Hot Property: A Show of Wanganui Glass Artists

Taylor-Jensen Fine Arts hosts Hot Property: A Show of Wanganui Glass Artists from Friday 23rd September through 12th October 2011. Fresh from their successful ‘Festival of Glass’ [Wanganui, 16-25 Sep], 10 glass artists are sharing their work with the greater Manawatu and with the myriad visitors that the Rugby World Cup will bring to this region over the next few weeks. The magic and mystery of glass entrances the viewer with its colour, reflectivity and luminosity. Small, gem-like works will be easy for gallery visitors to take home as a souvenir of New Zealand and possibly as an addition to their own collections of glass they may have gathered from around the world. The artisans of Wanganui produce world-class glass art from paperweights to vases of all sizes to chandeliers to lamp bases. Many are ‘one-off’ works never to be repeated.

Led by Katie Brown, founder of Chronicle Glass, Wanganui, one of only a handful of full-time female glassblowing artists, this exhibition will include work by Greg Hall, Karen Ellett, Lewis Batchelar, Hamish Webster, Brendon Sole, Donna Sole, Steve Fassezke, Jack Michalski and Greg Swinburne.

• Greg Hall is an artist with over 30 years’ experience in the world of glass art. He has worked as a glass artist and tutor for the last 20 years in various areas of glass production. Greg is probably best known for his cast glass waka.

• Karen Ellett graduated from the Ucol glass programme in 2001; she has a hot glass studio in Gonville (Wanganui) and teaches the year one glass course as part of UCOL’s Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She was one of the founding artists of the Chronicle Glass studio.

• Brendon Sole loves working with hot glass. “It is a challenge to wrestle an object of beauty from a barely controlled mass of molten glass…a good hot-glass artist is part designer, maker, artist, physicist, alchemist and magician."

• Donna Sole is a glass bead artist who is mostly self-taught. Making beads and jewellery for over 5 years, she is influenced by the vibrant colours of nature found in flowers, gardens, bugs and butterflies. She enjoys making beads which contain layers of intricate detail. She is a member of the NZ Glass Bead Association and has won awards for her work in NZ bead competitions.

• Steven Fassezke says: “The battle between disaster and perfection is as thrilling to me as a roller coaster; it keeps me wanting to see what’s around the next corner. Glassblowing is not a sure thing; there are a number of things that can run amok to the nth degree. The uncertainty of glass is appealing to me.” Steven’s work questions why glass has to be clear and shiny.

• Jack Michalski is a graduate of UCOL’s Quay School of the Arts where he majored in sculpture; he is currently completing a Graduate Diploma in glass at the Wanganui Glass School. His interests are texture and contrast.

• Lewis Batchelar’s glass sculpture was included in the 2010 Waikato Sculpture Trust’s annual glass sculpture exhibition, Refraction at the Waitakaruru Arboretum.

• Hamish Webster won the 2009 Swarbrick Dixon Glass Awards ‘Excellence in Glass Sculpture’ with his Mesozoic Series exhibited as a part of Re:fraction, the annual outdoor glass sculpture exhibition at Sculpture Park, Waitakaruru Arboretum, Waikato.

Event listed by Stuart Schwartz

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