Marvin Lipofsky on panel at SOFA Chicago

Marvin Lipofsky

In honor of the 50th anniversary of American studio glass, Marvin Lipofsky is invited by the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass (AACG) to participate in a panel of artists discussing their contributions to the American Studio Glass Movement. 

The panel will be moderated by Corning Museum of Glass Curator Tina Oldknow and Ferd Hampson,  Habatat Galleries Michigan, as part of SOFA Chicago's 2012 lecture series, on Saturday, November 3, from 2 to 3 pm at Chicago's Navy Pier, Room 327.

The panel will also feature glass artists Mary Shaffer, Jack Schmidt and Joel Philip Myers. 

They will discuss the history, present and future of contemporary glass art. 

50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement

The American Studio Glass Movement begins with the story of Harvey Littleton, ceramicist turned glass sculptor (credited as the “Father of the American Studio Glass Movement” for the 1962 glassblowing seminar he developed for studio artists at the Toledo Museum of Art). It is a story worthy of admiration and respect.

A passionate educator, Littleton originated university-level glass programs (at the University of Wisconsin–Madison) and promoted glass as a course of study at university departments in the Midwest and northeastern United States. The late glass expert Dan Klein (1938–2009), in his publication Artists in Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass (Mitchell Beasley, London 2001), wrote that Littleton’s “aim was to take the manufacture of glass out of its industrial setting and put it within the reach of the studio artist.”

Littleton's students, Robert Fritz and Marvin Lipofsky laid the foundation for private and public glass education in the San Francisco Bay Area – underscoring Littleton’s evangelism of glass as an artistic medium from humble Wisconsin beginnings to present-day world-class museum collections throughout the United States.

This year, more than 160 museums across the United States celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement – convincing evidence of Littleton’s success.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the American Studio Glass movement, 2012 is a year of multiple opportunities to view exhibitions of work made by students (in many cases, students descended from students) of Harvey Littleton. A list of 2012 studio glass events can be found here, as promoted by the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass, a national, and international, group of glass collectors.

Locally,  the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (at the de Young), will open its exhibition, Reflections: Celebrating 50 Years of the Studio Glass Movement on Saturday, October 27. A special lecture by California's Studio Glass Pioneer, Marvin Lipofsky, will be held on November 9 at the Koret Auditorium. On the other side of the bay, the Oakland Museum of California will host its exhibition, Playing with Fire: Artists of the California Studio Glass Movement from October 27, 2012 through March 24, 2012 (exhibition catalog available by request from info@micaela.com).

Artists we love showing at the Oakland Museum

It has been, shamefully, quite some time since our last post here. Our only explanation is that our work surprisingly took over to such an extent that we inexplicably shifted away from our love of this blog. To our readers, we offer humble apologies with the promise to amend and forge ahead.

Our news today is that some of our favorite glass artists will be featured at the Oakland Museum of California's celebration of the 50th Anniversary of American Studio Glass. They are: Marvin Lipofsky, Mark Abildgaard, Oben Abright, Latchezar Boyadjiev, Kathleen Elliot, Bella Feldman, Robert Fritz, Jaime Guerrero, Taliaferro Jones, Michelle Knox, John Lewis, Susan Longini, Richard Marquis, William Morris, Jay Musler, Danny Perkins, Clifford Rainey, Therman Statom, Cassandra Straubing, Randy Strong, Pamina Traylor and Mary White.

Marvin Lipofsky. California Loop Series #55 (1970). Blown glass, flocking.  8 x 36 x 27 in.

We are extremely honored to have been invited to share our thoughts on these artists with collectors, curators and museum professionals, and continue to support the beautiful work they make that we believe in so passionately.

To the artists and professionals involved in presenting this upcoming exhibition, thank you for your collaboration.

50th Anniversary of American Studio Glass

This year, 2012, is a marker for the 50th anniversary of the development of studio art glass in America. More than 150 museums, galleries, universities and art organizations throughout the United States will celebrate this event to recognize the artists who are founding members of this movement and those who continue to develop fine art sculpture in glass. 


Locally, Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum presents Red Hot and Blown: Contemporary Glass from the Crocker's Collection on March 17, 2012 (through September 23, 2012), an exhibition that includes blown, cast and painted glass by Marvin Lipofsky, Therman Statom, Nancy Mee, Preston Singletary and Dale Chihuly.

Image courtesy of Marvin Lipofsky. Kentucky Series 2000 #1. Photography by Lee Fatheree.

Lunchtime Lecture: Studio Glass with Marvin Lipofsky

February 1, 2012. 12–1 PM  Free with Museum admission

San Jose Museum of Art

110 South Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113

View Map · Get Directions

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass movement. Marvin Lipofsky will present, "A World of Glass," a PowerPoint lecture on his 50 year journey in glass.

Lunchtime Lectures take place on the first Wednesday of the month at noon in the Charlotte Wendel Education Center. Visitors are welcome to bring food and beverages.

Exhibition, Installation images

When we closed our gallery doors, it was with some trepidation that we wouldn't be able to honor the beautiful work of our colleagues in the same way.

I think, with Amorphous Dreams, we've put that fear to rest, and thank all the wonderful people who were instrumental in making this exhibition happen so beautifully. They are in chronological order: Susan Longini and Prema Murthy, Silvia Levenson, Warren Poole, Cynthia Plevin, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman and JP Long, Dorothy Saxe, Clifford Rainey, John Green, John LaPrade, Michael Damm and Francesca Ginocchio.



Amorphous Dreams is on exhibition at Bekris Gallery from March 3 through March 29. The opening reception for the artists is Saturday, March 5 from 2 to 4.30. We hope you can stop by and spend a moment with us.

AMORPHOUS DREAMS (Project 2:2011)

Please join us at the opening reception for

AMORPHOUS DREAMS: Prema Murthy, Susan Longini, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman, Silvia Levenson, Clifford Rainey.

Saturday, March 5 from 2 to 4.30 pm

Micaëla Gallery + Projects in collaboration with

Bekris Gallery

49 Geary Street (2d Floor)

San Francisco, CA 94108

925.457.5645 http://micaela.com

Exhibition runs March 3 through March 29

Preview works from the exhibition online at http://micaela.com/home/Project_2_2011.html

"Some men see things as they are and say 'why'? Others dream things that never were and say 'why not'?" -George Bernard Shaw

Micaëla Gallery + Projects, in collaboration with Bekris Gallery, is pleased to present AMORPHOUS DREAMS (Project 2:2011) an exhibition of artwork by seven contemporary artists whose mediums of expression are glass and new media.

Invoking ideas of beauty and mythology, while commenting on contemporary culture, these artists simultaneously challenge our intellect as well as our sensory experience with their sculpture. Meticulously, and expertly, crafting artwork with color, material and, in some cases, sound, each artist presents vibrant compositions. The artworks address personal cultural references of contemporary community, life, metaphysics and politics by Prema Murthy, Susan Longini, Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler, Bella Feldman, Silvia Levenson, and Clifford Rainey.

With a resume that includes exhibitions at PS1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, among others, Prema Murthy introduces the Merkaba, known as the star tetrahedron, a portal into higher dimensions. Comprised of video, drawings and an installation, Murthy’s work is an extension of the artist’s ongoing exploration into the ever-shifting boundaries of embodiment, cognition and Mind. She references math and science to locate and map our interconnections to the universe on micro and macro, inner and outer, physical and spiritual planes.

Susan Longini’s work references the lost community of Caithness, Scotland, where windswept landscapes and crumbling buildings bear witness to abandoned homesteads. Using pâte-de-verre to create variegated landscapes, Longini devised a unique and convincing way to unify realism with traditional landscape abstractions, and address her social comments in so doing.

Marvin Lipofsky, collaborator, educator, inveterate traveler, multi-awarded artist, respected sculptor, and passionate supporter of the arts, is credited with bridging international communities of artists, overcoming ideological barriers and continents, to form an international glass community. His career as a working artist is a story of artistic depth and broad recognition over a five-decade journey. A master colorist, Lipofsky’s work deliberately pays homage to the communities he works with, classically addressing sculptural concerns of light and space. He established respected glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Jay Musler is a visual person. He states, “Wherever I go and whatever I do is reflected in my work.” His inspiration begins with reverie-like assemblages of shapes, forms, and colors. Working with glass to reconstruct patterns he finds in nature, landscapes, and architecture, he cuts, shapes, and paints the glass of his sculpture until satisfied. An abstractionist, Musler’s work incorporates humor with playful thoughtfulness.

Since 1992, Bella Feldman has been occupied with two series of work involving movement and interaction. The first, inspired by the Gulf War and her own concerns, is "War Toys," a flock of comic, ferocious, fantastic machines with wheels and clumsy movement. Made small, ankle to knee high, they impart on the viewer an opportunity for Olympian detachment. Alternatively, they are pet-size, seductively interesting, and inviting to play with. A new series, “War Toys Redux,” continues the concerns of the original "War Toys." These toys in glass and metal reference bio-terror. Feldman states, “As in the earlier series, these sculptures intend to please and provoke and to address war itself as an ongoing preoccupation.”

Silvia Levenson addresses life and femininity with wry wit and beautiful work. Addressing concerns of daily life and the veiled ambience of home, her work offers viewers a darkly comic window of “bliss.” Modern self medication, “happy-ness,” the home, as cocoon and battlefield: a place of love, hate, and tension, are playfully displayed with dualities of fragility and imperviousness - effectively conveyed via her chosen mediums of glass and video. Much of her work is an attempt to resolve the difficulties of living with threats of violence, political and domestic, that are out of our control.

Classical icons, contemporary society, and diverse cultural symbols collide in clever, allegorical sculptures. Clifford Rainey’s first issued edition work, Amphictyonis: Greek Goddess of Wine and Friendship Between Nations is nothing less.

Born in Northern Ireland and now a San Francisco Bay Area resident, Rainey chairs the Glass Program at the California College of the Arts. His work is exhibited in collections that include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the MH de Young Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Rainey’s work pushes the veristic boundaries of figurative glass sculpture, finding opulent visions in muscle, bone and sinew to create dense and exquisite allusions. Always working with glass, introducing techniques of polychromy married with ideas of personal expression, Rainey’s sculpture and its seemingly abstract manipulation of the human figure reveal alarming depths in the loveliest of forms.

AMORPHOUS DREAMS is about visual expression - the ideals, interpretation, materials and hope - articulated by these artists and used in a contemporary and classic vernacular. We are honored to present this exhibition of magnificent artwork.

Micaëla Gallery + Projects is a project-oriented program and art advisory, independent of traditional gallery confines, retaining presence through curated exhibitions, international art fair participation, collaborations with private art consultants and gallery colleagues, publications, gatherings (where select artists, critics and friends come together to enhance our visual art community), and of course, through new and traditional social networks.

Micaëla Gallery + Projects presents AMORPHOUS DREAMS in collaboration with Bekris Gallery at 49 Geary Street (2d Floor), San Francisco, California. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6, and by appointment. Contact info@micaela.com with any questions or to set up an appointment.

Images, top to bottom, left to right: Susan Longini. Caithness Coast #8, 2010. Kiln cast pâte-de-verre, 35 x 41 x 1.5 in. Prema Murthy. Merkaba II, 2010. Wool yarn. Installation. Dimensions variable. Marvin Lipofsky. Pilchuck Summer Series 1988-1990 #12, 1988-1990, 15 x 18 x 16.5 in. Jay Musler. Enjoy the Silence, 2010. Lampworked glass, oil paint. Bella Feldman. Church. Steel, blown glass, 16 x 16 x 10 in. Silvia Levenson. Life Strategies, 2006. Video and kiln cast engraved glass, chair. Dimensions variable, approximately 6 x 6 ft. Clifford Rainey. Amphictyonis, 2010. Glass, wood, gesso, oil paint and gold pigment, 30 x 12 x 8 in. Edition of 7.

"Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity." -Khalil Gibran

Marvin Lipofsky | LA Art Show 2011

Marvin Lipofsky, educator, inveterate traveler, multi-awarded artist, respected sculptor, and passionate supporter of the arts, is credited with bridging international communities of artists through ideological barriers, over time and across continents, to become a fundamental pillar of the international glass community. Working with established and respected artists from the Czech Republic, Venice, China and the United States, among others, his collaborative sculptures can be found in important museum and private collections worldwide. A master colorist, Lipofsky's work pays homage to the communities where he created his work. For example, during his visit to the Czech Republic, his sculpture referenced the landscape and political climate, while the work he made during his visit to China used colors that traditionally augur joy and prosperity in Chinese communities. Lipofsky's work also addresses the manner that light shifts through space as well as the effect on space that his work occupies, in terms of color and texture. He established the respected glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley and the California College of Art; and resides in Berkeley, California.

IMAGE: Marvin Lipofsky. California Loop Series #17, 1970. Blown glass. 9 x 27 x 18 in. Singular.

SCOPE Basel 2010

Delighted to announce we'll be presenting Micaela Gallery artists at SCOPE Basel 2010!

We look forward to an excellent fair and hope you'll join us for beautiful art, a warm hello and good conversation!

Glass Sculpture at Art Basel: A Summary

2009 marks the year that glass sculpture finally broke through the ceiling. At June’s Swiss Art Basel, Lelong Galerie’s showing of Angelo Filomeno’s multi-discipline work included (right) By the Side of the Last Ocean Ready for Sunset, 2008-09, an installation of blown glass, leather, crystals, wooden table and mirror.

Emboldened, the year-end art fairs held during last week’s Art Basel Miami fest included several offerings of glass sculpture for the acquisition-minded collector.

Among the sculptures shown were works by American glass sculpture titan, Marvin Lipofsky (left) Soviet Series 1989, blown and sandblasted glass, presented by San Francisco’s Micaela Gallery at SCOPE Art Show, Bullseye Gallery’s exclusive presentation of glass sculpture at Art Miami (showing April Surgent, Jessica Loughlin, and Richard Whiteley, among others), Yoichi Ohira, the Murano expatriot from Japan, showed elegant forms (represented by Barry Friedman), and lastly the cast glass work of Nicolas Africano (represented by Nancy Hoffman Gallery).

Why are we excited about finding glass sculpture in the rarefied halls of Art Basel? Primarily, because the world of the glass sculptor is strangely insular, often isolated from more commonly accepted fine art mediums such as bronze and painting. Some would attribute this to its modern association with craft; however, the excruciating labor required to master the medium, its mystique dating back to the Crusades, and most recently, pockets of artists sequestered in the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern Atlantic coasts, as well as remote areas of Denmark (Ebeltoft) and Italy (Murano) are the more likely reasons. The communal nature of mastering glass sculpture requires like-minded artists, wholly dedicated to the fragile and fickle medium of their choice, and while a lucky few have been inducted into the collections of the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art, most glass sculptors have retained unusual independence from art world trends, and have been steadfastly working at developing their art, honing their vision and preparing for their moment of fame. As a result, until recently, the glass sculptor seems to have received only a sideways glance from strict formalists who clung to the didactic that glass sculpture is a craft not a fine art - never mind that today’s contemporary glass sculptor marches in step with works by Christopher Wilmarth, Larry Bell, Josiah McIlheny, Judith Schaechter, and Bella Feldman, among others.

Sculpture continues to receive a warm embrace by the international art crowd during Art Basel week – whether in Basel or Miami - as evidenced by a proliferation of works by Anish Kapoor, the introduction of the above-named glass sculptors – Lipofsky, Surgent, Whitely, Ohira and Africano – and who will forget California artist Pae White’s Art Basel commissioned city block long installation inspired by the shanty towns of Mumbai, Rio and Shanghai?

Someone asked me if I saw a trend with the arrival of glass at Miami’s Art Basel this year. Well, one didn’t have to look far, as it seems every fair from Art Basel, Art Miami, Design Miami (The Swarovski Crystal Palace installation featuring more than 1,500 crystals on display as the leading piece of artwork), PULSE and SCOPE showed glass sculpture in some form or another. The truth is, when the tired old arguments of its medium are removed, glass, like any sculpture, when expertly used, is a beautifully captivating material that possesses a particularly unique relationship with light. 2009 is a good year to welcome glass as an accepted medium for fine contemporary artmaking. It’s a good year to have such a wealth of glass sculpture presented to the art world cognocenti.

Hello, Miami!

Hello, Fine Art Lover!

We're very, very happy to be on our way to Miami this year. The economy is up (believe me, we're the first to know!), and the artwork has never been better. Our 2009 contribution to Miami's art scene, as selected by independent curator Natalia Pudzisz, takes us to SCOPE Miami Art Show with paintings by Franziska Klotz and sculpture by Marvin Lipofsky.

For those of you planning to visit us at SCOPE, here is a short schedule of fair events:

FirstView
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
Free for VIPs or $100 donation to benefit The SCOPE Foundation

PressView
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm

VIP Cocktail Reception
Wednesday, December 2 | 4-6pm

General Admission Fair Hours
Thursday-Saturday | December 3 - 5 | 11am-7pm
Sunday | December 6 | 11am-6pm

SCOPE Art Show Inaugurates its First Curatorial Committee
David Hunt, Independent Curator and Critic, New York
Franklin Sirmans, Chief Curator of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Naomi Beckwith, Assistant Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Kate McNamara, Curatorial Assistant, PS1 / MOMA, New York
Benjamin Godsill, Curatorial Associate, New Museum, New York

SCOPE Curatorial Committee Presents: The SCOPE Film Program
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
Patty Chang, Rather To Potentialities, 2009
Thursday, December 3 | 11am-7pm
Edgar Arceneaux, An Arrangement without Tormentors, 2004
Friday, December 4 | 11am-7pm
Robert Boyd, Conspiracy Theory, 2008
Saturday, Decem

ber 5 | 11am-7pm
Jordan Wolfson, Infinite Melancholy, 2003
Sunday, December 6 | 11am-6pmKon Trubkovich, Double Entrance/Double Exit, 2009

SCOPE Presents: The Arctic Circle
Wednesday, December 2- Sunday, December 6

SCOPE Presents: The SCOPE Sculpture Garden
Wednesday, December 2- Sunday, December 6

The Eighth Edition of America's Most Prestigious Art Show, The Highlights

From December 3 through 6, 2009, Miami Beach, Florida, will be home to the 8th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part. Chosen by renowned gallerists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Selection Committee, the galleries will show works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Special sectors are devoted to very recent artworks, curated exhibits, performance, and art in public spaces.

This year, the layout of Art Basel Miami Beach will be extensively redesigned, including larger spaces for many galleries, and a new floorplan designed to improve the gallery exhibition and visitor experience inside the convention center. Art Galleries, the main section of the show, will feature more than 180 galleries from all continents.

For Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 the Selection Committee has chosen 28 galleries to present an Art Kabinett - separate areas within the booths of the Art Galleries sector, providing a space to exhibit both single artists' works and thematic group exhibitions spotlighting the curatorial skills of the gallerists. The projects in this sector of the show feature a wide array of artists, ranging from emerging artists such as Jakub Julian Ziotkowski, Haegue Yang and Latifa Echakhch to historical figures like Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz and Jack Tworkov. Further highlights include projects by Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Richard Prince and Wim Delvoye. Group shows include exhibitions titled “Ninety Years of Bauhaus” and “Aspects of Pop Art”.

The Art Nova sector serves as a platform for the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach to present works produced in the last two years, by a maximum of three artists. This year 64 international galleries have been chosen for the sector by the Selection Committee. Works by more than 130 artists from around the globe are on display, including 17 solo shows, featuring artists such as Marc Bijl, Valie Export, Rashid Rana, Dan Attoe, Michael Beutler, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jose Dávila and Marine Hugonnier.

The Art Positions sector - focuses on special projects by young artists and galleries, and formerly situated at Collins Park - will now be sited in the center of the Miami Beach Convention Center and features works by artists such as Renate Lorenz, Falke Pisano, Ulla von Brandenburg, Agathe Snow, Egill Saebjornsson, Reena Spaulings and Marcel Broodthaers.

Art Projects, curated for the first time this year by independent curator Patrick Charpenel of Guadalajara, Mexico, features 13 projects by internationally renowned artists such as Santiago Sierra, Claire Fontaine, William Pope.L, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Franz West, selected from proposals by the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach. The projects will be installed in the outdoor public spaces of Miami Beach, within close proximity to the Oceanfront area and the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The totally new Oceanfront environment will be created by Los Angeles artist Pae White, commissioned by Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time, the legendary New York-based public art organization, and host a daily program including the Art Basel Conversations, Art Perform, Art Video and Art Film. For the 2009 premiere of the Oceanfront, Pae White will create an immersive and interactive cityscape that will provide a new experience with each visit. By day, large color blocks will dominate the landscape. At night, these colors blocks transform into a shadowy group of buildings that house various merchants and performers.

Now located at the Oceanfront, the Art Basel Conversations will be inaugurated by an Artist Talk premiere, which this year features Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. For the following Art Basel Conversations, topics include “Museum Directors: Change in Generation”, “Art Collections in Latin America” and “The Future of the Museum: The Portable Museum”.

Art Video, curated by Creative Time, will involve screenings of videos by Tom Sachs and The Neistat Brothers, Marc Horowitz, Jill Magid, Kon Trubkovich, followed by discussions with the artists.

Art Perform features an intensified program of longer performances by rising international artists. This program will again be conceived by curator Jens Hoffmann, director of the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco. It will take place on Thursday and Saturday at 9 pm and feature performances by Kelly Nipper, Kris Martin, Simon Fujiwara, Claire Fontaine, and Mario Garcia Torres / Loris Gréaud.

This year's Art Film event offers an exclusive work-in-progress sneak preview of the feature documentary film “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.”, preceded by a panel with a selection of the film's participants, moderated by Bob Colacello. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” is directed by Tamra Davis and features a long and never-before-seen interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) shortly before his death. Art Film is curated by Zurich film connaisseur This Brunner.


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Marvin Lipofsky: Pick of First Thursday!

Thank you, Alan Bamberger, Kathryn Arnold and DeWitt Cheng for a wonderful review of Marvin Lipofsky's work.

Review by Kathryn Arnold: Marvin Lipofsky handles glass and color with the ease a painter might handle paint on a canvas-- an analogy pointing to the supreme technical skill this artist exhibits. His organic shapes at times resemble shell-like formations and point to inside/outside interior/exterior relationships. If glass was not such a fragile material, the sensation of wanting to pick these up hold them squish them would be almost unbearable. Candy-like colors are reminiscent of those seen in the depths of the ocean (National Geographic has educated me in this regard) so perhaps one can touch upon primordial beginnings. Yet they are what they are -- each shape also referencing itself without allusions to the outside world. Luminous objects of 'being' in most cases.

Review by DeWitt Cheng: Berkeley's Marvin Lipofsky is an eminent glass artist, having helped pioneer the medium back in the 1960s. This show assembles work of the past four decades. Organic/complex form, plus ravishing color -- a must-see for those who admired the Chihuly extravaganza at the DeYoung. I take several pix of the artist, whose sense of humor I enjoy, but seem to have lost them somehow.

Comment by AB: Glassmaking at it's finest. Highly recommended. Pick of First Thursday. Artbusiness.com.

Images: (top) The artist, Marvin Lipofsky with Chico Group II 2004-2005 #5; SF • Tacoma Group 2006-2007 #5; ‘Glass Ambitions’ International Glass Symposium V, Series 1994 #2 (photo, Kathryn Arnold); L’viv Group 2001-2002 #2; Frauenau Group 2000-2002 #4; Chico Group II 2004-2005 #5 (back, Soviet Series 1989); Fratelli-Toso Series: Split Piece 1976-1980 (photo, Kathryn Arnold).

Marvin Lipofsky Survey 1969-2009 - Last Week of Show

This is the last week of our exhibition featuring the sculpture of MARVIN LIPOFSKY Survey 1969 - 2009.

The last day of the show will be Saturday, October 31, 2009.

Marvin Lipofsky Survey 1969 - 2009

Today, we open our newest exhibition, featuring sculpture by Marvin Lipofsky. The opening reception, with the artist in attendance, will be held Thursday, September 10, from 5 to 7.30 pm. An exhibition catalog is available.

Featuring a range of artworks from 1969 through 2009, this exhibition is through October 31, and is concurrent with another exhibition of Lipofsky's work that opened in August (through October 3) at The Concourse Gallery, 555 California Street, San Francisco, California.

Marvin Lipofsky’s use of glass as a gestural artistic material helped to reinvent a centuries-old craft tradition as a Modernist art form. His sculptures crystallize a lifetime of travel and material investigation, as well as the sumptuous colors of the natural landscape, the visceral forms of the body, and the alchemical processes of manipulating blown glass. As an artist, educator, and inveterate traveler, Lipofsky has been an inspirational force throughout the international glass community for more than four decades.

Nowhere has Lipfosky's influence been greater than in the San Francisco Bay Area. After earning his MS and MFA in 1964 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison under the tutelage of Harvey Littleton, Lipofsky initiated glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in 1967 where he served as chair until 1987. Throughout decades of travel, Berkeley, California has been a consistent point of return for the artist, helping to establish the Bay Area as one of the preeminent centers of studio glass production.

Marvin Lipofsky has created work and led workshops at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Jerusalem, Israel), the Union of Bulgarian Artists (Sofia, Bulgaria), Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, Maine), Pilchuck Glass School (Stanwood, Washington), Fratelli Toso (Venice, Italy), and The Gerrit Rietveld Academie (The Netherlands) where he was the first Visiting Artist Critic.

His work can be found in over 90 collections worldwide including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (San Francisco, CA), the Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (Sapporo, Japan), Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit, MI), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA), Musée d’Art Contemporain (Skopje, Yugoslavia), Museum Für Kunsthandwek (Frankfurt, Germany), Umeleckoprumyslove Muzeum (Prague, Czech Republic), Auckland City Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand), All-Russia Decorative, Applied and Folk Art Museum (Moscow, Russia), and Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.). -Randall Miller, Micaëla Gallery

Marvin Lipofsky - Living Legend

Fine art glass sculptors, such as Dale Chihuly, and his proteges at the Pilchuk Glass School, line the Pacific Northwest to Jamex and Einar de la Torre’s studios in California’s southernmost border town. In between is the San Francisco Bay Area, and its rich repository of award-winning glass sculpture. Local glass artists such as Julie Alland, Jaime Guerrero, John Lewis, Clifford Rainey, Randy Strong, Pamina Traylor, Chuck Vannatta, and Dana Zed, are but a few; and the most exciting of these is Berkeley resident, Marvin Lipofsky, the understated pioneer of the contemporary glass movement, whose sculpture and educational efforts over the past 40+ years are fundamental to establishing glass as a fine art medium.

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