2018 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS CATALOGUE 7SixtyTwoThousand
2018 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS CATALOGUE
CATALOGUE DESIGNED BY TESS McSHANE
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ABOUT Over the years, the Glass Art Society has selected and commended a number of emerging artists for their promising talent based on a rigorous, competitive jurying process. Applications of qualified individuals, who were nominated by professional academics and curators, are evaluated and deliberated over by a small jury based on the criteria listed below. • • • •
An emerging artist using glass as their primary medium Not currently enrolled in a training or education program (including MFA or PhD) Have five years or less of professional experience since graduating from a study or training program Not a current or past presenter of a lecture or demo at a GAS conference
In 1980, Dorothy and the late George Saxe began collecting glass art. Over the course of their marriage, they built one of the most premier contemporary glass collections found in the United States. As collectors, the Saxes supported artists, galleries, institutions, and have played an immense role in elevating and increasing appreciation of glass art. At the 2015 GAS conference, the Saxes were honored with a tribute event which helped establish the Saxe Emerging Artists Lecture Fund, an endowment to support future generations of glass artists. Donations can be made online at www.glassart.org/donate.html. At the 47th GAS conference in Murano, Italy, this year’s three talented artists will have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their work to a large audience of artists, academics, educators, collectors, critics, and peers.
2018 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS
MENG DU
SIMONE FEZER 3
GAYLE FORMAN
MENG DU ARTIST STATEMENT
There is a quiet beauty in the moment that triggers personal memories. I am interested in preserving memories and keeping a record of them so they do not fade over time. Beijing, the city where I was born, has changed dramatically in the last two decades. Both spiritually and physically, these changes penetrate into everyone’s daily life. People who were born in the 80’s are called the “Nostalgic Generation”. They are not yet grown up, but their memories have already been blurred or even been forgotten. Being one of this generation, I do not have any ability to change the social reality; I cannot rebuild the historic houses which have been torn down. By working with glass, however, I can examine the power of calling forth memories and the sorrow of losing them. I also attempt to create a language that can encompass that which is impossible to express in words, an intuitive language that transport the viewer and evoke a contemplative awareness of that which is often unseen or overlooked. Collecting and drawing found objects are the ways I record my life. With a natural instinct to extract meaning from narrative, I also find these activities to be the inspiration of my work. I incorporate the drawings and illustrations, which come from my personal life experience into the surface treatment and imaging techniques of glass. To represent the nostalgic feeling and memories of certain times and places that I do not want to let go of.
BIOGRAPHY
Meng Du was born and raised in Beijing, China. In 2004, she attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and graduated from the Graphic Design program in 2008. Since her sophomore year, she worked as a book designer with galleries, art critics and curators such as Pace Beijing, SOKA Gallery and Time Zone 8. She also worked for an independent graphic design studio as a graphic designer and illustrator before being accepted to the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2010 she moved to Rochester, NY as an MFA candidate within the Glass Program of the School for American Crafts. In 2013, Meng Du completed her MFA study from RIT and has since remained a part of the Glass Program at RIT as part of their artist in residence program and Adjunct Faculty. Her work has continued to exhibit in China, Japan, Europe, and in the United States. http://www.mengduwork.com/ 4
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SIMONE FEZER ARTIST STATEMENT
I work with glass in many different ways; to express different aspects of a theme I need to employ various states of this amazingly diverse material: Pâte-de-Verre gives me a rough yet delicate lightness and fragility, kiln-cast glass is light contained, mold-blown objects speak of fabrication, free flowing forms of the flow. Kiki Smith once said: “Because when one can control things, one is limited to one´s vision...”. I think that this is especially true of glass, it gives you the amazing chance to let things happen, to initiate and then let the process take over,- a wonderful potential. Mirrored glass changes over time, and so do the pieces I use it in, or the old windows I use for my installation pieces, scratched, blind and dirty, they tell stories, and these stories become part of the piece. Glass speaks of so many things and you can use it and its historical and technical properties to have your work speak about all this and more. I call it “poetry of the material”, let it speak loud and low, gentle and rough, to make people listen and feel the density and energy that is within a hand- and mind-made work of art that emerges from the intensive process of sculpting a material. In my installation work I create spaces for the viewer and myself to enter, within or outside of him or herself, stages for discovery. Continuous in my newer work is the emphasis on the imperfect, life as an evolving patchwork of various facets and elements. We are continuously re-shaping and forming our world, a fragile construct that necessitates change, and so alters and dissolves identities, identifications , positions and structures believed to be firm. Correspondingly I install existing structures new, reconstruct, and take them further, deconstruct older works and assemble them in ever new combinations.
BIOGRAPHY
Simone Fezer was born in the southwest of Germany in 1976. Fezer worked with various mediums until 1996 when she learned to know glass, fell in love with the material and has been working with hot glass ever since. Fezer began to incorporate glass as her main artistic medium. Soon she began to incorporate other materials (steel, wood and mixed media) in her work, in order to gain a wider range of possibilities and unlimited expression. For the last few years, Fezer has been making her living as a traveling artist, learning from and working with people from all over the world. www.fezers.de
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GAYLE FORMAN ARTIST STATEMENT
It’s not that I’m actually trying to fly. I have no airborne destination and am not focused on the physics or mechanics of the airplane, but I am attempting flight. My practice is fueled by these attempts. I sift through the frivolous and foolish events of daily life seeking moments of “eureka.” I think about the possibility of flight and the way that you are suddenly suspended mid-air, with no control over your own body or its relationship to the world. The playground swing is an obvious choice for flight. Although flight by swing is a physical lesson in gravity, it affords its willing participants something else—a mere moment where they are free. I imagine within that millisecond I could solve the mysteries of ancient civilizations, or invent a way to turn dirt to water. Imagination and play have become the keys to my artistic practice. I look to my everyday life to provide the stage for my illogical imaginations, whether it is reconfiguring a dinner table, setting up a playground within a hot glass studio, or even transforming my bathroom into a vacation. These fascinations take shape in glass, installation, souvenirs, video, and photography. I am consumed with daydreams of what could be, and of places I have not yet traveled to, while simultaneously desiring to weave myself into the fabric of any new city I live in or visit. The places that I have seen melt together in my memories, until I find myself looking for landmarks of one place in another. I search for moments of “wiggle” -- when materials or spaces flop beyond their boundaries and solid can become liquid or frozen can become melted.
BIOGRAPHY
As an avid fan of frozen treats, Gayle Forman gravitates toward things that melt, spill, and generally make a mess. Artist, designer, and administrator, her studio practice and research focuses on play, imagination, the absurd and the everyday. The work is realized as performance, video, photography, installation and sculpture. Recently, Gayle launched Forman Function, her line of home goods. First encountering glass at the Pittsburgh Glass Center in her hometown, Forman received her BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. Currently she is the Program Assistant at the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in Norfolk, VA.
www.gayleeforman.com
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2018 JURORS COREY HAMPSON
Corey Hampson is a graduate of the Hayworth’s School of Business at Western Michigan University and acted as Director of Sales at Habatat Galleries for over a decade. He is currently President and Owner of Habatat Galleries Inc. He has written and published numerous articles about studio glass. Mr. Hampson has curated dozens of Museum and Art Center exhibitions throughout the United States. He hosts the largest and oldest annual studio glass exhibition in the world (43 years) entitled: Habatat Galleries International Glass Invitational. Mr. Hampson works very closely developing collections for private collectors, museums and organizations around the world. He is currently serves as the youngest member on the National Advisory Board of Directors for the AACG – Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and is also the President of the MGCA – Michigan Glass Collecting Alliance.
EINAR & JAMEX de la TORRE
Collaborating artists-brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre were born in Guadalajara, México (1963 & 1960), where they grew up until a sudden family move to California in 1972. Presently living and working in both Ensenada, México and San Diego, California. Jamex started lampworking glass in 1977, attended California State University at Long Beach under scholarship; received a BFA in Sculpture in 1983. Einar started work with glass in 1980; also attended California State University Long Beach. Both owned and operated a flame-worked glass figure business from 1981 to 1997.
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Cover (L to R): Meng Du, One Day, 2016, Kiln-formed glass, tea, steel, and silver, 13 x 7.5 x 9 inches (Photo: Elizabeth Torgerson-Lamark). Simone Fezer, In With In, 2017, Steel, Blown and Float Glass, Mirrors, Textile, Mirrored Glass, Mixed Media, approx. 180 x 220 x 150 cm (Photo: Hayo Heye). Gayle Forman, Snow Globalization, 2016, cast and hand engraved glass from 3D printed models, cement, metal, snow, postcards, 12 x 5 x 5 inches Pg 5: Meng Du, Reference Reflection, 2017, glass, multi-media, silver 7 x 12.6 x 4.75 inches. (Photo: Zhengmin Xu). Pg 6: Meng Du, 2017, Everywhere, Nowhere, glass, multi-media, and fabric, 8.6 x 3.75 x 8.6 inches. (Photo: Zhengming Xu) Pg 7: Meng Du, Bai, 2013, Kiln-formed glass, mixed media, and tea, 3 x 9.5 x 7 inches. (Photo: Elizabeth Torgerson-Lamark) Pg 8: Meng Du, One Day, 2016, Kiln-formed glass, tea, steel, and silver, 13 x 7.5 x 9 inches (Photo: Elizabeth Torgerson-Lamark) Pg 9: Meng Du, Echo from the Highland Group, 2016, Kiln-formed glass, tea, steel, and silver Dimensions variable (Photo: Elizabeth Torgerson-Lamark) Pg 10: Simone Fezer, Roots, 2016, Object, blown, sculpted, and kilncast glass, textile, mixed media, 120 x 90 x 60 cm (Photo: Artist) Pg 12: Simone Fezer, Unbalanced, 2017, Mold-blown glass, textile, steel, glass, mirrors, mirrored glass, cardboard, space blanket, mixed media, 250 x 180 x 150 cm. (Photo: Artist) Pg 13: Simone Fezer, Fragile Worlds II, 2016, Blown and float glass, mirrors, and steel, 500 x 350 x 350 cm. (Photo: Artist) Pg 14: Simone Fezer, Fragile Worlds I, 2015- 2017, Blown and float glass, mirrors, steel, glass fibers, projections 350 x 500 x 400 cm. (Photo: Gottfried Stoppel) Pg 15: Simone Fezer, In-With-In, 2017, Steel, blown and float glass, mirrors, textile, mirrored glass, mixed media, 180 x 220 x 150 cm. (Photo: Hayo Heye) Pg 17: Gayle Forman, Snow Globalization, 2016, Cast and hand engraved glass from 3D print models, cement, metal, snow, postcards. 12 x 5 x 5 inches. Pg 18: Gayle Forman in collaboration with Kimberly McKinnis, No Man Is Worth His Salt, 2017, Dining Room Table, salt from around the world, glass, 6’ x 4’ x 3’ Pg 19: Gayle Forman, The Unattainability of Plastic Champagne and Other Desirable Goods, 2016, Blown glass, cast plastic, fountain pumps and hardware, wood, champagne, and gold leaf (installation size variable). (Photo: Kelsie McNair) Pg 20: Gayle Forman in collaboration with Kimberly McKinnis, Eat Your Heart Out, 2017 Cast resin, found objects, recycled and blown glass. 14 x 12 inches. (Photo: Kelsie McNair Pg 21: Gayle Forman in collaboration with Emily Bartelt and James Akers as The Dügrae Collective, Train City, 2016, 20 x 6 x 4 Neon (Photo: James Akers)
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