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2019 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS CATALOGUE
2019 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS CATALOGUE
GRAPHIC DESIGN 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 48th GAS conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, 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.
2019 SAXE EMERGING ARTISTS
LILY REEVES
KRIS RUMMAN 3
NAO YAMAMOTO
LILY REEVES ARTIST STATEMENT Growing up in the Southeastern United States has forever contoured my practice with notions of magical realism and Southern Gothicism, with roots in the uncanny and the supernatural. Using light and space as my medium, I center veiwers in a mystical world that nurtures wonderment and openness: “the beginning of wisdom’ as Socrates claim. My scuptural work encourages emotional well-being in my audience by employing invasive tactics such as light, built environments, and audience-participatory performance. Through research in color theory, homeopathy, and systems of belief, I work to invoke preventative psychic and physical healing which addresses individual, collective, and environmental trauma and challenges the disenchantment and monotony of contemporary culture. I also have a separate body of work as one half of the international artist collaborative, “The Paradise Boys.” “The Paradise Boys” are an international pair of artists who seek out wild spaces in search of freedom from divisive political strategies, restrictive societal structures, and imposed cultural norms. It is in these spaces, which they view as the last strongholds of freedom, where they can create work in order to be debunked, de-essentialized, and decentered as they place their bodies into environments that bear both the nurturing and unforgiving qualities of this world.
BIOGRAPHY Lily Reeves is from Birmingham, AL. After earning her BFA from Alfred University in Alfred, NY, she went on to attain her MFA at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ. Her work has shown in group shows at the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona. Reeves has upcoming shows a the Brea Gallery in Orange County, CA, and Var West Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. She currently lives and works full-time in Birmingham, AL., where she runs Southern Lights Studios, her art and design studio. https://www.lilyreeves.com/ 4
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KRIS RUMMAN ARTIST STATEMENT Kris Rumman is an interdisciplinary artist whose work investigates the possibilities of what art can do that politics cannot. Comprised of glass, sculpture, installation, performance, and video, she works with technologies that are familiar forms for producing propaganda globally, ranging from security glass and empathy-inducing lighting to self-help audio tapes, olfactory praxis and social platforms. Through these media, she attempts to subvert and intervene into the everyday social constructions as means to recode them. Most recently, her work tackles questions of belonging, asking “what does it mean to be at home?” She looks at “home” as both a conceptual and physical space within the current American paradigm, with specific interest in immigrant perspectives. Acting as an unorthodox archivist, she collects family stories, cultural memories, and culinary praxis, to construct a floor plan of an imaginary house. Using patterns from tiles in Palestinian homes, she engages the olfactory sense with the sifting of fennel, turmeric, paprika, and sumac. The spices, potent and unapologetic, claim invisible territory both throughout the physical space and also in the viewers’ memory. Over time, the pattern is marked by the viewers passing, and the ground acts as a visible record of their presence and absence. Slowly, the granules mix and the pattern transforms into a homogenous blend. With her work, Kris Rumman explores the potential of glass to facilitate healing, dialogue, and empathy.
BIOGRAPHY Kristine Rumman grew up in Toledo, the birthplace of the Studio Glass Movement, where she began her relationship with glass. She received her BFA from Bowling Green State University in 2008 and her MFA from Tyler School of Art in 2018. Rumman has received awards and grants including support from Temple Contemporary and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Laurie Wagmen Prize in Glass, and the GAS Student Exhibition: A Showcase of Emerging International Talent. She is presently based in Philadelphia where she is an Instructor at Tyler School of Art and a new member at Vox Populi. www.kristinerumman.com/
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NAO YAMAMOTO ARTIST STATEMENT The environment I grew up in allowed me to cultivate an appreciation for both contemporary art and traditional craft. Experiencing contemporary art based on a different society and environment changed my perspective and I felt like it took me beyond the narrow culture of my home country, Japan. Since I recognized my art as a way to represent myself, or even to have conversations with myself, I became devoted to a contemporary art practice. It has been so exciting to see my thoughts made visual and to connect with those who seek and feel my experiences. I believe there is nothing that compares with the beauty of nature. For me it is overwhelming because any life form doesn’t think about the meaning of life, but only thinks about surviving. When I am at a beach, in a forest, or in the middle of a desert, the simple, pure, clean force of life in nature inspires me to just live, strongly but simply. I believe we have lost that notion in complicated contemporary lives. What I am trying to do is to reinterpret elements from nature to celebrate the power of life, both in its significance and in its insignificance. I have long created my pieces based on the simple beauty of glass. I was looking for a way to emphasize what I see in the material. During the glassblowing process, I would sometimes see the molten glass as a creature that has a consciousness that tries to challenge my skill or mastery. This relationship with glass has helped me to create a different body of work that represents my experience or consciousness rather than the materiality of glass.
BIOGRAPHY Nao Yamamoto was born in 1988 in Ishikawa, Japan, and now resides in Seattle, Washington. She received the Masters of Fine Arts in studio art and design from California State University, San Bernardino in 2014, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tama Art University in Tokyo in 2011, specializing in glass art. She creates her art works inspired by the simple beauty of glass and the vibrant force of life. https://naoyamamoto.format.com/
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2019 JURORS SARAH TRAVER As President of the Traver Gallery in Seattle, Sarah’s work spans all facets of the gallery from strategy to sales to design and installation. She is beloved by artists, clients, and community for her sincere interest and generous spirit. She serves on the Artist Trust Board as President and as a Board Member of the Pratt Fine Arts Center. With degrees in art and education from both coasts of the United States, Sarah focuses on facilitating space for learning, the sharing of ideas, and insight. When she is not working, she can most likely be found playing in the wilds of Washington or trying out a new restaurant in Seattle or abroad.
AMY LEMAIRE Amy Lemaire is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. An explorer at heart, her work reveals an interest in currency systems, material language poetics and the production of histories. Lemaire studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and Pratt Institute (MFA). She has taught at Pilchuck Glass School (WA), Salem Community College (NJ), Penland School and Crafts (NC) and UrbanGlass (NY), where she has taught for the past decade, and for the past six years has served as the Director of the Bead Project, a creative entrepreneurship program for women in New York City. She was a resident artist at the Museum of Arts and Design (NY) as a part of the Artists’ Studios Program, the recipient of a Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship at Wheaton Arts (NJ) and received a Visionary Scholarship from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. In 2018, Lemaire was a Studio Resident at UrbanGlass and Visiting Artist the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
ANDREA DESZÖ Andrea is a visual artist who works across a broad range of media including drawing, painting, artist’s books, embroidery, cut paper, animation, sculpture, site-specific installation and public art. Dezsö’s permanent public art has been installed in two New York City subway stations, at the United States Embassy in Bucharest, Romania and at CUNY BMCC Fiterman Hall in Lower Manhattan. Community Garden, Dezsö’s mosaic in the New York City subway was recognized as Best American Public Art in 2007 by Americans for the Arts. Dezsö exhibits in museums and galleries around the world. Dezsö is a Professor of Art at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. and lives in a small house at the edge of the woods.
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Cover (Top to Bottom): Lily Reeves, Bodies of Light, 2015, sculptural performance, live models, argon filled glass, fabricated chairs, porcelain slip, gold leaf, hardware. 18 feet at the highest point, dimensions vary with installation; Nao Yamamoto, The Sun and Water, 2014, glass, blown glass, 8x42x42; Kris Rumman, War at Home (partial piece), 2008, sandcast, kilncast, hot blown and flameworked glass, installation size varies. Pg. 5 Lily Reeves, Suncatcher 2, Sun Rah, 2018, Argon filled glass, landscape, mirror, found objects, hardware, non-invasive land art, size varies.* Pg. 6 Lily Reeves, Suncatcher 1, 2018, argon filled glass, landscape, mirror, hardware, non-invasive land art, size varies. * Pg. 7 Lily Reeves, Aurora (panel), 2018, argon filled glass, plexiglass, hardware, sculptural installation, 23 ft. high, 18 feet wide, 13 feet deep. Pg. 8 Lily Reeves , Line//Landscape, 2018, Argon filled glass, landscape, hardware, non-invasive land art, size varies.*Pg. 9 Lily Reeves/”The Paradise Boys”, Neverending in All Directions//On This Page the Map is Undone, 2017, Argon filled glass, video projection, video sculpture, 5-foot diameter circle.** Pg. 10 Kris Rumman, Streets Paved With Gold, 2017, mirror and wood with projection, 24 inx36inx18in (screen) Pg. 12 Collaboration between Kris Rumman and Caitlin Vitalo, (Un)seen, 2017, laminated glass with light, 3.5 in. x 3.5 in. x8 in. Pg. 13 Kris Rumman, War at Home, 2008, sandcast, kilncast, hot blown, and flamework glass, size varies. Pg. 14 Kris Rumman, Local 1, 2018, security glass, aluminum, fiberglass, steel, palm with orange light and sand, glass, sumac, fen-nel, cumin, turmeric, paprika, memory and heritage with performer, 10 ft. x 30 ft. x 28 ft. Pg. 15 Kris Rumman, Local: Making/Taking Ground, 2018, performer, glass, sand, stone, with turmeric, sumac, fennel and broom, 27hour performance. Pg. 17 Nao Yamamoto, Broken Self-Esteem “Relationship”, 2016, mirror, antique frame, digital image. Pg. 18 Nao Yamamoto, Bubble Bath, 2018, glass, blown glass, height 15”. Pg. 19 Nao Yamamoto, Ripples “Moon Light”, 2017, glass, gold, silver, blown glass, gluing. 14x9x9”. Pg. 20 Nao Yamamoto, Vessel of Life “Forest”, 2017, glass, gold, blown glass, 12x9x9”. Pg. 21 Nao Yamamoto, The Sun and Water, 2014, glass and blown glass, 15x10x2 ½”. * Made while in residence at Takoja Institute **Video https://vimeo.com/251005477
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