Carmen Lozar : New Growth

CARMEN LOZAR

GROW TH NEW

Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 2041 West Carroll Avenue, Suite C-320 Chicago, IL 60612 www.kensaundersgallery.com © 2022 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Catalogue Design by Amy Stieve Luksa

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

NEW GROWTH

Featuring new works by Carmen Lozar

December 2, 2022 - January 31, 2023

For her exhibition at the gallery, New Growth, Carmen Lozar has created a body of figurative artwork full of references to domestic responsibility, the notion of shared familial duties, the self-sacrifice of motherhood and the challenges of aging. The artist asks in these works if there is any merit to the notion put forth by society that a woman can be everything that her family expects and more. The female forms portrayed in glass as life giving candles are literally trapped in the irony of their fates, warmth and light promising self-inflicted darkness and death. The blackened, used matchsticks are stacked like dead flowers at the tomb.

As in previous bodies of work there are symbolic physical distortions to the human figure that are used to further the narrative the artist employs. In works laced with irony the artist takes a macabre look at how the distortions can reveal our inner mental conflicts.

The young woman in New Growth can’t drag the dead wood that was once her arm around anymore. Like some drastic case of Body Dysmorphia, a certain sign of mental conflict and emotional instability the young woman in the tableau struggles with. Unfortunately, even as she hacks away the dead limb the stump still attached to the figure’s arm shows indisputable signs of life.

These are quite intimately scaled works and there is an implied fragility to such small objects. Several of the works in the exhibition include a necklace that can be removed from the sculptures and worn.

The oldest entry in Carmen Lozar’s resume notes the artist’s participation in an exhibition at the gallery in 1997 while the artist was still a student. If has been a pleasure to have supported the Carmen since the beginning of her career.

Ken Saunders, 2022

Carmen Lozar, artist portrait

LOST (with girl in boat necklace) flameworked glass and mixed media 9 x 6 x 5 inches 2021

UNLEASH (with umbrella necklace) flameworked glass and mixed media 5 x 5.25 x 3.25 inches

MATCHBOX NECKLACE

flameworked glass 1.75 inch matchstick, 20 inch chain 2022

THE BATH

flameworked glass, fused glass, and found object 9 x 5.5 x 2.5 inches

PLANT

flameworked glass, fused glass, and mixed media 5.5 x 10.5 x 5 inches 2022

EDUCATION

New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Master of Fine Arts University of Illinois, Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Crafts

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 New Growth / Ken Saunders Gallery / Chicago, IL

2011 Tailored Glass / Ken Saunders Gallery / Chicago, IL Theme Song / Foster White Gallery / Seattle, WA

2006 Couture / D & A Fine Arts / Studio City, CA Stills / Foster/White Gallery / Seattle, WA.

2003 Inner Activity / Foster/White Gallery / Seattle, WA Master of Fine Arts Thesis / Fosdick-Nelson Gallery / Alfred, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022 Fired Up / Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Hartford, CT

The Shape of Light / Rockford Art Museum / Rockford, IL

2021 My Covid Year / Joe McCauley Gallery / Normal, IL

IWU Faculty Biennial / Merwin/Wakeley Galleries / Normal IL

2020 Invitational Glass / Blue Rain Gallery / Santa Fe, NM

2019 Her Voice / Ken Saunders Gallery / Chicago, IL

2018 Sharper Edges: Women working on the Edge of Glass / Bergstrom Mahler Museum / Neenah, WI

Breaking the Glass Ceiling Women in Glass / Wayne Arts Center / Wayne, PA

Glass Catalyst: Littleton’s Legacy in Contemporary Sculpture / Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum / Cullowhee, NC

2017 The Mini and Massive Glass Exhibition / The Quincy Arts Center / Quincy, IL You Glow Girl / Hitman Shop / Los Angeles, CA

Emergence / The National Arts of Central Illinois, Peoria Riverfront Museum / Peoria, IL

Faculty Biennial / Merwin Gallery, Illinois Wesleyan University / Bloomington, IL SOFA / Chicago, IL

2016 Bodies and Beings / Abmeyer + Wood Fine Art / Seattle, WA

Turned On (Chandeliers) / Pittsburgh Glass Center / Pittsburgh, PA

Teapots! 10th Invitational / Morgan Glass Gallery / Pittsburgh, PA

Peace/Piece / Habatat Gallery / Royal Oak, MI

Group exhibition / Glass Wheel Studio / Norfolk,VA

2015 No Woman, No Cry /Muriel Guepin Gallery / New York, NY SOFA / Chicago, IL

Captured Light Glass Biennial / Art Assoc. of Jackson Hole / Jackson Hole, WY

Glass Weekend / Gallery of Fine Craft / Wheaton, NJ

Near and Far / Mclean County Arts Center / Bloomington, IL

Glass in the 21st Century / Salisbury University Art Galleries / Salisbury, MD

2014 A Thousand Points of Light / Ken Saunders Gallery / Chicago, IL

GLASS / Cinema Gallery / Urbana, IL

Fall Exhibition / Bender Gallery / Asheville, NC

Common Discourse / Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery / Pittsburgh, PA

2013 Lifeforms / The Hodge Gallery / Pittsburgh, PA.

Glass Weekend / The Gallery of Fine Craft / Wheaton Village, NJ

Art Palm Beach / Palm Beach, FL

Faculty Biennial / Illinois Wesleyan University / Bloomington, IL

2012 Strong Presence / Hodgell Gallery / Sarasota, FL

Vase as Voice / Mclean County Arts Center / Bloomington, IL

SELECT Fair / Manneken Press / Miami Beach, FL

Petit Tableaux / Winston Watcher Fine Art / Seattle, WA

Animal Nature / Racine Art Museum / Racine, WI

40th Annual International Glass Exhibition / Habatat Galleries / Royal Oak, MI

Art Palm Beach / Palm Beach, FL

2011 Faculty Biennial / Illinois Wesleyan University / Bloomington, IL

Incendiary Dreams / Hodgell Gallery / Sarasota, FL

AWARDS

2013 “Rising Star” Museum of American Glass

2010 Outstanding Emerging Glass Artist / Florida Glass Art Alliance

2007 Finalist for the Bombay Sapphire Glass Prize / London, England

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2021 Stankard, Paul. The Fabulist. Glass, The Urban Glass Quarterly. No. 164, Fall 2021. Pgs. 28-33

2019 Toffolo, Cesare. Carmen Lozar. Lampworking Volume III: The 20th Century to the Present. Pgs. 345-351

2018 The Flow Magazine. 14th Annual Gallery of Women in Glass. Winter, 2018. Pg. 20

2016 Purchia & Rooney. Glass Art: 112 Contemporary Artists. Schiffer publishing Stankard, Paul. Studio Craft as a Career. Schiffer publishing. Pgs. 164-165

2014 Spark the Creative Flame. Paul Stankard.

2011 Glass Line Magazine. Carmen Lozar. Volume 25, Number 3. Pgs. 28-29

New Glass Review, 100 artists selected to represent a year in glass

Carmen Lozar, Tailored Glass. Hardcover book created by Ken Saunders Gallery

COLLECTIONS

Permanent collection of Museum of Glass / Tacoma, WA

Permanent collection of Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass / Neenah, WI

Permanent collection Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University / Niagara, NY

Permanent Collection of Museum of Arts & Design / New York, NY