Thomas Scoon

A few months ago (time flies...), Jonathan Russell, a friend, introduced me to Thomas Scoon, a new friend. Okay, I'm sorry, we're a little casual here, but it's Saturday morning, someone is outside with a lawnmower, it's California and the sun is shining...casual is good.

Jonathan is an artist referred to me by my friend, John, years ago, when we visited his Open Studio at Hunter's Point in San Francisco. I was looking for glass artists, and John said, "You've GOT to see this...! The rest I'll save for another time, but today I owe Jonathan many thanks for his introduction to Thomas Scoon, glass sculptor.

An established artist with a distinguished resume, Thomas is delightful. He flew in to spend some time with Jonathan and attend our opening reception. Like his person, his work in glass enjoys highly a personable, almost folk, aspect and is wholly American with its particularly warm and communicative aesthetic. When I think of American art, as representative of American culture in general - it's friendly, embracing, humble and possesses an innovative spirit unlike that of any other culture. Thomas' work, ranging from small to life-size scales is easily defined by these qualities.

Technically masterful, he begins by selecting stones from natural habitats he visits (over years), gathering stones from the same site (for consistency of color and texture), as his work evolves, the granite forms contrast to his work in glass. Using traditional lost wax techniques, he sculpts glass forms to shape the rest of the figure, organically, like ice. It is the translucent quality of glass, as activated by natural sunlight that renders his figurative sculptures qualities of spirit or soul. With popular cultural references, and focusing exclusively on the human figure, Thomas works with ideas of community and human characteristics, which he hopes the viewer will understand as personal narrative and universal construct.

I love the intimacy of his work - how he draws us all into his human story - of family, community, parents, and life in general. It seems his long list of collectors enjoy these aspects of his work as well.

David Ruth...more

PUBLIC ART AT NEW WILLOW GLEN LIBRARY Art glass panes reflect patterns of nature, locale Wind in the Willows, created by Bay Area artist David Ruth for the new Willow Glen Branch Library, is a group of 54 art glass windows; they vary in size from 6" to 27" square and are installed in an asymmetrical pattern across the west-facing wall of the new Library. Artist Ruth met with Willow Glen residents at the start of the project. They shared with him their strong affinity for the area's natural features, tree-lined streets, and craftsman-era style homes, their sentiment about the region's the agricultural past and as well as their embrace of a new, modern aesthetic emerging in the neighborhood, and their pride in the Willow Glen community. These ideas helped shape his concept for the artwork. Ruth's windows are intended to capture the feeling of light as it filters through tree branches, particularly through willow tree branches. The windows are a striking feature viewed from either the interior or exterior, during day or night. During the afternoon they create colorful patterns reminiscent of light through leaves on the inside of the library; in the evening, light from the Library emanates outward through the windows. The artist collaborated with the architects and the Library Design Team to integrate these glass elements all along the facility's prominent West wall. Made of a durable borosilicate glass that is able to withstand the dramatic seasonal temperature changes, the artwork is a functional filter for the often intense afternoon sunlight. Each piece of glass is handcrafted and unique, lending an element of discovery to Wind in the Willows. Of great importance to the community, the architects were also able to preserve an existing tile mural in the courtyard. My Rabbits, Stories in Clay was created with donated community funding in 2000 by artist Nina Koepcke and children from Willow Glen Library in memory of Helen Clair Owen. The Willow Glen Branch Library Grand Opening is Saturday, August 23. The official program is from 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon; artist David Ruth will be present to discuss his work immediately following the program. The location is 1157 Minnesota Avenue, San Jose 95125.

David Ruth

I've been working on what to write about David Ruth for more than four days now. Why? I guess it's because I want to honor his work, because I consider him a friend, and lastly because there is so much to say...!

American art history enjoys several modern art movements: the New York school, Abstract Expressionism, Funk Art, Lowbrow Art, to name a few. David Ruth is a member of an elite group of American glass sculptors who do not yet have a name, but should probably have a name for the collective of their fantastical work in glass sculpture. These artists, like David, create artworks constantly tested by artistic integrity, time, and mastery of technical process. What's the big deal? It's a gazillion things like resistance by the cultured elite to accept glass as a fine art medium (we've addressed that a little in an earlier blog about Chihuly at the de Young), that the art glass industry is a million dollar industry spawning giants in education, manufacturing (at a recent convention for the Glass Art Society, the whole city of Portland turned out en masse to show the love...), philanthropy, publishing, and let's face it, the eye-candy factor of bright shiny things in public places is tough to miss. The big deal is the money factor - working in glass is damned expensive - at SOFA Chicago last year, one of David's colleagues said, "It's like crack cocaine..."

David Ruth is a graduate student of glass giants, Roger Darricarrère and the American glass-blowing pioneer, Marvin Lipovsky. With Darricarrère, David learned how light interacts with glass and he mastered painting under Lipovsky. Working in a manner of Abstract Expressionism, David's work is visually compelling and contemporary. Recently influenced by a recent NEA grant to Antarctica (see his blog) and the horror of the war in Iraq - his work has become more allegorical, texturally dramatic, and always in keeping with his medium - glass. He sculpts massive glops of slick black layers on smooth surfaces, thick black textures layered on a weighty rectangle of cloudy-clear blood-red polished glass, suspended from a wall. David’s work draws the viewer to see, sometimes for the first time, shadows and veils of contrast and color. Light is diffused, absent and present, all at once, on an unexpectedly large piece of glass. David Ruth's work is fittingly placed amongst that of glass giants.

This is a very exciting time for the glass aficionado - we're in the middle of a new American movement in art history where exclusive focus for the first time is glass and its sculptural quality. This is an exciting time for contemporary art.

Lorraine Peltz

Lorraine Peltz is a painter, not a glass artist! What's her work doing in our current exhibition, COLD+HOT 2008?! Good question...I struggled with that for a few weeks, actually, since I met her in Miami last year when her work was shown at the Art Now Miami Beach Fair by her Chicago gallerist. There is something immensely appealing about Lorraine's work. To begin, her use of saturated rich color draws the viewer quickly in, and before you know it, your eye is wandering all over her canvas like a lustful Casanova. Lorraine's work, using varying depths of field, is alluring and demonstrates sophisticated painterly knowledge in its deliberate engagement of the viewer's visual pleasure. Really. As one of the satellite exhibitors to the gargantuan Art Basel|Miami Beach throng, competing with massive shows of highbrow and lowbrow art, Lorraine's work and her gallerist's exhibition enjoyed a steady flow of visitors drawn in to her paintings. The imageries seem simple... Painterly sketches of chandeliers floating on a brightly hued canvas with cartoon conversation call-outs rising from a low corner. Makes me think of a party someplace fancy, lots of sparkling chandeliers above, it's evening, lots of beautiful people, conversation at a low, steady hum...nice...love the painting. Gotta have it.

I loooove Lorraine. Seriously. Her enthusiasm for her work is infectious, and translates to fine work and sophisticated messageries. Her work is easy on the eye, containing lovely references to her own feminist (and feminine) aesthetic. Feminist? Okay, here's where I tend to slip off the boat...I'm not a feminist, although I'm unquestionably old enough to join the geriatric generation that stormed corporate America with shrill demands for "equality"...and let's save that discussion for another day. The point is, Lorraine believes her work addresses continuing feminist dialogue. Who am I to argue? I do agree with deeply feminine aspects of her work, its sparkly allegory, rich hues, embrace of community and development of society. Her work reminds me how my mother's search for beauty was constant and commanded respect. It reminds me that design trades largely run by men are marketed to women. It tells me that in truth, it's the feminine gender that make the rules for how we live, what we live with, and who we allow to form these rules.

Lastly, I didn't tell you she's a studio art professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She's is, and what a heavyweight she is there too, with enough accolades, grants, reviews to give any grad school newbie a daunting challenge. Currently enjoying a restrospective exhibition of her work (from 1993 to 2008) at the Munster Center for Visual and Performing Arts, and looking forward to several exhibitions (Italy, Miami, San Francisco) in 2008, Lorraine Peltz is a woman, an artist, and an intellect to keep your eye on.

Press Release - Stig Persson

SOFA New York 2005 Stig Persson interview

Karen Nyholm

You could easily call Karen Nyholm's work "craft" and she probably wouldn't mind. The metaphor is readily apparent, but to use her work as a vessel, rendering it practical function, seems sacrilegious. A lamp-working practitioner, Karen's work skillfully portrays an aesthetic of delicacy and strength. How womanly, how feminine, how correct. This latest work, first shown at our COLD+HOT 2008 exhibition, consists of two bowl shapes, each rendered from a single translucent rich color - deep green and rich purple - that is blown, etched and placed in combination with a small group of lamp-worked flowers or a jungle animal found object. Visually enchanting, the work casts continuously changing shadows that reference Karen's love of nature and exploration of interior space.

Weston Lambert

Weston Lambert is a recent graduate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. When I heard this, I immediately imagined a young surf sun worshipper, not a glass sculptor! He might be both, right...? He is definitely well-schooled in the practice of glass sculpture, with attendances at Dale Chihuly's Pilchuck Glass School and the Glass Furnace in Istanbul. Lambert's works use glass and stone to document the passage of time. In his statement, he writes that the glass and stone he works with represent geological sedimentation as a natural record of time. This must be undoubtedly so, because it takes an awful lot of time to so perfectly laminate one sheet of glass after another and incorporate beautiful pieces of stone along the process. Oh, and then, there's the grinding and polishing aspect...not at all a work of instant gratification. The resulting works are captivating in every manner. From a distance, his works look like pools of mysterious liquid frozen by surrounding light and space. On closer inspection, the optical tricks of glass against glass draw the viewer into a seemingly unending play of more light and new found depths. While most of his works require an intimate viewing, all his work incorporates surprising finesse and understanding of the material of glass in his oeuvre.

Taliaferro Jones

It's not often a young artist can teach a seasoned gallerist about grace and poise, but Taliaferro Jones reminded me how important these qualities are in our harried 21st century world. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Taliaferro (pronounced "Tawlevuhr") now resides in Toronto. She descends from a family of artists, and at least two generations of sculptors, although she is the first to work with leaded glass (aka crystal). Her works are shown in Europe and all over the U.S. She's an incredibly enthusiastic young newlywed and possesses a surprisingly sunny smile. I probably would too if I'd grown up in with all that art talent.

Taliaferro's work is about her environment, right now - water. She sculpts glass using traditional methods of casting with the lost wax process. The resulting work possesses a classical aspect that is both modern and reminiscent of Rodin. Because she uses leaded glass that is 46% lead, her works are also impressively translucent, allowing large amounts of light to filter through the heaviest sections of the sculptures, which, combined with her choice of colors truly imparts a watery affect. She's a photographer as well and often pairs her sculptures with her photographs. Her photographs are made with a medium format camera and printed on large sheets of archival acid-free cotton rag. The colors are intense, and on close views, there is an abstract feeling to her work as the image draws you into its colors and seeming movement. Did I also say she's a formalist? Yes, she frames her works on paper, rendering them a solid formalist finish.

An invited lecturer to the Glass Art Society shindig in Portland, as was Mark Abildgaard, Taliaferro presented a discussion about her work to a packed room (Natalia and I arrived early, said hello and found a seat!). Armed with a very slick PowerPoint presentation, she spoke about the influences of her work, interjecting with quotes from Confucius and thoughts about her aesthetic for close to an hour to a very mature and sophisticated audience. Her own personal finish was obvious.

So, what happened that was so impressive about her grace and poise? Taliaferro shipped five works to us from all over the country for our group exhibition, COLD+HOT 2008. Four arrived intact, the fifth did not. I've only had one glass sculpture break in my experience before this, and the artist's reaction was not pretty. Here, Taliaferro, assured she'd followed all the right shipping procedures for her work, reassured us that things would work out and even attempted to rework the sculpture (did I tell you she's petite and her sculptures weigh close to 100 lbs?). Wow. What else impressed me about this young woman? Well, she's one of those rare artists who fully understands the importance of her support for our efforts. As soon as the details and press was out about her place in our show, she and her family rallied all their friends (I've never known anyone to have so many family friends - literally, hundreds) to attend the preview and opening reception. It's two weeks away from our closing, and you know what? They're still coming in! Bravo and kudos to the Jones family.

Commute, Comments + Contact

Dear Reader,

First, thank you for reading this blog. Really. It's very good to know you're here.

Today's post is something of a rant (please forgive me, the need is overwhelming). I commute to work from the East Bay to San Francisco. Most of my friends think I'm nuts to do it, but the truth is that I love the cultural aspects of San Francisco too much to settle for a comfortable life in the 'burbs. Occasionally, it's an awesome commute. Like today. Saturday, traffic backed up for miles in the Maze, impossible to get on the Bay Bridge because...a cute little red VW flower child car rear-ended a cheap white Toyota driven by dread-locked flower children (the Toyota was a total loss, rear end crumpled into oblivion, VW seemingly unscathed). When I finally zoomed by and craned my neck to get a good look, all parties (a gazillion young people) were not at all peacefully coming to terms with this event of their young lives. No one looked hurt, I am grateful for the driving God that graced them with that blessing, and hurtled on to work...and here is what I found... You know, this can't be what my realtor meant when he told me this was a high traffic area...bloodcurdling WHINEZZZ from the three (yup, the third mixer is in front of the other two) cement mixers, bone-jarring DRILLLLINGGGGG, GRINNNNDDDDINGGG stuff from the jackhammers...oh, yeah, today's going to be a great day for business. Spare yourself, just stay away.

Next, to all you lovely (I mean it, lovely) artists who like this blog and the stuff I'm posting about you - please, please say so in the "comments" section of this blog. It's there for you. You'll either make my day or break it, but certainly someone else will be happy to read it. People love to hear from artists, especially when the work is supported by a gallery and promoted as fiercely as we promote you! If you're shy and don't want to post your own comments regarding this blog, have no fear - I will. It's only right that people know what you have to say. Don't worry, I'll give you full credit for your comments, I'll be polite and nice, and promise never to credit anything you say to myself. On the other hand, if you have something just for my tender ears (yes, they are...and they get more so over the growing years), be assured - I do read all the email you send to me. I reply with amazing speed to compliments, but it takes an eternity to recover from emails even mildly laced with acid or strychnine. How to contact me? Email is best - micaela@micaela.com. I spend 'way too much time on the phone and work like a fiend to promote your work and pay my bills, so telephone calls and personal visits are strongly discouraged. But if you're determined to ignore that little personal thought, give it a try at:

Micaela Gallery
333 Hayes Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
tel. 415.551.8118
(you have my website url, that's how you got here, right?)

Cheers to you for now, and hasta manana, my friend.

Ever truly yours,
Micaela

Grant Garmezy

Grant Garmezy grew up on a farm in Tennessee. That accounts for his figurative work with glass. He wrote, in his statement, about fossilizing particular memories and using glass to create unique forms that have a familiarity with daily life. Garmezy's work is an interesting blend of abstract with figurative - when viewing his work, it appears to be an obvious representation of something that you know and need to make sure you know, until you get up close and wonder, "What in the world did I think this was?" He joins the wave of young artists who tread the cusp of figurative and abstract work with formidable technique in a variety of media addressing the vernacular of common culture. A couple of days ago, I wrote about Ned Cantrell's work in this regard. Similarly, Garmezy's work hints of common culture, but it doesn't address my daily life, because I didn't grown up in the country (did you?). Instead, his work compels that second look, often several more, because the forms are so lifelike and possess a certain sad sweetness. Garmezy's work is hot, sculpted from the inside, occasionally manipulated in a kiln after the original sculpting is rendered. It takes a lot of work, a lot of friends (he just graduated from school), and a lot of physical strength and balance to create work of this kind - and all to good effect, as he was notably awarded the RSA Benno Scholz Prize for most promising sculptor in the U.K. Garmezy won awards and scholarships galore - deservedly, his work possesses classic reference to sculpture with respectable technical mastery of the special qualities unique to glass based on his particular memories of time and place. On a personal note, he honored us with a visit on the opening night of his debut at COLD+HOT 2008. A 21st century version of a young Southern gentleman, he was informative, kind and polite to all inquiries about his work and technique at the opening.

Alessandro Casson and Gary Clemenceau

A few years ago, Lino Tagliapietra, created sinuous forms from blown glass and sculpted them. Lino, as he's called in glass circles, is notable to the American glass collecting community for his collaborations with Dale Chihuly at Pilchuck Glass School and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, to name a few prominent US venues where he imparted his skills in glass blowing. The big deal about Lino is that he's the first artist from Murano, Venice, that region in Italy that guarded the secrets of glass blowing for centuries, to share his methods with the world. His work has been shown in museums and galleries all over the world, and he continues to inspire glass artists today. One of his admirers, Alessandro Casson, developed a series of sinuous forms from blown glass and sculpted them. Using parallel methods as Tagliapietra, Casson's work uses hot techniques to develop the form and pick up color through canework. Final development of the form employs cold engraving methods. His work draws the eye in an attractive and appealing manner, inspiring touch.

Gary Clemenceau, made his gallery debut with this exhibition. He is one of a pair of artists invited because his work did not use glass as a medium, rather as a reference. "City of Glass" is a set of digitally created images exploiting color, light and the illusion of reflection. His images, sealed within a matrix of polycarbonate and aluminum, have a compelling visual draw. Saturated and slick, Clemenceau's work ensures his status as a successful debutant!

Casson and Clemenceau's works are beautifully crafted and have rare presence. I couldn't miss the opportunity to show them!

Ned Cantrell

Ned Cantrell, originally from the UK, now lives in Denmark with his wife and growing brood. He was introduced to me by Anna Merete Groenlund, Groenlund Gallery, Denmark's most important gallery for glass sculptors. Ned's first exhibition with us last year were two works related to his aspirations as a new-found father, "Rocket Ship Baby" and "Jantelov." With his new work, playing with use of the graal technique, Ned joins the growing number of young artists whose work clearly addresses the visual vernacular of our contemporary value systems with imageries that surprise us with humor and reflection. We love Ned's sculpture and hot work and continue to support his artistic efforts (if you're attending SOFA Chicago 2008 this year, his work will be on exhibition there too!).

Mark Abildgaard

I invited Mark Abildgaard to show his work at COLD+HOT 2008, our glass sculpture group exhibition, because he's a local artist, and because his aesthetic is a great combination of American innovation and sophisticated technique.

At the Glass Art Society's conference in Portland, Oregon last June, Mark had one of the largest attendances for a lecture at the conference. The room was so crowded with acolytes, I couldn't even get close to let him know we were present! Mark has a sound following of his work, and is one of the original group of California glass artists and sculptors who understands the relationship of light to his sculpture.

COLD+HOT 2008 ends soon...

It's hard to believe how quickly time passes by! We've enjoyed a successful, wonderful summer with COLD+HOT 2008, the group exhibition of glass sculpture and related works. The exhibition was an immense affirmation of the place of glass as a sculptural medium in fine art. We hope you can make it by to see the exhibition in person before it closes on August 30.

And we continue our love of the medium next month as we open Stig Persson's inaugural solo exhibition of glass sculpture in California. Persson's work is pure, fascinated with strict geometric forms and two-dimensional profiles. In some ways reminiscent of Richard Serra, Persson's work is concerned with Minimalist gestures that refer to architectural form. Persson's solo debut opens the first week of September.

More on the Chihuly exhibitio at the De Young, comments by Kenneth Baker, etc...

Kenneth Baker's article is fun to read - so are his rebuttals and inspirations to the fore! Read on: from Regina at the Seattle Post Intellingencer; from Mr. Baker himself; and from other vanguards of glass sculpture, such as The Oregonian. From moderates to high minded culturati, let's discuss! Bravo Dale Chihuly! Bravo Kenneth Baker!

Bridge Art Fair - London 2008

Late last week, we received news from the promoter for the Bridge London 2008 art fair that the fair was cancelled. Grrrr...we are so disappointed! From a personal point of view, I love London, and professionally, I can't imagine a better market for our work! My staff was excited because it was a cool thing to do, and the artists we planned to show were 100% on board. We're scrambling to make it up to our artists and do right by them. The work is good, the presentations flawless, and the ideas are everything I hoped to show.

Dale Chihuly at the de Young

Dale Chilhuly's work is at de Young Museum in San Francisco. I'm starting this blog w/ some thoughts about the exhibition because so many people who visited our COLD+HOT 2008 exhibition asked me about Dale Chihuly's work and Kenneth Baker's notes on Chihuly in his San Francisco Chronicle review.
I love the drama of Chihuly's installation at the de Young! Who doesn't? It's larger than life and vibrant. Chihuly's choices of color and reflective surfaces appropriately serve to emphasize his work, mesmerize, allow for sculptural presence, respect the viewer, and grant opportunities to view the work from multiple angles. But is it fine art or decoration, I’m continuously asked, after all Mr. Baker is a well-respected supporter of the San Francisco art community (and I might get lumped in with the "admirers of empty virtuosity" crowd here...). My impulse is to defend Chihuly as a fine artist and draw comparisons of fine art vis-à-vis decorative art, but curators and museums in homage to design and decorative arts in New York, Los Angeles, Paris are better able than I to outline and blurr definitive concepts of the disciplines to very narrow, very particular details. So the question is more whether or not anyone cares that the Chihuly exhibition is one of fine art or decorative art. Does anyone? If our ideas of classic fine art developed from primitive attempts to communicate events, to develop iconographies and patronize ideologies, if fine art encompasses realms of artworks based on exchanges of ideas, what is fine art about Chihuly’s work? Well, what isn’t? As with previous installations, his decision to show artwork on an outré scale dwarfs all concept of glass sculpture, obliges us to revisit our knowledge of glass and its place in culture. The visual drama of Chihuly’s work by its cacophony of color and unheard of scale carries visual weight similar to Donald Judd’s minimalism and strict adherence to linear form. Judd presented sculptures that forced the viewer to ask, “What is this?” Likewise, Chihuly’s work takes the viewer’s personal history of every glass vessel and decorative object into play and ask the same question: "What is this?" We are presented with blown glass sculptures that occupy space, present the viewer with a visual spectable, demonstrate technical mastery of the medium, and challenge us to accept his work in the narrowly defined world of fine art.
I do not own any work by Dale Chihuly because it’s not part of my particular aesthetic yet, but you can probably tell by reading this that I do love glass sculpture. I love sculpture in general, from Calder and Giacometti to Kapoor, Libenski and Rodin. Chihuly’s work possesses a sensational aspect that arouses suspicion from my very formal nature, while the visual part of me loves the nouveau approach to art that is wholly satisfied by the exhibition at the de Young (after all, isn't part of the attraction of art its novelty?) and its sensory assault. Baker's critique reminds me of IM Pei's diadem at the Louvre and all the hoo-ha questions about whether it was appropriate for such a venerable institution, likewise with Gehry’s beautiful museum in Bilbao. For glass sculptors, Chihuly’s exhibition is validating. It redefines fine art tradition with its occupation of space and light, and challenges old-world techniques by its response to ever-growing cries for “bigger!” and “more!” By nature, glass is one of the most difficult sculptural mediums to sculpt. The artist is made to choose whether to work with it cold, with a chisel or other carving tool, or to heat it up to over 2000°F and form its shape by blowing - and subject the medium to the sculptor’s skill, remaining sensational in all aspects of its manipulation. The fantastic aspects of glass - it’s liquid nature and relationship to light - keep it at the fore of wonderment. Its material plasticity allow it to take on whatever shape commanded by its sculptor, and the developing culture amongst glass sculptors and collectors, private and public art institutions, that is warmly cohesive, full of camaraderie, and supported by considerable sums of serious money, clearly proclaims glass is a fine art medium whose time is now, no longer the ignominious little sibling of sculpture.
Thanks to Chihuly, the American studio glass movement moved out of the craft shop to generously publicly funded institutions and enjoys international support. We no longer dismiss the glass object as a crafty little knick-knack, our ideas of decoration and design are enriched by a sculptural medium that has been around for millennia, and recently brought out of the dusty annals of history to join the high voltage fine art techniques of the 21st century. Thanks to Mr. Baker, we have an ongoing dialogue of the place of glass sculpture in the fine art world. Such is the draw of popular notoriety and of art that blossoms from humble beginnings to international buzz.