ORIGINAL VOICES
Armelle Bouchet O’Neill Steve Jensen Anne-Lise Riond Sibony Wayne Strattman Adam Waimon
230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL | T 312.573.1400 F 312.573.5795 www.kensaundersgallery.com | info@kensaundersgallery.com Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 www.kensaundersgallery.com Š 2013 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Printed and Bound in the United States of America 1 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 First Edition March 2014 Design by Deborah Kraft Photography by Daniel Fox (pages 11-19) Linda Young Hutchinson (pages 25-37) Olivier Sibony (pages 41-43, 49-53) Jean-Marc Gourdon (pages 45-47) Mark Johnston (pages 65-71) ISBN: 978-0-9885301-6-4
Published on the occasion of the exhibition ORIGINAL VOICES March 21 - April 30, 2014
ORIGINAL VOICES Armelle Bouchet O’Neill Steve Jensen Anne-Lise Riond Sibony Wayne Strattman Adam Waimon
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When mounting our exhibition Original Voices, the gallery’s staff and I make an effort to explore the variety of work being made in glass that hasn’t been promoted and exposed to the public. It is exciting to find that artists working in Europe, Asia and Australia are developing aesthetic approaches to the medium that reflect the cultural traditions as well as transgressive contemporary practices that are specific to each geographic region. The search for work that will delight and intrigue is a pilgrimage that I take each year and that becomes with every journey a richer and more personally fulfilling venture. There is a heroic quality to the efforts these artists have made to be able to participate in the exhibition. Faced with many challenges, the artists have presented us with thoughtful, relevant and wonderfully wrought objects in all kinds of shapes, sizes and styles. Visually the exhibition is a treat, and hopefully well after it has had its run we can continue to consider the place of this work in the context of Studio Glass and Contemporary Art. Armelle Bouchet O’Neill hails from France and currently works and lives in Seattle, Washington. The artist creates blown vessels that are heavily worked on the surface to create sensuous lines forming intricate designs reminiscent of topographical surveys and maps. Working with dark opaque glass that has been sandblasted to a luxurious luster the artist focuses the viewer’s attention on form and shape. The subtlety of the cold work on the exteriors of her objects invites intimate viewing and even touching, as if in tracing the surface fingers might receive a hidden message. In his Boston, Massachusetts, studio Wayne Strattman works his magic, harnessing rarified neon and other gases inside his glass tubes. Ionizing the gas with electric charges creates spectacles of form and color. Artists working in this noble gas create compelling sculptures by exerting a mastery over the physical world that is delightful and confounding. In this tradition, Wayne Strattman has created a body of work that amazes and excites. Steve Jensen, who lives and works in Seattle, Washington, creates sculptures that incorporate glass elements but in many ways achieve their emotive impact by combining alternative materials with glass to produce iconic, resonate images. The shape of a boat variously expressed in cast and painted forms plays a central role in Jensen’s oeuvre. At once these objects are gallant and spectral, embodying quite powerfully the essence of a form that has inspired artists since man began shipbuilding. Anne-Lise Riond Sibony lives and works in Paris, France. She creates surrealistic forms that reference anatomy. Fecund forms with soft sensuous surfaces in fleshy colors with odd protuberances stand and lay in casual groupings. There is a Seussian quality to the strange blown and ground shapes that are simultaneously comforting and unsettling. Adam Waimon’s biomorphic forms are produced in monochromatic colored glass that accents the artist’s rigorous attention to his detailed exterior decoration. Delicately ground surfaces refract light, creating quite dazzling objects that are often presented in intimately scaled pairs that explore formal context and negative space. The artist works in Providence, Rhode Island. I am proud to mount this edition of Original Voices at the gallery. I extend my thanks to all of the artists for putting forth such a strong effort to make this exhibition a fascinating and illuminating survey of new glass sculpture. Ken Saunders
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Armelle Bouchet O’Neill
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What impression does our natural habitat have on us as individuals? Each habitat and place is shared—whether for a part of their lives or forever—by a community of individuals, and contributes to one’s identity and culture. Inspiration for these new works is derived from rich and wild landscapes that I have experienced throughout my journey. These works explore topography, the science that describes the surface of a place’s unique landscape and the idea that each place is unique, much like a fingerprint. Each piece is executed by masking a series of lines and deeply carving the space between. A curve evolves, repeats itself and grows organically, alluding to the rugged yet intricate formation of terrain. Amorphous lines emerge to create light and take form much like the creation of a topographical landscape. The work aims to be my ode to the beauty and the diversity of our surroundings.
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Vuoto, 2014 7 x 15 x 15 inches
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Vertuntur, 2014 5 3/4 x 15 1/4 x 15 3/4 inches
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Within the Red Land, 2014 24 x 36 x 3/8 inches
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Kasvu White, 2014 20 1/2 x 7 x 7 inches
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Kasvu, 2014 20 x 7 x 7 inches
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ARMELLE BOUCHET O’NEILL SELECT EXHIBITIONS 2012 Pratt Gallery, Seattle, WA White Shadows 2011 Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA Pratt Scholarship Recipient Exhibition Nordstrom, Seattle, WA, 2010 Pilchuck in display Pratt Gallery, Seattle, WA, 2010 Art Bridge Fellowship Exhibition 2009 Alain Daudet Gallery, Toulouse, France Cisternerne, Underground, Museum for Modern Glass Art, Denmark 2008 Masned Oe Fort, Denmark, Summer Exhibition Museum of Contemporary Craft, OR Students Exhibition Gas Conference Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Denmark, Going Places Svanekegaarden, Denmark Going Places Designer Zoo, Denmark Going Places Form/Design Center, Sweden Going Places AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES Visiting artist at the Museum Of Glass of Tacoma, 2013 Red Hot Award, Museum of Glass, 2012 Jon and Mary Shirley Award, 2011 Visiting artist at the Museum Of Glass of Tacoma, 2011 Art Bridge Fellowship, 2010 Takako Sano Scholarship, 2008 Lino Tagliapetra Award, 2007 Rotary club scholarship, 2006 Leonardo Da Vinci Exchange Program, 2004
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Steve Jensen
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My best friend Sylvan did a drawing of a boat. When he gave it to me, he asked if, when he passed, I would make a carved boat for his ashes. He died a month later and I carved a boat as close to Sylvan’s drawings as possible. My mother came to Sylvan’s funeral, and she was so moved by the boat, she wanted my father’s remains, when he passed, put in a similar vessel. Since he was a Norwegian fisherman, we buried the boat at sea, like a Viking funeral. Since that time I have created several funeral boats for friends, family, and pets. Art school never prepared me to work with human or animal ashes, but I feel honored to have this opportunity. When I work with them, I feel transformed to another place or time where an artist was asked to be both craftsman and mortician. The Voyager series, carved in wood or painted, is a direct result of these experiences. As humans, death is the one thing we have in common, and the boat in many cultures symbolizes a passage, or voyage, perhaps to the other side.
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A Sunken Canoe, 2012 8 x 36 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches
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Crystal Ghost Ship, 2012 9 1/2 x 24 x 10 inches
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Copper Bot with Portholes, 2013 9 1/2 x 24 x 10 inches
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Drifting, 2013 8 x 35 x 9 1/2 inches
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Bot, 2013 24 x 48 inches
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Out to Sea, 2013 24 x 48 inches
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Levitating, 2013 24 x 48 inches
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STEVE JENSEN SELECT EXHIBITIONS 2010 Gallery One Art Center, Ellensburg, WA Everett Art Museum at City Hall, Everett, WA 2007 Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA 2006 San Juan Islands Museum of Art, Friday Harbor, WA Edmonds Arts Museum, Edmonds, WA 2004 Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA 2003 Anacortes Art Museum, Anacortes, WA 2002 Bellevue Arts Museum & Commission, Bellevue, WA Larson Art Museum, Yakima, W 2001 Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle WA Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA SELECT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angles, WA Larson Art Museum, Yakima, WA AWARDS Morris Graves Fellowship, Morris Graves Foundation, 2002 Artist Award, PONCHO, 2002 Artist Grant, Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation, 2000 Artist in Residence, Maple Lane Juvenile Detention Center, 2000 King County Special Projects Grant, King County Arts Commission, 1998, 2001 Individual Artist Grant, Allied Arts Foundation, 1998 Seattle Artist, Seattle Arts Commission, 1997 GAP Individual Artist Grant, Artist Trust, 1997 Community Leadership Award, Cornish College of the Arts, 1997 Ned Behnke Leadership Award, Northwest AIDS Foundation, 1995 Exhibition Grant, National Endowment for the Arts, 1991
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Anne-Lise Riond Sibony
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My starting idea was to create “cells,” these smallest units of my body, that would carry on their surface the memories of things I have loved. The title of this series, Cellula, “little room” in Latin, refers to this little room of cells that is my memory. Some of these cells stem from simple ideas like travel memories: a souzani fabric, a marble from Topkapi Palace…Decorative motives that struck me once. Others stem from reminiscences of childhood: the pleasure of collecting insignificant things and organizing them…These memories and feelings shape the motif of the crystal plate, the starting point of the piece! Then comes the blowing part, which gives the piece its volume and at the same time distorts the motif. And I love this distortion. It is a metaphor for the work of my memory: it changes forever what was once a reality, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The blowing gives the cell its organic soft form but without an up or down side. There is no bottom and no imposed direction (a ballasting allows the piece to be laid on almost any side.) I love these pieces as they are at the same time very cheerful, very technical, decorative but also meaningful.
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On the Parisian Cobblestones, 2014 10 5/8 x 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 inches
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Fabric Cell with Pink Band, 2012 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
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Checked Fabric Cell with Brown Stripe, 2012 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
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Suite in Pink and Grey, 2012 7 1/2 x 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches
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Polka Dots on a Blue Back, 2012 6 3/4 x 6 1/8 6 1/8 inches Checked Fabric Cell in Turquoise, 2013 10 5/8 x 6 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches
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Drop Cell, 2012 9 7/8 x 6 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches
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ANNE-LISE RIOND SIBONY
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2010 Roybet Fould Museum, Courbevoie, France 2010 Galerie Aktuaryus, Strasbourg, France. Biennale du verre de Strasbourg et salon St’art. 2008 European Glass Context, Bornholm, Denmark. Musée du Pays de Conches, Conches, France. Rentingart, Paris. 2007 Château d’Enghien, 7ième salon de la Céramique, Enghien, Belgium 2006 Château d’Enghien, 6ième salon de la Céramique, Enghien, Belgium 2005 Glasmuseet, Ebeltoft Danemark 2004 Musée de l’outil et de la pensée ouvrière, Troyes “Exposition internationale - La puissance du verre”. 2001 Glasmuseet, Ebeltoft Denmark Maison de la Lorraine, Paris 2000 Glasmuseet, Ebeltoft, Denmark 1997/98 Galerie Différence, Paris, France: “Le verre au féminin”. Galleria Percorsi d’Arte 90, Venice, Italy: “Merci Murano!”. SEMA (Society for encouragement of arts and craft), Paris Maison de la Lorraine, Paris: show of the graduation pieces
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Wayne Strattman
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My professional life and my work is nearly a symmetric synthesis of both art and science. Daily I split my time as a scientist, doing basic research and engineering work in the lighting field, and as an artist creating lighting designs and art pieces. My work, whether the engineering or the artwork, all involves glass and light. I find a daily dynamic crossover and stimulation between the two fields. I have structured my life purposely to maintain this balance. If the objects of my development work and my artwork were put in the same room I would hope there would be little essential difference in the two bodies of work. I feel that the individual is enhanced by combining the aesthetic and the pragmatic as a lifestyle and, as much as possible, in ones work. I react strongly against the movement of art that removes it from the ability to appreciate it by an ordinary mortal. My art I hope doesn’t retreat from appreciation but offers the viewer levels of appreciation that allow anyone, even children, some avenue toward appreciating the work. A piece is about its form and structure and the meaning behind its design, but also, for some viewers at least, the appreciation of the physics of how the light is created within each piece and the technical craftsmanship to form that light. Some of the mechanisms are extremely involved technically using specialized electronics, gas plasmas, and heated filaments. Those with an appreciation of what is involved can open a door to a deeper level of appreciation of how the light is crafted into an art piece. Another side of my life is as a teacher and writer and as such I have a strong desire to help people understand some these connections between the beauty inherent in the art piece with the beauty of the underlying physics used in its construction. In pursuit of this theme I sometimes use mathematics and the “rational� mode of reasoning as a source of inspiration. Its not uncommon for example to see mathematical symbology in my work. Some of these themes admittedly require more background by the viewer but the work, like science, only yields this level of meaning by a level of study and previous training by the viewer. Much of my work also tries to involve the viewer and his local environment as well. My luminglas light sculptures, for example, will often be made to respond to music, touch, or voices. 57
Neuron, 2014 32 x 10 x 24 inches
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WAYNE STRATTMAN
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2013 Cyberarts Gallery, Boston, MA 2012 Cyberarts Gallery, Boston, MA Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Permanent installation Charles River Museum, Waltham, MA 2004 Glass Art Society “Illuminated Glass” group show New Orleans 2003 Glass Art Society Conference “Illuminated Glass” 2001 Glass art Conference, Corning NY Group show 2000 “Traveling Light” NYC 1999 Museum of Neon Art Group Plasma Show, LA “Traveling Light” Taiwan 1998 “Illuminated Glass art” Glass Art Society Seto, Japan 1997 Glass Art Society Group Neon Show, Tucson, AZ 1996 First Annual Illuminated Glass Art show, Arnheim Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA 1995 Chase Gallery, Boston, MA 1993 Harvard Univ Carpenter Center: environmental installation with Stephen Antonakos Cambridge, MA 1989 & 1990 Boston First Night: Large environmental neon light sculptures 1988,’89, ’90 Boston Center for the Arts: Lighting designs and sculpture for Boston Annual Artists Balls
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Adam Waimon
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Adam Waimon’s sculptural glass forms incorporate subtle monochromatic transparent color. This singular use of color allows the delicately engraved surface to refract and transmit light. Waimon utilizes the glass to create strong elegant forms with a minimalist approach. He gathers his inspiration from a multitude of sources as diverse as microbiology to Art Deco. Multiple forms are often placed together allowing for interaction and use of negative space. Each form goes through numerous stages to accomplish its final design. Initially each piece is sculpted into shape. Once the form has cooled from the glassblowing process the labor intensive procedure of carving begins. Here, the textures and intricate details are scribed into the surface of the glass using an array of carving tools that are embedded with diamonds which cut into the glass surface. Subsequently, the entire surface is evenly ground down and sandblasted with an abrasive grit to give the glass a unified surface. The final and most delicate part of the process requires the entire carved form to be reheated. This delicate step will heat only the exterior and will give the piece its final surface.
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Ocean Blossoms, 2013 7 x 9 x 10 inches
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Gourd and Seed, 2013 10 x 19 x 10 inches
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Unite, 2013 10 1/2 x 12 x 16 inches
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Bi, 2013 11 x 11 x 3 inches
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ADAM WAIMON
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2014 Bakalar Gallery Massachusetts College of Art and Design Boston Benefit Auction, MA 2006 - 2014 2013 Ridgefield Guild, Ridgefield, CT Tacoma Museum of Glass Red Hot Glass Auction, WA 2011 - 2013 2012 Mattatuck Museum, Waterury, CT 2011 Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT Museum of Fine Arts Summer Auction, Boston, MA Juried by Committee Ridgefield Guild, Ridgefield, CT City of Brea Art Gallery ACGA Clay and Glass National Juried Competition, Brea, CA 2010 Fairfield Arts Council, Fairfield CT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT
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US $55.00