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.

Thomas Scoon's Chicago exhibition with Ken Saunders closes

Thomas Scoon's latest solo exhibition has just come down from Chicago's Ken Saunders Gallery. Scoon’s new work explores his figurative yet abstracted sculptures comprised of cast glass and granite. The granite and glass elements are stacked to create figurative compositions so that when the pieces are grouped together in installations, they immediately develop a sense of camaraderie and dialogue. Purposefully intended by the artist, he accordingly entitles these sculptures, Companions. Selecting from blue-green, amber, or clear glass, the figures have an ethereal quality while conjuring sensibilities likened to figural sculptures of Easter Island. There is an unquestionable element of an earlier, primeval time, with his work. Scoon's granite elements are found in New Hampshire, where the artist resides. New Hampshire, of course, is The Granite State, and the stones have spectacular traces of quartz, mica, and iron running throughout. Juxtaposed against the translucent glass, the granite quartz and mica acquire fantastic sheen and shimmer. Scoon's work is always inspired by nature and its elements—the organic qualities of the quartz combined with the cool colors of the glass creates harmonious and exciting combinations.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/events/art-design/300339/4139934/thomas-scoon#ixzz0WKsizsfP

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.

Thomas Scoon, Ron Starr

Thomas Scoon creates figures from sequences of stone and cast glass. Arising from the external landscape where he lives, which is filled with remnants of stone walls and random boulders too large for men to move, he gathers stones from quarry rubble and from New Hampshire neighbors and friends who allow him to choose stone from their land. His sculpture, combined with these “found objects,” suggest human figures and evoke the feeling and gesture of human forms. Thomas claims he does very little to the stones, and that is probably true, but his choices of rock - to find the pieces that most resemble a human head or torso - prefaces his sculptural vision, as he emphasizes qualities he believes are already naturally present. Use of kiln-cast glass around the stones allows for qualities of light, and a certain spiritual element, to pass through the forms.

In contrast, Ron Starr takes a freestyle approach to his work, enjoying the organic nature of sand and its 'magical' transformation into glass. Ron's work - highly gestural - results from years of study with high-fired ceramic methods. Exuding fluid energy, Ron exploits the properties of glass under intense heat to produce richly decorated surfaces that are imbued with particular dark attraction for their shape, color, and organic texture. Inspired by nature's trees, and perhaps in response to global concerns of our forests, Ron's work can be read as allegorical to ancient tree forms - illustrative of certain decay, watery light - and possessing mythical power and vigor through his expression of gesture, ideas and process.

We close our inaugural Winter Salon 2008 with many, many thanks to all our artists, with pride and a warm au revoir to our new friends at our new home! We look forward to seeing you again, and again, at our new home and abroad!

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.