Chad Holliday ... contemporary forms

I am an artist that has been working in glass for about 10 years. I first studied art & glass at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. After receiving my BFA I studied at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, where I completed an MFA in glass. Since then I have worked in such facilities as; Grand Crystal(Artist-in Residence), Peitou, Taipei, Taiwan, The Museum of Glass(Lead Technician), Tacoma, Washington, & Pratt Fine Art Center(Glass Tehnician/Studio Manager), Seattle, Washington. I have also had the great pleasure of working with such incredible artists such as; Paul Marioni, Martin Blank, Dale Chihuly, Charles Parriott and most recently Maya Lin. Now I am a Fulbright Fellow studying at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenicky Senov, The Czech Republic. MORE IMAGES

Jeff Wallin goes painterly

I begin each piece as a quick sketch from a model, working directly with glass powders on a glass sheet surface. No preliminary drawings are used, no tests or experiments. Each new work is itself the test, the experiment, the first impression developed and pushed to a final form. My methods of kiln forming purposefully ignore most of the strict adherence to process normally associated with the medium. The work is driven to completion as part of a dialogue, which begins as a response to the model and then develops in unexpected ways as the work matures over multiple firings in the kiln. The intent is to maintain an attitude of spontaneity and preserve the raw moment when the piece first began. MORE

Martin Rosol - plain and simple, pieces that move with you

Martin, like many Czech glassworkers, learned his trade in a "company school" set up to train craftsmen to execute limited edition designs for art glass manufacturers. Though the arrangement provided employment for many, it did not provide young artists with the degree required by the old regime to sell art. So, by day, Martin turned out functional art in the form of bowls and vases for the factory. At night, using scrap from the day's production, he created his own larger, more abstract pieces. Before long his sculptures were being exhibited in Europe and the United States, and in 1981, Martin was awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Glass Sculpture in Munich.

Eventually, through friends, Martin had the opportunity to come to the U.S. on a visitor's passport, to work with an established glass artist in New York State. He set up machines for the artist and worked with him in his studio, all the while perfecting his own work. Holsten Galleries in Stockbridge was among the first to sell some of his pieces during this time in the U.S. After five months his visa expired, and he had to return to Czechoslovakia permanently in the summer of 1986.

The Rosol family's journey took them from Hungary, to Yugoslavia, to Austria then to Germany, where they waited for two years to get visas to emigrate to the U.S. They signed up for English classes together at Greenfield Community College. In 1994, The Rosol family became naturalized American citizens and they now live in Massachusetts, where Martin works in his own studio.

Influenced most by architectural studies, Martin's sculptures, in the words on one admirer, are "works of elegant design and craftsmanship". Made with several pieces of glass precisely cut from blocks of crystal, the glass is constructed in architectural forms after selected surfaces have been sand-blasted.

The sculptures are multi-dimensional, some surfaces clear, some opaque. The results are "monuments to light". MORE

MATTHEW CUMMINGS - figurative glass sculpture

In my work, I am attempting to capture the essence of human movement (gesture) through minimal, abstract forms. While always interested in the human figure, I was inspired by a summer trip to Italy where I studied and sketched sculptures of the High Renaissance and Baroque period. I was particularly moved by the sculptures of Giambologna and Bernini. I was drawn to the tension created by their sculptural groups and the curves of the human figure.

While my first explorations of the human figure were realistic, I have chosen a more abstract and minimal approach in order to focus the viewers attention on the human gestures presented. Besides concentrating on the form of a single figure, I am challenged by relating figures to one another. When I am in the glass studio, I am trying to create very specific forms, while expecting a more ambiguous reaction from the viewer. I welcome different interpretations of these sculptures by the viewers. I have begun more and more to view my work as being removed from the human figure and directed towards representations of pure form, movement, and gesture. MORE

Toshio Iezumi - clean and simple ... beautiful!

BORN
1954 Born, Ashikaga City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan

EDUCATION
1985 Tokyo Glass Art Institute, Japan, Graduation

PROFESSIONAL
Current Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Japan, Associate professor
1988 Novy Bor, Czech Republic, International Glass Symposium
1987 Hokkaido, Japan, SCF Glass Workshop

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California USA
Real Fabrica de Cristales la Granja, Spain
Suntory Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, Tochigi, Japan
Notojima Glass Art Museum, Ishikawa, Japan
Ashikaga Museum of Art Tochigi, Japan
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Japan
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Ishikawa, Japan
Koganezaki Glass Museum Shizuoka, Japan
United Airlines