, caught between the past and the future. This wave, our surf leaves traces on the planet. There, where we were going, the territory was clean. After our visit, it was much less so. And we continue to travel. We don't know how to hold back! Today, too few are those who realize that we are isolated on a very small and very fragile planet and that there are not many “clean” places left. (This piece can be seen at the Boutique d'Espace VERRE in Montreal.)

Artist

Jean-François Boivin Jean-François Boivin

À ma carrière de mathématicien, j’ajoute une expertise en peinture et en sculpture. Cette démarche de plus de dix ans me conduit à Espace VERRE où je m’inscris à temps plein, en 2012, au programme Techniques en métiers d’art, option verre. J’obtiens mon diplôme en 2016 et suis récipiendaire de la bourse de recherche Houdé-Mendel. Avec cette bourse je développe un travail du verre qui m’est propre. En 2019, je gagne la bourse Hayes-Putintseva qui me permet un stage avec Vladimir Klein en République tchèque. Je joins au verre les produits de l’impression 3D, enrichissant ma palette avec les outils de création que sont les mathématiques, l’informatique ou l’électronique que j’aime toujours manipuler. À travers ce cheminement, j’approfondis un vocabulaire esthétique en accord à mon besoin d’expression : la sculpture, la peinture, la photographie et l’écriture font partie de mes outils de créations. Mon discours porte sur les drames contemporains qui nous assaillent.

Magnetar

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
8” dia
Materials:
Blown Glass, Engraved
Description:
A one of a kind sculpture inspired by the colours of the night sky. Featuring incredibly intricate linework that highlights the purple sections of the piece, the delicate carving on this piece is magnified by the series of lenses running around it’s shoulder, capturing the beauty of the cosmos in it’s reflections.

Artist

Gordon Boyd Gordon Boyd

Gordon Boyd was born and raised in Northern Manitoba, and after being introduced to glass a little over five years ago decided to pursue a career within the medium, moving to Oakville Ontario to enroll in Sheridan’s Craft and Design program. Enticed by the mediums’ beauty and difficulty, he was quickly drawn to engraving and other cold working techniques as an expressive mark making technique. Now a staple within his body of work, Gordon uses various carving and polishing techniques to discuss his struggles with both depression, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, exploring the ideas of beauty and suffering, as well as their relationship with each other. Each piece is changed into something new and beautiful only through the loss of material, becoming a wholly new object through the process of material removal, a reflection of how our own losses and struggles shape us in to the person we are.

Caged Bee Vase

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
29 x 11 x 11 cm
Materials:
Blown Glass
Description:
The yellow in this Bee Vase is displayed in a cage pattern. This elaborate style attempts to hold the working bees focused on the strawberry patch. On a hot summer day, the thick leaves keep the bees cool and hydrated. .

Artist

Zachary Cardinal Zachary Cardinal

Zachary Cardinal is Glass Artist Living and Working in Cochrane, AB. Zach graduated from Alberta University of the Arts in 2020. He makes sculptures and functional forms that use strong contrasting colors

Happy Cats

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
15 cm height x 10 cm diameter
Materials:
Glass, glass enamel
Description:
Cats hold a special place in my heart. They live beside us, less pets than co-tenants in our homes, but have an unerring way of knowing when you need comfort, and giving it to you. Holding a purring cat on your lap is a refuge, in an uncertain world. Blown glass vase (clear, lined with white), with enamel decoration applied, hand-worked and refired.

Artist

Sara Carlisle Sara Carlisle

Sara Carlisle takes joy in the small pleasures in life. The play of colour and light in the world we live in. The warmth and mischief of a pet cat. The subtle beauty and resilience of wild flowers and weeds. She captures her love of these things in her glass art. Her work draws on her own personal experience as a visual artist – she discovered watercolour painting in the early 2000’s, and very much enjoyed it, but then fell in love with glass, and began the journey that led to her becoming a glass blower in recent years. She is currently exploring two lines of work on blown glass forms: investigating movement and colour interactions in glass using frits and shards, and revisiting her botanical paintings in enamels and coldworking. Sara is currently studying glass blowing at Sheridan College, in Oakville ON, Canada. She hopes her work brings as much joy to the viewer as it does herself.

Cheval marin

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
14`` x 24` x 12``
Materials:
Verre fusionné et travaillé au chalumeau, socle en pin
Description:
L’hippocampe est le seul mâle qui accouche ! Autant en parler avant qu’il ne disparaisse avec les coraux. C’est une de mes œuvres de ma série ``Beauté en péril``. Il a été créé pour le défi de sa forme complexe et la liberté de jouer avec les couleurs du verre. Les formes et couleurs variées des coraux ont toutes été sculptées au chalumeau. Mais, il a été créé aussi pour nous rappeler la tristesse de la destruction de la vie marine qui est sans retour. Re tenir que la beauté de la nature peut avoir une fin.

Artist

Carole Doyon Carole Doyon

Specialized in glass melting. She holds a D.E.C. in visual arts and a bachelor's degree in graphic design. 2019-2020 Using clay sculptures, she experiments with the technique of casting with fused glass. Its aim is to use the typical characteristics of glass in harmony with the subject. 2021-2022 Confinement was one of exploration of materials and their interactions with each other. The clay becomes an accomplice by integrating itself into the sculpture. 2023-2024 The International Year of Glass offers him the opportunity to participate in several exhibitions. His creativity will be further challenged with his Spontaneous Sculptures in a natural environment derived from "Land art". I realized that several of my sculptures represented "Beauty in Peril. This year, the Corning Museum of Glass has just integrated my sculptures into its archives, It is the largest collection of contemporary glass images in the world of the last 44 years.

Fragmenting Sea

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
6 x 10 x 11 inches
Materials:
Glass (pâte de verre)
Description:
The dynamic-shaped bowl in dark green and blue evokes the image of smashing waves in a stormy sea. It is just as possible to express dynamic movements with the technique of pâte de verre.

Artist

Eiko Emori Eiko Emori

I started taking pâte-de-verre classes at the Sanko glass factory in an industrial area in Tokyo in the days when there were many glass factories in that particular Ward. My academic degrees and honours are: National Diploma in Design (Central School of Arts & Crafts, London, England), Master of Fine Arts (Yale University, New Haven, USA), member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Fellow of Graphic Designers of Canada. I have also studied at Académie Grand Chaumière, Paris, France and the Studio, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA. I am fascinated with the light, colours and translucency that the pâte-de-verre technique produces in glass. The author Marshall McLuhan's phrase, “the medium is the message”, describes what I do. I am forever pursuing new expressions of colours, lights and texture, as well as the limits of the technique. It is the challenge that keeps me going. Contact: mail@designerglassstudio.ca

Compound

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
1" diameter
Materials:
borosilicate
Description:
This small flameworked sculpture explores the enclosure of colour and air.

Artist

Diana Fox Diana Fox

Diana Fox is a glass artist, writer, and gallery owner located in Kimberley, BC. Diana is owner of Mountain Grass Gallery + Bistro in Kimberley, BC, a unique destination gallery and bistro focused on handmade Canadian functional glass. Diana holds a BFA in glassblowing from the Alberta College of Art + Design (now AUArts) and has been a board member with GAAC since 2010. Currently Diana is serving as President of GAAC.

Coordinates Series

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
16 x 20 inches framed per images
Materials:
Unique silver gelatin prints, blown glass plates
Description:
My work subverts this desire for glass to remain invisible in photography and instead utilizes properties of handblown glass as an “imperfect” transparent medium to visualize the intangible sublime in a photographic landscape print. Taking inspiration from the photograms of Man Ray and Adam Fuss, I create unique prints that combine marks that can be created through exposing light through glass with the landscapes that my negatives create on photosensitive paper. The result is a unique process that allows me to create and recreate the landscapes of my imagination and reality. In other words, in my work, I see the landscape as the catalyst, the photograph as the vessel, and the glass as the intangible. In the past semester, I expanded beyond just activating the negative space within a sky to exploring how glass can alter reality by interacting with foreground elements. The “Coordinates” series is the first iteration of a new body of work reflecting on found moments in the Alberta landscape where the past and the present can exist simultaneously. By using the magical moment when the vertical elements of the composition are altered by the glass, I pinpoint certain locations within time and space that allow me to revisit precious memories, time after time. The conceptual root of this series – a need to return; to a place, a moment, a home – is the axis mundi of my glassmaking practice.

Artist

Leia Guo Leia Guo

As an interdisciplinary artist my practice exists at the crossroads where glassmaking, analog photography, and printmaking intersect. My previous bodies of work explored the optical potential of blown glass in the silver gelatin printing process, with a focus on distorting photographs through the exposure process. Physically overlapping and moving glass during exposure allows the two compositions that emerge to interact with each other in an intimate dialogue that would not be possible through digital methods or even analog double-exposure techniques. The result is a unique process that allows me to recreate the landscapes of my imagination and reality. These “vitreoscapes” I create are a love letter to the Albertan landscape and the memories I made while being immersed in its sublimity. Within the frame, blown glass plates and lenses turn into images of fleeting clouds and chinooks, creating moments in time that only exist within my mind. Ghostly impressions left by glass on my photo

Kokoro

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
3 h x 3.5 w
Materials:
Glass
Description:
The title, Kokoro, is heart in Japanese. The piece is handblown using a luminescent colour that glows in the dark. The radiant heart symbolizes hope and resilience in this difficult period of time we have been facing. Open your kokoro and celebrate.

Artist

Bonny Houston Bonny Houston

Bonny Houston, born and raised in Lacadena, Saskatchewan, has been making hot glass since the mid 1980s. She finds inspiration in the colours and forms around her. Bonny received her glass art education at The Alberta College of Art and Design, The Tokyo Glass Art Institute, Red Deer College and Sheridan College. Bonny has operated her own glass studio in Calgary, Houston Hot Shop, since 1994. A committed member of the glass art community, Bonny exhibits locally, nationally and internationally, maintains an active studio practice, teaches, and still finds time to walk her Miniboz, Qloe.

The Discarded

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
18" X 16" X 18"
Materials:
Kiln-Cast Glass, dyed and natural plaster, found objects, wood.
Description:
“The Discarded” honours a neglected sewing box that I found in a vintage store. It held a collection of sewing paraphernalia: wooden spools that had been rewrapped with the ends of frugally saved threads, buttons, and needles. The items reminded me of time I spent sewing with my mother, of her tins of buttons, remembering the outfits they had once belonged to, and the reasons for keeping all of the mismatched ones; a small object like a button can hold a lifetime of memories. I felt a sense of responsibility for this archive, and towards the owner’s perseverance to saving and domestic labour. Using the quiet and repetitive rhythm of mending I began to iterate the elements in the box: repeating, reorganizing, re-materializing and reimagining all of the forgotten memories that were left behind and held within it.

Artist

Jenny Judge Jenny Judge

Jenny holds an MFA in sculpture (1992) from the University of Minnesota and was first introduced to Kiln-Cast glass when she lived in New Zealand until 2004. She currently lives in Whistler BC. Her numerous group exhibitions include The Cheongju International Craft Exhibition (2009), Ranamok Glass finalist (Australia 2011) ‘Embracing Innovation’ at Craft ACT in Canberra, Australia (2016), "wonderments and Materiality" solo exhibition (Craft Council of BC 2019), Ireland Glass Biennale (2020), Korean Ceramics Biennale (2021), with recent work "Phase Transition", 2023 published in New Glass Review 44.

Wedding Gingerbread

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
1 1/2 x 2 inches
Materials:
glass
Description:
flameworked glass murrine cane

Artist

Lucie Kovarova Lucie Kovarova

Le rêve confiné / The Lockdown Dream

Year:
2020
Dimensions:
16 x 7 x 20 inches
Materials:
Verre, bois, impression numérique, vidéo 2 min / Glass, wood, digital print, video 2 min.
Description:
Au rythme d’une respiration une enfant dans un cadre de bois flotte entre rêve et réalité à l’intérieur d’une bulle de verre soufflé. La scène, tournée en un seul plan séquence, est dédoublée et animée par 2 cylindres de verre. To the rhythm of a breath a girl child in a wooden frame floats between dream and reality inside a bubble of blown glass. The scene, shot in a single sequence shot, is doubled and animated by 2 glass cylinders. https://vimeo.com/510695337

Artist

Michèle Lapointe Michèle Lapointe

Michèle Lapointe is a seasoned glass artist, also working with photography, lost objects and other materials to elaborate complex and fascinating installations imbued with bittersweet reminiscence of childhood. Glass recipients gather doll heads as mock scientific exams, the pillows get glassy and transform into morphing surfaces for the video: the unattainable search for the truth of the past is materialised by those vain attempts. The plastic wealth of the materials, the melancholy and the poetic spirit that animate the artworks provide a one-of-a-kind and moving experience to the audience. Pascale Beaudet, Independent curator. She is interested in cross-practices of contemporary art and crafts.

Heart Piece

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
28x28 cm
Materials:
Cast and fused glass, adhesive
Description:
This panel is made from cast, moldless patte de verre, and fused glass. A selection of symbols and elements have been combined and juxtaposed in this piece. The contrast of logical and emotional has been presented for the viewer to behold the significance of each element and question the behaviour of those elements.

Artist

Bram Locknick Bram Locknick

Bram Locknick is an artist and sculptor who works with kiln-formed and blown glass. He graduated from Sheridan College and holds a BA with Honours in philosophy from the University of Toronto. From Windsor, Ontario, Locknick was inspired by the towering Detroit skyline at an early age. His background in philosophy informs curious instincts, helping to develop concepts and translate them into glass sculpture. His work explores the knot of human systems, relationships and making while using a fusion of traditional and modern making techniques. Bram Locknick, became a Harbourfront Centre resident in 2023.

Conscience

Year:
2020
Dimensions:
18 1/4'' x 27'' x 3''
Materials:
Grisaille sur verre fusionné, base en acier patiné
Description:
‘’ Depuis 1989, j’ai souvent peint deux traits opposés comme un leitmotiv des forces contraires en action, contrastes qui contribuent mystérieusement à l’évolution dont nous sommes dorénavant les acteurs décisifs, nous autres humains. These painted and erased gestures are the mirror of my understanding of the behavior we should all have now… consciousness and awareness of our traces. Deux traits peints à la grisaille comme miroir du passé et deux traits les effaçant partiellement : le négatif (celui du geste de retrait) devient alors positif et transforme ainsi la dynamique visuelle écrasante des premiers traits en mouvement pro actif pour signifier la nécessaire détermination des gestes à venir pour modifier notre parcours. ’’

Artist

Elisabeth Marier Elisabeth Marier

Élisabeth poursuit depuis 1983 une recherche en création intimement liée au matériau verre. Ayant participé à l’implantation d’Espace Verre, elle y enseigne pendant plus de 20 ans. Ses œuvres témoignent de l’instant présent en contextes miroirs de l’environnement, le réel ou celui du four. De l’époque Montréal, ses sculptures de vitre ont été le reflet des interactions sociales en alternance avec la nature et son souffle de vie. Depuis 2007 sur la côte Atlantique, ses œuvres témoignent de l’éblouissement devant la nature qui se transforme et aborde les traces que nous laissons à notre postérité. Deux résidences en création à Banff lui font intégrer sa poésie. After teaching more than twenty years at Espace Verre in Montreal, Marier’s work changed from window glass sculptures – a representation of humans and their interaction in the city - to an approach around nature and poetry, as she feels important to share for hope.

Wiara

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
14 x 16 cm
Materials:
Impact bead pâte de verre, wood siding, bristol, electrical & wood hardware.
Description:
A handmade gift for my niece's christening. My family is quite small and recluse, with many of our relatives back in Poland, half of them estranged. The arrival of my only brother's first child, Daiya, was very special and we have been blessed to experience her introduction to our faith and traditions. There are two provinces between my brother and I (four if you count the large expanse of Northern Ontario) so we don't get to see or spend time with them properly. Every visit and interaction is truly precious, and Daiya is a marvel to behold. The gift is a replica of a family heirloom and a staple of Roman Catholic Polish households. I chose pâte de verre for the weight and effect exhibited from both internal and external lighting. I made two and selected the best one for the gift, and I'm capable of making more if desired.

Artist

Gosia Martyniak Gosia Martyniak

Boardmember on the Communications & Marketing Team. Expressing interest in an artistic career, I attended Western University and achieved my Bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in printmaking for its laborious and mechanical charm. I then decided to continue education in hopes of further developing my identity in the art world. The pursuit brought me to the Craft and Design Bachelor program at Sheridan College. I specialized in glass kilnforming, which includes kilncasting, fusing, enamel and silver stain painting. You can find my studio work under Willowind Studios. In addition to my hybrid studio practice, I am an illustrator who runs online print-on-demand shops under the name Spicy Honey Heart. I'm known for generating digital drawings and paintings incorporating glass culture, available for purchase. My designs are organized on Society6, Redbubble & Art of Where.

"Les non-dits"

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
diamètre: 122 cm
Materials:
Verre, plomb, cuivre, filtre polarisant, cellophane. Boîte lumineuse en bois, éclairage led, moteur
Description:
Comment re-tenir ce qui n'est qu'une illusion ? Le mouvement est à peine perceptible. Il s'agit de suivre la variation de couleur des ellipses et d'en re-tenir que toutes ces couleurs ne sont que lumière.

Artist

Colette Matte Colette Matte

Colette Matte est une artiste de la région de Québec, bachelière en arts plastiques de l’UQTR, qui adhère aux théories visant à promouvoir un art plus communautaire. Son travail avec le verre réfère à l’art optique et à l’expérience chromo-cinétique avec la lumière. Voici pourquoi, elle réalise et diffuse, depuis plus de 20 ans, des oeuvres uniques: des sculptures autoportantes, des oeuvres in situ et éphémères, des installations interactives ainsi que des projets participatifs. C’est donc à travers ses oeuvres de verre, associées à la participation active du public, qu’elle tente de matérialiser la présence de l’énergie invisible de la lumière et ainsi célébrer les bienfaits du vivre ensemble. Ses oeuvres publiques sont étroitement liées avec le lieu et son histoire. Membre du GAAC depuis 1995, ses oeuvres ont été exposées au Québec, en Ontario et aux États-Unis.

Palabre ambré

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
205 x 53.4 x 10 cm
Materials:
Dalle de verre, ciment et acier inoxydable
Description:
Dans les derniers mois, nous avons donné vie à une série d’œuvres porteuse d’un précieux symbolisme. Ces créations sculpturales ont été obtenues par un amalgame de différents matériaux ; les dalles de verre, le ciment et l’acier. La forme circulaire est dynamisée par les courbes généreuses qui la soutienne. Le thème de l’exposition « RE-TENIR » nous interpelle particulièrement. « Palabre ambré » est le titre de l’oeuvre présentée. Ce terme évoque pour nous l’idée de réunion et de discussion dans le but de prendre soin, de s’entourer et de s’accompagner. Le fait d’avoir vécu l’isolement renforce l’idée de se reconnecter les uns aux autres.

Artist

Marylène Ménard Marylène Ménard

Marylène Ménard is a glass artist who masters various ancestral techniques. After studying at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières in art education, she worked in a high school for a few years. After discovering the techniques of stained glass and mosaic, she decided to create full time works in her studio. She has designed and created many custom stained glass pieces for both individuals and businesses. Over time, her husband Robert Biron joined her in the creation and together they have given birth to works combining glass and metal. Their creations can now be found in numerous collections across Canada, the United States and France. They have participated in various group shows and exhibitions in Quebec and Ontario and are now exhibiting solo in galleries across the province. Marylène was a finalist at the CALQ as creator of the year in 2018 and has been financially supported on numerous occasions by the SODEC. She is also part of the Culture à l'école repertoire of the Minis

Apertura

Year:
2019
Dimensions:
9" D x 8" T
Materials:
cut and polished sand-carved blown glass, multiple layers of pattern
Description:
This piece was made using the graal process, leaving a layer of color powder on the exterior of the glass graal (egg) before cooling for the first time. The graal was patterned with a sandblaster, reheated, gathered over, with a new layer of color powder again coating the exterior of the graal, prior to cooling for the second time. After a second round of patterning, it was picked back up on a pipe again to gather more clear glass on top, then cooled, cut and polished.

Artist

Laura Murdoch Laura Murdoch

Growing up in the Yukon, this award-winning artist studied and apprenticed in glassblowing in the US over a ten-year period with the William Morris Team when they privately rented Pilchuck Glass School in rural Washington State in the winters, and was a teaching assistant in several Seattle schools. She was honored to be in the live portion of Pilchuck’s annual fundraising auction for the first time in 2017, when she was also featured in the concurrent “Jury’s Choice” exhibition in Seattle. After returning to Vancouver in 2011, she undertook a certificate in Building Construction and Architectural CAD to add to her skill set. She currently makes her work at Terminal City Glass in Vancouver, where she has also taught, and Urban Glass in Brooklyn. Among her many achievements is the honor of winning an international competition to design a massive patterned light sculpture installation for the University of Delaware, where it hangs today in their performing arts center.

Hold Dear

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
16.5 cm x 16.5cm
Materials:
glass
Description:
Childhood should be a time of the innocence of play and exploration, and be held dear and protected at all costs. This piece is inspired by the childhoods cut short by school shootings. The dandelions in this flower crown are symbolic of happiness, simple joys, play, healing, strength and our inner child who often gets tucked away after such violent events. Each glass dandelion is a separate piece that links onto the next creating an articulated chain that moves very much like a real flower chain. And were lampworked using a variety of shades of yellow and green glass.

Artist

Erin Pell Erin Pell

I've been working with hot glass since 1999, and try to work with minimal environmental impact. I've always felt a deep connection with nature and it's balance between resilience and fragility. My work is inspired by this connection, especially to the wild determined ones that seem to grow in the most challenging conditions and the strong bond and associations we have with them. I don't attempt to make exact replicas of nature but reflect the feel and emotion of each plant. I use a propane & oxygen torch to melt soda lime glass and sculpt the molten glass in the flame. Each flower and leaf is individually sculpted freehand in the flame & set in a handmade by me wood base

Rein et sa pierre -2

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
2,5 x 5 x 3 po
Materials:
Cristal moulé, pâte polymère, couleur à l'huile
Description:
« Petit rein et sa pierre-2 » fait partie d’un corpus intitulé « Proliférations ». Tout en gardant un lien avec le monde végétal, ce corpus de travail jette un regard insolite sur l’univers intérieur du corps : celui des organes et des viscères. Cette œuvre aborde l’idée de prolifération, de parasitage, mais aussi de croisement et de métissage. Un état où l’organe est investi par un élément étranger qui le transforme en une sorte d’hybride. Cette rencontre pourrait être celle d’un allié tout comme celle d’un intrus. S’agit-il d’un possible compromis favorable ou bien d’une menace réelle? Je m’efforce de garder cette ligne floue afin de nourrir une certaine tension et de laisser place à l’imaginaire et à la sensibilité de chacun.

Artist

Carole PILON Carole PILON

Carole Pilon vit et travaille à Montréal, d’où elle est originaire. Après avoir obtenu un baccalauréat en arts visuels à l’Université Concordia, elle s’est intéressée au travail du verre sous un angle sculptural. Elle a poursuivi sa formation à Espace Verre et a participé à de nombreux stages de perfectionnement. Depuis 1990, elle a présenté des expositions individuelles et a participé à plusieurs expositions collectives au Canada, aux États-Unis et en Europe. Elle a reçu plusieurs prix et bourses et ses oeuvres figurent parmi plusieurs collections publiques et privées. Carole Pilon resides and works in Montreal, her native city. After obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University, she became fascinated by glass from a sculptural point of view. She pursued her studies at Espace VERRE and enrolled in many workshops. Since 1990, her works have been in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the USA and in Europe. She received several awards and grants. Additionally,

Impression

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
7" Diameter
Materials:
Glass Powders
Description:
Kiln cast with glass powders

Artist

Amee Raval Amee Raval

My work is a reflection of the progress as well as a retrogression in the status of women in particular but not restricted to the East- Asian society. It’s about breaking the patriarchy mold while keeping the culture alive. I am interested in integrating the beauty of the past with freedom of the future. I hope that my work will open up a new perspective for the society. Amee Raval is a marketing professional armed with a Masters in Business Administration and has more than a decade of experience as a business professional. She decided to pursue her passion for Glass and has recently graduated from Sheridan College.

SOUL MEETS SOUL ON LOVER'S LIPS - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
18.5 x 13 x 6.5 - 8 inches
Materials:
System 96 Glass. Iridescent Glass. Dichroic Glass. Kiln Fired. Kiln Formed. Butternut wood. EcoResin
Description:
A community of like-minded people longing to come together. When life has been put on hold, the need to express our new reality arises. The real response to the isolation of necessity, this sculpture represents the desire to be in close proximity to one another, to spend time with family and friends, to embrace and hold one another. Behold the joyfulness of the faces of the human spirit.

Artist

Oded Ravek Oded Ravek

Sapphire waves of the Mediterranean. Rose-hued mountain peaks at dusk. Hiking hills for anemones in spring. Living in the nation’s capital, Oded’s early life was all about basketball, the beach, family, farming, and jet aircraft. He’s come to love forests of red, gold, and orange. The beauty and peace of freshly fallen snow. Glass arose from a time of darkness and desperation. Learning alternative therapies for their eldest who lives with chronic pain, injured at gym as a youngster, their child's selfless encouragement to take time for themselves resulted in a class that gave Oded and Pamela the foundations of glass art. The beauty of glass art brought light and gave them a new passion for an ancient art.

Payasa

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
8 inches x 13 inches x 2 inches
Materials:
Glass, stainless steel
Description:
Layers of red, orange, blue, white, yellow, orange, greens and clear coloured pieces of glass are assembled, then fused in a kiln to create a harmonious composition. The glass rests lightly on an airy custom stainless steel stand. Each time I create this piece I am amazed by the way glass behaves. Because of the viscosity, density, expansion and contraction of the glasses that I used there will be always slight differences from sculpture to sculpture, and that is what makes each one a unique piece of art.

Artist

Marcela Rosemberg Marcela Rosemberg

Marcela Rosemberg is a glass artist. Waterscapes and her Jewish faith are the main sources of inspiration in her current work. Finding glass as a medium of expression was truly a blessing for Marcela. It was the key that opened the doors for her and her family into Canada from Buenos Aires, Argentina,17 years ago allowing her to start a new journey. Beauty, simplicity, elegance and functionality are essential components in Marcela Rosemberg’s designs. At her studio in Toronto, she’s always looking for that special blend of colour and texture that leads her to each piece of art she carefully designs. She treats glass as if it were a human being, by respecting it and not pushing it. This allows her to understand its flow, displacement, behavior, and action up to its most intricate inner part… Its core. That is why Marcela always says: “Each time a piece leaves my studio I feel a little bit of my soul is going with it”.

Alternative Displays - Material For More Than Protection

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
47in x 15in x 6in
Materials:
Glass, copper, wood, fossilized turtle shell, trilobite and fish.
Description:
With this work, I am challenging traditional display methods, specifically within a museum environment. Frequently, specimens are seen behind glass, displayed with information and illustrations of their alive forms, using the glass as a protective material. While the importance of glass for preservation cannot be understated, regarding glass as a material for artistic manipulation can create an interactive experience that is functional, educative and beautiful. The use of transparent glass allows for visualization of form and markings to the best of our knowledge, without superimposing hypothesized and artistic ‘gap filling’ that is often present within illustrations – soft tissue details (like color, texture, etc.) that aren’t yet known are not shown. The ambiguity in soft tissue detail educates the viewer on our current limits of our scientific knowledge and what we have yet to know. Special photography credits to Elisha Lozares.

Artist

Mackenzie Roth Mackenzie Roth

The conflict between fascination and fear within the oddities found on our own planet create voids in which uncanniness overwhelms. Through my work, I create spectacles of these curiosities by forcing a confrontation – an experience that acts as a unique and impactful encounter. The narratives within my work tell the willfully ignored stories of the vestigial beings that exist beyond what our senses can comprehend. I parade these?curiosities,?not necessarily?despite their uncanniness, but because of it. My installations create an environment – an experience – where viewers are to face the nihilistic “world without us” and explore it and its oddities. It is this way that I wish to allow viewers entry into the void. When gazing upon my work, I desire viewers to feel a sense of wonder and simultaneous unease that captivates and mystifies. Within each encounter, I bridge the gap that written and verbal languages cannot express – telling the narratives of the voids amongst us.

NESTING

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
17 inchs tall x 10 inchs wide by 20 inchs lond
Materials:
Fused and Blown Glass on Black Alabaster
Description:
Behold the return of our fine feathered friends who travel all around the world only to return and bring joy to our lives

Artist

Leslie Rowe-Israelson Leslie Rowe-Israelson

Leslie Rowe-Israelson is an internationally recognized glass artist. She has spent the last 40 years working primarily in the cast / fused glass genre developing and refining innovative techniques that now give her an artistic "voice" that is stylistically unique around the globe. Her diverse portfolio of world class glass art, includes exquisitely delicate sculptures, bold and brilliantly colorful panels and a broad range of intricate open face vessels and plates. Much of her fused work is constructed through a complex process involving detailed glass cutting and multiple kiln firings. The work is often combined with or presented on, elements of hand forged steel and hand carved and polished stone that she has collected from the western slopes of the Canadian Rockies near her home. Leslie possesses a deep and very personal appreciation for mountain landscapes and understands the strong link between "place" and the people who chose to visit or live there.

Larch

Year:
2020
Dimensions:
7 x 7 and 7 x 3
Materials:
Bullseye glass and enamels
Description:
The beauty of the Larch trees in the fall do not care about the problems of humanity, the colors still explode, the waters still flow in the Alberta Rockies. Created on 5 layers of Bullseye glass and fused into two 15 mm blocks.

Artist

Kimberly Smith Kimberly Smith

Kimberly Smith is an accomplished artist. She has been selling and showing her unique artwork for over 35 years. Kimberly’s art has been featured in galleries in Alberta and the Yukon and is held in private collections in Canada, the US and Japan. Although her medium has shifted from pottery to glass over the years her unique use of color and desire to capture the Alberta landscape and wildlife remains the same. Kimberly has been teaching art for over 30 years – she has taught watercolor, oils, acrylics, ceramics and pen and ink and kiln fired glass.

Melt

Year:
2021
Dimensions:
13.25” x 9.5” x 3.75”variable
Materials:
Bullseye glass frit, vitro graph stringers, powders, cullet, billets and sheet glass
Description:
Melt, a kiln cast sculpture, superimposes the human face on an iceberg. Glacial ice is very pure, having been protected for centuries from air and water pollution. In its purest form, ice is transparent and clear. Air bubbles held in suspension can make it appear white and opaque. Compression, light refraction, age, and concentrations of microorganisms can create vivid blues and greens. Glass powders and frits used in the process, holding air between their particles, mimic in the glass, the white opacity of ice. Melt acknowledges the geographic, atmospheric, biologic and aquatic system changes on our planet most obvious during the last 20 years. It is a statement of belief that we must prepare an ABOUT FACE, a complete turn in direction, as we meet the accompanying challenges.

Artist

Mary Louise White Mary Louise White

I am grateful for opportunities to communicate through the languages of art, including music, drama, literature, dance, and the visual arts. They speak directly to the heart, often without the need for words. My studio practice now concentrates primarily on cast glass. In my practice I am concerned with composition, design, rhythm, movement, form, line, harmony, colour, balance, silence and stillness…and the stories and messages they convey when combined with purpose. My stories are often about relationships: how we relate to, and honour and support one another, and our home, Planet Earth. I am inspired by how the presence of beauty and art changes us. I am grateful to have studied glass with many makers at various studios, including the Corning Studio, USA, Northlands Creative, Scotland, Evelyn Dunstan Glass Studio, New Zealand, Karl Harron Glass Studio, Ireland, and in 2017 earned a masters certificate in Glass from The Australian National University School of Art and Design.

Adversity 5

Year:
2020
Dimensions:
11.5 x 6.5 x 4"
Materials:
Cast Glass and Plaster
Description:
This piece is representative of my ongoing exploration with the emotional response of the viewer to unconventional ways in which glass can be presented. Cracked or shattered glass evokes a wide range of responses from discomfort to elation. The physical or emotional response on the part of the viewer is experienced in different ways which are part of the individual dialogue. It is this emotional reaction and connection that the current work is anticipating in the onlooker. My cast glass is a dialogue between the historical polished approach to surface and that of the physically altered glass. For a number of years, I have been involved with a non-traditional way of approaching glass as a material. What may appear to some as damaged glass is in fact the result of a very orchestrated set of procedures that provide unpredictable results.

Artist

George Whitney George Whitney

I am drawn to abstract, geometric sculpture, the volume of it, the form, the textures. With glass, light interacts with shape in a way that that is different from all other experiences. Working with the shapes that I find, I adapt them, combining elements of multiple forms and unrelated textures, to arrive at a final destination. By combining the curving lines of nature, together with the angular lines of geometry and then interpreting them in glass I attempt to create a sculpture that allows light to bring the work to life. Line and mass, the interplay of curves and planes, textures and polish all working together, to create effects of light and shadow, and a sense of structural strength and unity.

Displaced II

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
16X14x14"
Materials:
Kilnformed glass, electroplated copper, pine, plexiglass, hardware
Description:
Encased in his ready-to-travel crate, the kiln cast & electroplated glass bear tells a personal narrative of political displacement. My treasured childhood stuffed bear, one of the few mementos I possess, is 3D scanned, 3D printed, reproduced in kiln cast glass, and electroplated in copper, a tribute to my homeland of Chile. Displaced II touches on the exhibition’s theme of BEHOLD through the pine crate, as it contains or holds the treasured glass; the electrical (coated) copper wire securely holds the glass in place. Most significantly, it speaks to the emotional attachment and memories inanimate objects can hold.

Artist

Gabriela Wilson Gabriela Wilson

Artist Gabriela Wilson is renowned for incorporating glass and metal, blending technical expertise with contemporary aesthetics. Her exploration of glass's tactile and transformative qualities, particularly through kiln-formed glass, is informed by formal training in jewellery, gemmology, and sculpture, shaping her technical approach to the medium crafting narratives that captivate visually and instinctively. Gabriela has studied at numerous institutes across North America, including Craft and Design at Sheridan College, with a glass major, graduating in 2014. She is pursuing her BAH in Studio Arts, focusing on sculpture, at the University of Guelph, with a minor in Museum Studies. She has received multiple awards and scholarships, including Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts grants.

Undefined 2

Year:
2022
Dimensions:
3.1" X 2"X 3.6"
Materials:
Glass, tin
Description:
Every material holds space. His research focused on the dynamic relationship between them. With the analysis and measurement of the daily defined space, he aims to highlight the spatial variation held by different materials. The work "undefined" reinterpreted the space directly comes from an empty lunch box and transformed it into another presence.

Artist

Zihao Xiong Zihao Xiong

His works focused on the concepts of self-expression and examination of identity, using the temperance and fragility of glass to highlight the difference between inner truth and external perceived identity. Zihao was born in a city built in mountains in China and grew up in a modern society while surrounded by the beauty of nature. As the unique duality fascinated him, he has a desire to find the link between contradiction and balance. His time in Canada has significantly impacted his work. Since enrolling at Sheridan College he has developed his concept through kiln-casted and flameworked sculpture.