Original Voices 2015

ORIGINAL VOICES 2015 Eric Cruze + Tomo Sakai Jon Goldberg Tyler Kimball Michelle Knox Wesley Neal Rasko Sarah Vaughn

230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 | T 312.573.1400 F 312.573.0575 www.kensaundersgallery.com | info@kensaundersgallery.com Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 www.kensaundersgallery.com Š 2015 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Design by Deborah Kraft ISBN 978-0-9885301-9-5

Published on the occasion of the exhibition ORIGINAL VOICES 2015 April 3 - May 31, 2015

ORIGINAL VOICES 2015 Eric Cruze + Tomo Sakai Jon Goldberg Tyler Kimball Michelle Knox Wesley Neal Rasko Sarah Vaughn

This year’s iteration of Original Voices features a diverse group of artists, each pursuing the development of a body of work that is characterized by a unique approach to form and concept. Artists Tyler Kimball and Jon Goldberg employ traditional techniques to create compelling and unexpected forms while Neal Wesley Rasko explores the possibilities that still exist for reconsidering the large cast objects that we associate with the Czech glass. Sarah Vaughn focuses on image, her small cast objects of female figures evoking characters from somber narratives. Eric Cruze and Tomo Sakai bring a decidedly cool aesthetic to spare, subtle objects that are influenced by Carlo Scarpa and Asian culture.

Jon Goldberg represents the best of the Maker aesthetic that pervades the studio glass movement.

The beguiling beauty of the material is combined with the brutal tragedy of glass working, where every slip is life or death. After embarking on a career in computer programming the artist found himself living across the street from a new gallery in Philadelphia, where he found inspiration in the work of artists like Mark Peiser and Richard Ritter. The patient guidance of Vitrum Gallery associate Mora Shenker encouraged Goldberg to explore glass working at a public access facility. After six one-evening-a-week classes it was “game over” according to Goldberg, who “always finds surprises, something new in the glass” in his continuing explorations of “the internal volume of internal space.” The artist’s formal studies have mainly been done in the studio at Corning with artists like Martin Rossol who influenced Goldberg’s focus on developing his own unique creative process.

Goldberg cites “the semi-random compositions seen in nature” as visual inspiration for his hot and cold worked glass sculptures.

At this point in his career Tyler Kimball is hustling for Visiting Artist gigs and Residencies at Universities and Art Centers across the country. In 2014 the artist traveled to Washington, Utah and Ohio where he blew glass, conducted workshops and instructed young students of the arts. All this wandering has inspired nostalgia in the artist’s work; Tyler explains that his humorous Pop creations recall Oldenburg’s Shuttlecocks-which are scattered about the grounds of his hometown of Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum-as well as simpler times, summers with family and the carefree recreation of lawn games. Shuttlecocks and the accouterments of badminton serve as the source of the artist’s imagery for this exhibition. Applying strict control in his technique with the glass the artist takes advantage of the glass’s feathery transparency to evoke lightness in his out-of scale creations.

The artist arouses a variety of responses with works that are humorous, hugely decorative and imbued with a dusty longing for iced lemonade in the backyards of our youth.

Michelle Knox left New Jersey to attend Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire where she discovered the hot shop while pursuing her studies in Environmental Science. In 2000 she was accepted into the prestigious glass program at the California College of Arts in Oakland led by Clifford Rainey. Rainey strove to teach professionalism to his students and direct them towards the use of the glass as an artistic outlet. An athlete growing up, Knox relished the fast paced physicality of the medium and wasn’t intimidated by the rigors of the studio. As her work developed Knox found inspiration in Dan Clayman’s sense of scale and the way that space could be manipulated in large-scale installations. She remains fascinated by the way artists like James Turrell and Richard Serra insist that the viewer navigate the space their work inhabits. In the gallery, Knox’s installation of tall blown glass sculptures invite viewers to physically engage with the work and the space they occupy.

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Wesley Neal Rasko describes the evolution of his work as an ongoing voyage of discovery and selfawareness. After growing up and studying in his native Canada the artist relocated to the Czech Republic to apprentice in the studio of Bohumil Eliaš. For a year Rasko worked with the Master and received for his efforts an education that was unique in its depth and scope. Elias didn’t just impart a deep understanding of glass-making and glass-working but the artist also served as a mentor, friend, confident and even father-figure who provided an example for the his young protégé of how to act as an artist, make art his vocation and his life. Rasko employs casting and cold working techniques that have been the hallmark of Czech glass. His sculptures are often laminated constructions that include not only colored glass but also stone that is ground and polished to create soft, luxuriantly smooth surfaces.

Tomo Sakai was born in Nagoya, Japan. She met New Yorker Eric Cruze in the Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic while he was studying casting and cold work with Frantisek Janak and she was studying engraving with Peter Rath. Sakai was exposed to glass working in high school and when she attended Tama University in Tokyo it was among the very first University Art Departments in Japan to have a glass program.

Eager to expand her skills in glass-working Sakai enrolled in a summer workshop in Frauenau, Germany and then spent the next 5 years in the Czech Republic studying engraving techniques with masters in various studios including Jiri Harcuba. In conversation she recalls, “Glass was so new, so open”. Her choice of imagery goes back to her early travels to the Czech Republic and the homesickness she has endured while spending her life away from home.

Eric Cruze also studied and worked in the Czech Republic. After studying architecture Cruze left that practice after ten years and spent 4 years at the Appalachian Center for Craft studying glass working. He cites Carlo Scrapa and glass murrini as early fascinations. Cruze is moved by the way that glass “records the heat, creating a beautiful record of that transformation that takes place in the kiln.” It was in 2005 that his pursuit of training and education led him to Janak in the Czech Republic where he met Sakai. They were married in 2007, in Nagoya, Japan.

The two founded and operated a glass studio in Gifu, Japan in 2007 but then re-located to Boston area in 2011.

The artists describe their collaborations as producing three distinct bodies of work; one that is hers, one his and one that they create together. They have “separate focuses and overlapping interests”. He looks to bring a “modern sensibility to a traditional craft” while her vision includes combining tradition and technique to create modern works in a very contemporary medium.

Sarah Vaughn was raised in Olney, IL and currently resides in St. Louis, MO. She creates evocative figurative sculptures that the artist describes as autobiographical. The simply presented female forms are laden with mystery and quiet, intense emotion. Often a feeling of loss or sadness or resignation permeates the object or tableau. Sarah mentions her two grandmothers as influential figures; one a close confidant and one Sarah never met, but whose old dusty bottle collection was the surprise discovery that initially sparked the artist’s interest in glass. Sarah cites as artistic influences Carmen Lozar, Sybille Peretti and Joanne Teasdale not only because of the quality of their work but also because they have inspired in Vaughn the courage to create uncompromising work and to imagine leading an uncompromising life.

This catalogue documents the third installment of the Original Voices exhibition series, which seeks to present work by artists working in glass that are new, young or underexposed. The work in this exhibition, varied as it is, offers visitors the opportunity to understand the formal and conceptual issues artists are grappling with as they push the medium of glass in new and unexpected directions.

Ken Saunders, 2015 7

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ERIC CRUZE + TOMO SAKAI

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Kingyo 2014 18 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches

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Baby Koi with Lotus Leaves 2014 8 1/2 x 33 x 3 inches

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Snow 2014 14 x 6 1/2 x 3 inches

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Koi Pond - Aquamarine 2014 11 x 8 x 3 1/2 inches

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Monolith 1 2014 16 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches

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Monolith 2 2014 16 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches

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Monolith 3 2014 16 x 8 1/2 x 3 inches

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Flow 1 2014 19 x 9 x 1 1/2 inches

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Flow 3 2014 21 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 2 inches

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Flow 7 2014 21 x 10 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches

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The inspiration to work with glass came from its unique material qualities: transparency, luminosity, impermeability. Later, we learned about the rich cultural history of glass, with its ancient techniques and craft traditions. A third element of our practice comes from our background in design and our experience living/working in Japan, Europe and the US. In all of our work, we strive to combine the sensual, artisanal and modern. Over time, as an object changes its function or context, critical characteristics that remain are its material presence and commodious quality. When an object is able to evoke the spirit of its making, a connection is possible that resonates through history. We are searching for this connection in our work.

-Eric Cruze and Tomo Sakai, 2015

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ERIC CRUZE EDUCATION 1998-2002 Glass Studies Appalachian Center for Craft, Smithville, TN 1989 Bachelor of Architecture Virginia Polytechnic Institute+State University, Blacksburg, VA PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS 2014 ”Spring Flora, Worcester 2014”, cast glass installation at Health Services Lobby, Sheehan Hall, Worcester State University, Worcester MA

TOMO SAKAI EDUCATION 2004 SUPSS Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic Glass engraving studies with Vaclav Hubert and Rudolf Kment 2003-04 VOSS Novy Bor, Czech Republic Glass engraving studies with Jiri Tesar 2002 Dominik Biman School, Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic Glass engraving workshop with Jiri Harcuba 2001 Summer Workshop, Frauenau, Germany Glass blowing workshop 1998-2002 Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan Undergraduate studies in art and glass with Makoto Ito PUBLIC INSTALLATIONS 2014 ”Spring Flora, Worcester 2014”, cast glass installation at Health Services Lobby, Sheehan Hall, Worcester State University, Worcester MA

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JON GOLDBERG

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Optical Shell #5 2015 21 x 10 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches

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Veiled Organism #11 2014 8 x 10 x 7 inches

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Blue Moon #2 2014 8 1/2 x 7 x 7 inches

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Veiled Organism #14 in White 2014 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

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Optical Shell #6 2015 10 1/2x 10 1/2 x 3 inches

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Veiled Water #14 2015 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

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Glass is an extraordinary material, unlike anything else in its ability to reflect and refract light. A glass object can appear almost alive at times, interacting with its surroundings and changing as the illumination or viewing angle shifts. My creative process is an exploration of these unique properties of the material.

Inspiration is drawn from many sources in the natural world, but the pieces are abstract enough to allow the observer to create their own interpretation of what each object represents.

Thick-walled, solid forms emphasize glass’ optical properties and provide an interior space.

Within this space, simple blown-glass colored elements are joined or layered together with clear glass to create a composition. After the piece has cooled-down, curved facets are cut through the blown object to create the final form. These facets can act either as windows into the piece or as mirrors reflecting back portions of the internal composition.

I am extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to experiment freely with glass and this body of work represents my personal aesthetic and ideas. Despite its fragility, glass endures and will be passed on to future generations. There is great satisfaction in the thought that this work could survive and be appreciated, as we appreciate glass made several thousand years ago.

-Jon Goldberg, 2015

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TYLER KIMBALL

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Reticello Shuttlecock 2015 16 x 15 x 13 inches

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Chaos in Flight 2015 22 x 20 x 14 inches

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Fresh Set 2015 24 x 11 x 11 inches

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Olympus 2015 24 x 26 x 16 inches

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Quite a Racket 2015 28 x 11 x 3 inches

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Growing up in Kansas City meant hot humid summers filled with barbeque smoke and lawn games. I look back on them fondly, and though badminton wasn’t the exclusive game played during those formative years, it’s the one that sums up those lazy days of childhood best. I might not be the only one who connects badminton to Kansas City life either. Due to the iconic Claes Oldenburg shuttlecock sculptures laying haplessly about the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, many conjoin the odd icon of the badminton birdie with the city. I try to capture those carefree memories of Kansas City summers within each of the glass shuttlecocks I create.

Using fine lines in cane-work I can achieve very light and breezy feelings. Whether a netted-motif, lace-like, or feathery, the skirts of the shuttlecocks convey a controlled chaos, not unlike the act of glassblowing itself. The endless design possibilities within the shuttlecock shape keeps me testing new bounds within my medium as well. It seems every time I finish a new glass shuttlecock that smile and ease of my Kansas City childhood is just a little less distant.

Tyler Kimball, 2015

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TYLER KIMBALL

EDUCATION 2011 Pratt Fine Arts Center “Creative Metalworking” instructed by Carla Grahn 2010 Pittsburgh Glass Center “Cane, Murini, Incalmo” instructed by Paul Cunningham and Darin Denison 2008 Pilchuck Glass School “Glass Whisperer” instructed by Michael Fox 2005 Pratt Fine Arts Center “Glassblowing III” instructed by Cayn Thompson 2004 Pratt Fine Arts Center Workshop for beginning glassblowing under direction of Jesse Kelly 2002 University of Montana - Bachelor of Arts

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MICHELLE KNOX

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Red Reliquary 2014 86 x 14 x 14 inches

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Teal Tower 2014 80 x 14 x 14 inches

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My conceptual interests lay in creating, experimenting and experiencing tension, balance, light, space, form and design. I often reference architectural elements as a way to connect the viewer more physically to the space the work inhabits and to highlight the connection between external objects in space and the human form. I am interested in the way an object identifies with the viewer both visually and physically. The color, light, scale and formal compositions of my work, as well as the physical space it inhabits, have become increasing important in the way I control the connection to the viewer. The work My most current body of work, The Standing Reliquary Series, started by exploring Buddhist architectural structures called Stuppas, in a more contemporary way. The original structures symbolized five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. My sculpture plays off these five elements by adding a sixth element of memory or time often referenced in the title of the work.

Over time, the work has also started to incorporate Islamic design elements investigating the relationship between religious beliefs, design motifs and architecture while pairing contemporary and ancient ascetics, societal structures and ideals of beauty.

Michelle Knox, 2015

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MICHELLE KNOX EDUCATION 2009-2011 Tulane University MFA/ Glass/Sculpture 1997-2000 California College of the Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts/ Glass Major 1995-1997 Franklin Pierce College Environmental Science/ Glass Minor

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 2013 Glass Alliance of Northern California Newsletter. Susan Longini.

2012 GLASS. The James Della Collection. Jim Della. Publisher: Prism Press.

Diablo Magazine. The Curator’s Eye. Peter Crooks.

The Sacramento Bee. Glass Art Retrospective in Roseville. Victoria Dalkey.

2011 Art Alliance For Contemporary Glass. Artist’s News. Staff writer. Summer Issue.

2010 CatSynth. Review of this week in SF Art. Staff Writer.

2009 Glass Alliance of Northern California Newsletter. Susan Longini.

Glass Art Society. Student Profile: Michelle Knox. Tracy Kirhman.

2008 Art in SF. Rincon Hill: San Francisco Neighborhood Blog. Jamie Under.

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WESLEY NEAL RASKO

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Serendipity 2013 20 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 3 inches

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FFX 43 2014 17 x 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

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Aqua Claudia 2013 19 3/4 x 11 3/4 x 4 inches

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Swirling colours, emotions, nature and awe-inspiring fascination; this is what Wesley N. Rasko captures in his unique pieces of glass work.

Glass, a medium most cannot associate fluidity and flexibility with, is what Wesley finds to be the most romantic. Experimenting and playing with the idea of ‘contrast’ regarding colour, feeling, texture and transparency; his glass sculptures are made of painted and laminated float glass, cast glass, optical crystal and exotic stone.

The glass pieces are then hand ground and polished to their final brilliance. His inspiration comes firstly from emotions, inter-personal relations and the world we live in.

Wesley Neal Rasko, 2015

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WESLEY NEAL RASKO EDUCATION 1998-1999 Alberta Collage of Art and Design 1999-2000 Apprenticeship with Bohumil Eliaš

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SARAH VAUGHN

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Reflecting on Potential 2015 17 x 8 1/2 x 6 inches

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Linger 2015 11 x10 x 8 inches

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Well Wishings 2015 91 1/2 x 18 x 14 inches (Well) 13 1/2 x 9 x 9 1/2 inches (Figure)

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Distorted Perceptions 2015 2 1/2 x 85 x 12 3/4 inches (Water) 9 x 60 x 12 3/4 inches (Dock) 3 1/4 x 26 1/4 x 14 inches (Figure)

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Generations 2015 sizes vary

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Growing up, the conclusion of summer meant the arrival of the Monarch butterflies. In my mind they were the sign of something new. I began to see them as the symbol of letting go of the past and embracing the future. In my current work I find myself creating small cast figures that have become unintentional, stylized self-portraits. These figures are representational glimpses of the things that have lingered in my mind. While I am not attempting to document a time and a place like a photograph it is my hope that I can capture the emotions, which last long after the moment fades. In these works I find myself confronting parts of my past that I wish to forget and holding on to things I should have let go of long ago. With these figures the little monarch that often accomplices the girl in her story becomes my personal little symbol of freedom and change; of the ability to let go of the things that are not meant to remain in our lives. They tell me that things will go on even though that chapter of life is ending a new page will turn, a new generation will be born, and I will continue to survive.

Sarah Vaughn, 2015

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SARAH VAUGHN EDUCATION 2014 Rochester Institute of Technology School of American Craft Glass MFA 2007 Southern Illinois University Carbondale College of Liberal Arts BFA Glass 2004 Olney Center College Associates Degree in Liberal Arts SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 2013 Juried Selections Catalogue GAS On-line International Student exhibition Emerge 2012 Bullseye Glass Emerge 2008 Bullseye Glass

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Cover Image: Sarah Vaughn “Generations� $60.00

230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 T 312.573.1400 F 312.573.0575 www.kensaundersgallery.com info@kensaundersgallery.com