Peter Bremers COLD+HOT 2010

Peter Bremers
Iceberg & Paraphernalia 52,
2008.
Cast, engraved and polished
lead glass.
28 x 15 x 4 in.

COLD+HOT 2010

Opening Reception 1 July Exhibition through 28 August

MICAËLA GALLERY presents COLD+HOT 2010, an annual showcase of the work of selected national and international glass sculptors in a single exhibition. Featured artists are Peter Bremers, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Michelle Knox, Weston Lambert, Carol Lawton, Silvia Levenson, JP Long, Susan Longini, Thomas Scoon, Carmen Spera, and Kristiina Uslar, who collectively demonstrate the expansive versatility of glass as a sculpture medium in terms of material, color, and form, alongside the video work of Tim Tate and photography of Mark Leibowitz.

The exhibition title, "COLD+HOT 2010," derives from the distinct processes used by glass artists for millennia - sculpting its form, or cold-working it while cold (actually, at room temperature), very hard and brittle; and working hot glass, shaping it while molten, using blowing and/or kiln forming techniques at temperatures ranging from 1700 to over 3000 degrees.

Rich in visual vernacular, "COLD+HOT 2010" introduces the work of new artists to Micaëla Gallery, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Tim Tate, and Mark Leibowitz.

You are cordially invited to join us for a welcoming reception for the artists on Thursday, 1 July 2010, from 5 to 7.30 pm.

For inquiries or a preview of these works, please contact info@micaela.com.

A print exhibition catalog, PDF exhibition catalog, photographs and high resolution images are available upon request. To order print exhibition catalog, please contact the gallery at info@micaela.com

All images are courtesy of the artists and Micaëla Gallery, protected by all copyright/trademark laws everywhere. ©1997-2010 micaëla and micaëla gallery, its name, logo and all website content are copyright/trademarks of micaëla gallery llc.

Peter Bremers is at SOFA Chicago

Sponsored by the Tel Aviv Litvak Gallery, Peter Bremers has once again shared his sculpture at SOFA Chicago.

Netherlands artist Peter Bremers was born in 1957 in Maastricht. He studied sculpture at the University of Fine Arts from 1976 to 1980, then three-dimensional design at the Jan van Eyck Academie from 1986 to 1988. Searching for suitable ways to realize his artistic ideas, he began to work with a wide range of materials, including glass, plastic, steel and stone. In 1989, he attended a course given by Lino Tagliapietra at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, but the strongest impetus to turn to glass as his ideal material had come three years earlier, during a workshop held at the Jan van Eyck Academie by the senior Dutch glass artist A.D. Copier (1901-1991).

Bremers works with a team of assistants who carry out his ideas at the furnace that the artist acquired on extensive travels in Asia, New Zealand, Africa and the Antarctic. Perhaps Bremers's most compelling works are the recentIcebergs & Paraphernalia. Inspired by the majesty and fragility of the changing Antarctic landscape, created the Icebergs & Paraphernalia series in kiln cast glass as an homage to the earth, to express respect and give thanks that such wonders still exist, despite human intervention. [image right: Icebergs & Paraphernalia 2007-119, 2007. 90 x 56 x 17 cm]

In a DVD documentation of this series he describes his journey to the Antarctic in a deep-sea sailing ship, recording his impressions of the glaciers and of the waves glistening in the dawn sunlight. He also tells of disastrous attempts to realise the resulting ideas at the furnace, and how he travelled to the Czech village of Pelechov, near Zelezny Brod, to have them cast instead. In Icebergs & Paraphernalia Bremers uses undulating wave-like shapes, along with angular holes and arches to evoke a combination of ice and fire, light and colour. He recreates in glass, openings and fissures in the glaciers, and succeeds at capturing an idea of the unfathomable depths of the ice.

Bremers's work is featured in the public collections of Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, The Netherlands and National Glassmuseum in Leerdam, The Netherlands.

Peter Bremers

Peter Bremers. Iceberg & Paraphernalia 162, 2007.
Cast, engraved + polished lead glass.
15 x 15.6 x 3.7 in.

COLD+HOT 2009

It is very exciting to open COLD+HOT 2009, a comprehensive sculpture exhibition celebrating the use of glass as a fine art medium. In San Francisco, there is a particular excitement about opening an exhibition where the focus is glass. The San Francisco Bay Area is the birthplace of the West Coast glass movement, and home to many fine artists who work almost exclusively with glass as their medium of expression (as one artist emphasized in his statement, to say they are ‘glass artists’ is as much a misnomer as saying Leonardo da Vinci was a draftsman because he knew how to draw, or that Michelangelo was a mere marble artist, and Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel were bronze artists just because they might, arguably, be known only for their sculpture). Prior to San Francisco’s M.H. de Young Museum opening of its Saxe Collection, the idea of glass as a sculptural medium wasn’t seriously entertained. In fact, many contemporary art critics and collectors continue to relegate the use of glass exclusively as a craft medium today. And so, the dialogue of glass as a fine art medium continues, with growing awareness that it is a fickle and demanding tool, evolving as a lyrical and sophisticated medium of artistic expression.

The inner circle of glass collectors is a small and surprisingly organized cognoscenti who followed the studio glass movement from the early1960s through its vision of contemporary art today. In the United States, they study the work of artists such as Marvin Lipofsky, Harvey Littleton, William Morris, Lino Tagliapietra, Mary White, and who hasn’t heard of Dale Chihuly? The inner circle includes curator Tina Oldnow, critics James Yood and (the late) Dan Klein, gallerists William Traver and Douglas Heller (and their eponymous galleries), as well as San Francisco’s own collectors and philanthropists, Dorothy and Gordon Saxe.

The focus of COLD+HOT 2009 is the material, glass. It is about glass as a medium of artistic expression, as sculpture. Most of the artists presented possess enviable academic credentials (BFA or MFA) with emphasis in glass, painting or sculpture. They studied form, light and space, and are masters of their medium whether it is blown, cast, engraved or laminated. Some of the artists focus on the form captured by the exterior planes of their sculpture, or the optics created by sculpting the exterior as well as uses of material to develop their artistic vision. Some of the artists are ‘outsider’ artists, who mastered their craft indirectly while working with the medium, and developed conceptual ideas iterated via glass. And, to mix it up, yes, we included two painters, who have no material relationship to the medium of glass. All the artists in this exhibition are fine artists.

Peter Bremers sailed away to the Antarctic a few years ago. His series, “Icebergs and Paraphernalia” is in direct relationship to the landscape and light he studied during his adventure. Eric Franklin’s anatomical forms don’t leave much to the imagination – here is a pair of hands, this is a rib cage, and these are a pair of feet. Skeletal, formed with borosilicate glass (commonly known as Pyrex), his combined use of lamp worked glass with neon and krypton gases is electrifying. Grant Garmezy grew up on a farm in Tennessee, and his childhood memories of long lost animal life continue to be a source for his award-winning sculpture. Phillip Hua’s expressive series “De/Construction” studies his recent experience in Beijing as light was obscured by atmospheric industrial waste. Michelle Knox continues to build her year of awards and scholarship with “Chorten Stones,” an imposing abstracted temple of blown glass and oil painted forms. Weston Lambert sculpts the interior of his works, laminates them, and sculpts the exterior in his preservation of fleeting memories. Susan Longini addresses the fragility of the passage of time; Greg Nangle celebrates the perfection of the imperfect; Nancy Otto shows us that some things, such as desire, can be larger than life; Lorraine Peltz addresses the feminine ideal and identity; Stig Persson studies the tension of interior and exterior spatial relationships, along with Chantal Royant; while Thomas Scoon turns to companionship and community with juxtapositions of glass and stone. Carmen Spera, deliberately shuns the title of ‘glass artist’ yet puns the term and material with laminated weaponry that lampoons the ongoing parallel fascinations of high fashion with violence. Jennifer Umphress celebrates the use of borosilicate glass with an ongoing dialogue of the natural world; Kristiina Uslar contrasts the extreme delicacy of pâte-de-verre with her sculptures of industrial shapes; and Sasha Zhitneva employs light to emphasize the painted forms of her kiln worked glass planes.

COLD+HOT 2009 celebrates the work of these artists with their presentations of cold worked (carved, engraved, polished) glass and hot worked (blown, cast, kiln fired) glass and painting (acrylic, mixed media, and oil). The premised material for this exhibition is glass presented within three basic ranges: borosilicate (the most heat resistant), soda glass (the most common), and lead glass (also known as crystal). The artworks employ all the classic and formal methods knows to sculpture, such as carving and lost wax casting, and in some cases, develop new methods to feature the lyrical and poetic qualities of light captured by glass. Many of the artists in COLD+HOT 2009 are prestigious academics and graduates, elite within their respective programs, some are gifted with continuous awards recognizing their work, while others enjoy the prestige of commissions at venues like the Waldorf Astoria and abroad. They are all, without question, fine artists with relevant ideas in step with today’s dialogue and social commentary, whose practice is presented with mastery and well-developed skill, and whose work is not only engaging, but beautiful and visually pleasurable.

Peter Bremers at Ebeltoft

I first met Peter Bremers at SOFA Chicago two weeks ago. We corresponded a little, about travel and world culture. I can't remember who approached whom, and we began to write because one of us thought we should meet and both of us thought I should show his work. The reaction from other artists that he joined our exhibition was curious - mixed and excited - he is respected among his peers. It's easy to see why. Aside from his handsome physical appearance - lithe, with a fresh, outdoor complexion, twinkling eyes and a ready smile - he's irresistible. Most importantly, Peter is articulate, well published, has a wide international following of collectors and admirers, and his work is meticulous - perfectly polished, flawless, and clearly representative of the ice formations he recently travelled to study.

Currently showing at the Ebeltoft Museum, slightly north of Copenhagen in Denmark, Peter's work joins a small group of internationally established artists who sculpt using glass as a primary medium. His work will be on exhibition through April 2009. Below is a short video taken by the Ebeltoft group of his exhibition and posted on YouTube for you to enjoy.