Michael Janis: a fresh look at glass art

Inspired by ways we transform ourselves, I work at creating creates glass pieces that have both visual and spatial depth. By layering and fusing sheets of glass with overlapping elements, I strive for an interactive commentary using simple forms with intricate glass powder drawings. These works are a continuation of my frit powder drawings that I have been working on for some time now. The layered compositions allow me to make unusual juxtapositions of imagery.

I work hard to create some kind of meaning out of my artworks - dream-state surrealism using figures, text and common objects, and hint at questions. The artworks suggest meanings but they encourage the viewers to draw their own conclusions. The work has an intrinsic meaning for me, but they remain open to multiple interpretations. I want to encourage the possibility of exploring meanings beyond those I put there – I count on the viewer bringing something to the work. More on MICHAEL JANIS

Material Matters: Lisa Cahill

Lisa Cahill creates dreamlike images, which allow viewers to draw associations with their own remembered landscapes, resulting in a meditative and or emotional response. Inspiration for this work ranges from the colours, textures and limitless space of the Australian bush to the harsh winter landscape of Denmark, her mother's homeland. Having spent many years living and travelling the world, much of this time spent in Denmark, Lisa's kiln formed glass connects structures of urban architecture, the associations and memories they invoke, and her innate respect for the natural landscape. Lisa's minimal wall panels are a record of her memories of these different landscapes and the transitory nature of the urban experience. Rather than a direct reproduction they are more her own interpretation of the quiet intensity to be found therein. Lisa's art is a document that ponders the reality behind the visible and becomes a place for quiet contemplation.

Anne Wolff

WOW! I have to say I really enjoy these prints (vitreographs). Ann Wolff is best known for her 3D contemporary works in glass - here we see her visions on a 2D level - what a creative mind!

Ann Wolff studied first at the School for Fashion Design in Hamburg and then at the Academy of Design in Ulm, where she majored in visual communication. She entered the glass industry when she married the Swedish glass artist Goran Wärff. Accompanying him to Sweden, she worked from 1960 to 1970 as a designer of decorative and household glass, first for Pukesbergs Glassworks in Nybro, and then at Kosta Boda. After her divorce from Wärff in 1970 she established Studio Stenhytta with Wilke Adolfsson, a master glassblower from Orrefors, on the grounds of her home in Tranjö, Sweden.

During the 1970s Wolff's glass forms were multi-layers vessels which she sandblasted and etched with narratives relating to the experience of Woman as wife, mother and homemaker. In the 1980s she began to move away from narrative in favor of the depiction of female heads on large round plates. From the mid-1980s to the 1990s Wolff experienced a period of dissatisfaction with glass that resulted in her working more in drawing, painting and printmaking. She rediscovered glass in the mid-1990s as a sculptural medium through the technique of casting. The abstract, cast glass forms with which she now works relate strongly to her continuing interest in the female face and figure.

Ann Wolff has won many distinctions for her art. Among them were the Coberg Prize for Modern Glasswork in Europe, 1977; Central Switzerland Glass Prize, Lucerne, Switzerland, 1980; Gold Medal, International Glass Art, Kassel, Germany, Gold Medal, Bavarian State Prize, 1988 and the Rakow Commission, Corning Museum of Glass, 1997.
Museums that hold her work include the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Düsseldorf Art Museum, Germany; Lobmayr Museum, Vienna, Austria; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina; National Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio and Albert and Victoria Museum, London.

PRINTS and DETAILS CAN BE SEEN AT: http://www.vitreographs.com/