Featuring individual pieces and installations from twenty international artists lent by nineteen galleries from the four corners of the world, this special exhibition highlights artists working representationally and abstractly with cast, cut, blown, stained and sculpted glass to create psychological, philosophical and conceptual works of art.
In the representational realm, Ai Weiwei casts his hand flipping the bird at government oppression with candy-colored glass; Monica Bonvicini uses pink Murano glass to take on power structures with her piece Up in Arms; Jaume Plensa constructs a figure that can See No Evil in pure white Murano glass; Michael Joo addresses positions of power with a cast glass velvet rope that’s both open and restrictive; and in sandwiched layers of transparent glass, Dustin Yellin expresses environmental concerns with a collaged figure composed of pollutant imagery rising out of the oceans in repulsive rebellion.
With less social, more poetic issues in mind, Vik Muniz creates a striking self-portrait from cut canes of Murrine glass; Sung-Won Park reflects on the passing of time by existentially envisioning himself as a caged character at Age 53; Judith Schaechter paints a portrait of humanity tied to nature with stained glass; Tristano di Robilant evokes an oracle’s golden tongue by gently stacking beautifully blown Murano glass; Amber Cowan creates her own bit of nature, in the form of a floral still life, from upcycled pressed glass; in The Frozen Vanitas, Hans Op de Beeck creates an icy still life from frosted glass; and Kohei Nawa playfully constructs a pixelated dog from scores of glass balls.
