Gallery Hop to feature ‘pop-up’ glass exhibits
Written by Morgan Delp | | mdelp@toledofreepress.comA series of art exhibits will pop up around Toledo the week of June 13-17 in conjunction with the Glass Art Society Conference. The exhibits will be showcased during a free Gallery Hop on June 15.
"Furnace Door" by Dante Marioni will be among the art on display at Toledo School for the Arts by Portland, Ore.-based Bullseye Glass Co. during the Gallery Hop on June 15 in Toledo. PHOTO BY R. JOHNSON / COURTESY BULLSEYE GALLERY
Bullseye Glass will team up with Cincinnati-based Brazee Street Studios to host an exhibit and children’s workshop at TSA during the conference, which is expected to draw more than 2,000 glass artists from around the world.
It seems fitting Bullseye Glass Co. would show an exhibit in Toledo, where the American studio glass movement began 50 years ago.
The company, based in Portland, Ore., is “one of the biggest glass art product suppliers and well-known companies in the glass art community,” said David Saygers, artistic director for Toledo School for the Arts (TSA).
Bullseye’s exhibit is titled “Import” because the work features a cross-pollination of ideas and influences from other countries, said Michael Endo, assistant curator at Bullseye Gallery.
“The exhibit will display work being made in other places and include a crossover of information and materials,” Endo said. “It will feature a wide range of work, from famous artists like Klaus Moje to emerging artists.”
Bullseye, along with Moje, was instrumental in developing kiln-formed glass, as opposed to the hot glass or blown glass, which is produced in a furnace, Endo said.
“People had kiln-formed glass for a long time, … but if you took different colored glass, especially contrasting colors, and tried to fuse them together, they would break apart,” Endo said. “One of Bullseye’s founders saw [Moje] in a lecture in 1979 and they talked about creating this (kiln-formed glass). Two years later … Bullseye created the first palette so that you could fuse different colors and it was guaranteed to work.”
Endo said he is extremely excited to present the “other aspect of the glass movement that people don’t talk about.”
“We will be showing artists in the beginning of that movement,” Emdo said. “It’s a young movement, medium and technique. We’re promoting artists on the cutting edge of this new technique.”
Youth workshops
Sandra Gross, owner and director of education at Brazee Street Studios, attended one of Bullseye’s teaching forums in Portland and later opened a resource center in Cincinnati where she only sells glass made by Bullseye.
Accompanied by Youth Coordinator Emily Repp and assistant Alexis Victor, Gross will offer three free workshops for kids ages 6-14 at TSA, using glass donated by Bullseye. The two three-day workshops, called “Space,” filled within six hours of open registration.
Gross said the sessions will give kids’ pieces context by making them part of a scene to be displayed after the workshop.
“On the first day, there’s going to be a research component about the solar system, planets, etc., and then the next two days they will be fusing glass to make those components,” Gross said. “Brazee will bring smaller, precut pieces and then [the kids] will spend time drawing and imagining and then they make their own planets. They cut them out and assemble them and we fire them in the kiln overnight at 1,430 degrees.”
Children in the “Space” workshops will have the opportunity to participate in the “roll-up” technique of glass art, with help from Australian artists Marc Petrovic and Tom Rowney. While the kids’ planet pieces will be 2-D, the display’s sun and moon will be made 3-D through the roll-up technique, Gross said.
There will be a live demonstration of this roll-up process — in which flat pieces fired in the kiln are rolled into cylinders and then blown out into sphere objects — on June 16 in the TSA parking lot.
Michelle Carlson, programs coordinator for the Arts Commission, was not surprised at the enthusiastic response to Brazee’s workshops.
“Our youth are hungry and they want artistic experiences,” Carlson said. “We know that from several youth programs we do. There’s almost too few programs for the youth to enrich their arts experience. We have a great arts community, from those still in school to older, established artists.”
The Bullseye exhibit is just one stop on the free Gallery Hop tour, which will take place June 15 from 6:30-10:30 p.m. Carlson said there are already 20 confirmed stops on the tour and up to 38 are expected to make the final list. Buses will loop between designated stops. The Arts Commission’s June Art Walk, typically the second Thursday of each month, will take place on June 15 in conjunction with the
Gallery Hop.
For more information and a map of galleries, visit theartscommission.org or www.glassart.org.
Paula Brown Gallery
The Paula Brown Gallery, 912 Monroe St., in Downtown Toledo, will host several events during the Glass Art Society Conference, including a wine tasting during the Gallery Hop on June 15. A selection of wines will be available for $1 per tasting and bottles will be available to purchase, according to a news release.
An exhibition of glass wall sculptures by Jen Violette will be on display June 11 through Aug. 1. The artist will be in attendance from 6-9 p.m. June 15 during the Gallery Hop.
An exhibition of new Annieglass by artist Annie Morhauser will also be on display June 11 through Aug. 1. Many of the pieces are made from glass manufactured at Pilkington’s Toledo plant. The artist will be in the shop and available to handsign pieces from 6-9 p.m. June 15 and noon-3 p.m. June 16.
From June 12-16, the gallery will host Columbus-based Hawk Galleries’ exhibition of Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, a key figure in the development of sandcast glass.
The shop will also host a trunk show of Antares Venezia glass jewelry designed by Fulvia Notari through July 1.
In addition to specific exhibits, the shop will display works by Tommie Rush, Richard Jolley, William Gudenrath, Venini, Iittala and more.
Tags: Annie Morhauser, Annieglass, Antares Venezia, Art Walk, Arts Commission, Brazee Street Studios, Bullseye Gallery, Bullseye Glass, David Saygers, glass, glass art society, Hawk Galleries, Iittala, Jen Violette, Paula Brown Gallery, Pop-Up, Pop-Up Art Gallery, Richard Jolley, Toledo School for the Arts, Tommie Rush, Venini, William Gudenrath
