Vibrant glass, photography investigating the concept of space, scenes from the Bible and cutting-edge multimedia works from an up-and-coming Los Angeles artist were a few of the visual treats that engaged viewers at central Ohio art centers and galleries.

Freelance reviewers for The Dispatch contributed to this list of the best art exhibits of 2010. Events are listed in chronological order, with excerpts from the printed reviews or comments from the reviewers.

"Lino Tagliapietra: Due Piccioni Con Una Fava, " June 4 to July 31, Hawk Galleries: "Using precise layers of color and intricate graphic patterning, Tagliapietra's glass vessels and sculptures reveal an artist with an amazing ability to transform physical material into poetic statements. Intensely beautiful, his work evokes a state of both meditation and contemplation."

Christopher A. Yates

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2010 Parade of Homes Winning Team

Friday, July 30, 2010

Hawk Galleries partners with award-winning Parade of Homes designer David M. Berg, Ltd. in a home built by Kevin Knight & Company, with plan design by Brian Kent Jones.

Featured in the home are several sculptures including works by Cassandria Blackmore, William Carlson, Steve Jensen and Albert Paley. Be sure to visit this beautiful home before the New Albany, OH Parade of Homes ends on August 8, 2010! For directions, ticket details and more information, go to http://www.biaparade.com

Interior Design (Décor)
Gold: David M. Berg, Ltd. for Kevin Knight & Company
Silver: Andreas Furniture for Weaver Custom Homes
Bronze: American Furnishings for New England Homes & Garth’s Auctions

Plan Design
Gold: Brian Kent Jones Architects for Kevin Knight & Company
Silver: Keiser Design Group for Weaver Custom Homes
Bronze: Dan O’Malley for M/I Homes

This team won several more awards. For the complete list, go to:
http://www.biaparade.com/2010_winners
View pictures of this extraordinary home:
http://www.biaparade.com/homes-and-builders/kevin-knight

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Art Escapes

Friday, July 30, 2010

SOFA/Chicago, November 4-7, 2010

Nancy Turner and Karen Yassenoff will be leading an Art Escape to SOFA/Chicago, the International Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair, November 4-7th.

We’ll be staying at the W Hotel just a short walk from Navy Pier, so you can drop into SOFA as often as you wish.

Your VIP ticket to the opening reception will get you free admission to the show and lectures all weekend. We’ve invited Hawk Gallery glass artists to join us for dinner at Riva on Navy Pier Friday evening.

The Art Institute of Chicago is putting together a special docent-led tour of decorative arts just for us.

There is so much more to do, so call Nancy Turner (629-0301) for a complete itinerary. The cost of the trip exclusive of airfare is $1135. The single supplement is $360. A deposit of $550 will hold your place on the trip. The deadline for final payment is August 27th.

For more information about this years SOFA, see the website at: www.SOFAEXPO.com

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Italian master transforms material into fresh, exciting forms

Sunday, June 13, 2010

By Christopher A. Yates (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Pietraluna

Lino Tagliapietra does breathtaking work.

Using precise layers of color and intricate graphic patterning, his glass vessels and sculptures - on view in Hawk Galleries - reveal the artist's amazing ability to transform physical materials into poetic statements.

Looking closely at the vessels in his "Niomea" series is like gazing into a deep well. Clear and organized decorative lines extend from the surface to the interior. Intensely beautiful, such works become objects of both meditation and contemplation.

Niomea

His work allows viewers to find personal and experiential meaning.

At the gallery, the artist relayed the story of a patron who placed a piece in her bedroom so that, every morning when she awoke, it was the first thing she saw. Seeing the piece, she said, made her happy.

"There is no greater compliment," Tagliapietra noted.

Born in 1934 in Murano, Italy, and apprenticed at age 11, he worked in the Venetian glass industry through much of his early life. Given an opportunity to share his knowledge with an American audience, he boarded a plane in 1979 to teach at Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle.

The experience also marked a change in Tagliapietra. With an extensive knowledge of technique and process, he began a journey toward a fully realized creative voice. A student of his craft, he has consistently delved into the past. But, instead of being bound by it, he uses tradition to create fresh, exciting forms.

Every layer in his work, he said, "is an experience of what is possible." Applicable to both technique and concept, the notion of possibility is a fundamental paradigm.

Tagliapietra works in series. "Bilbao" draws inspiration from Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Within each form, curving masses imply movement and fluidity.

Borboleta

Mounted to the wall, the "Borboleta (Butterfly)" series consists of complex studies of the colors and textures of butterflies.

The "Dinosaur" series, a flight of imagination, captures the graceful curves of marine animals past and present.

Works in the "Angel Tear (Lacrime d'Angelo)" series are emotional responses to process.

At 76, Tagliapietra remains productive and has in many ways arrived at a creative zenith. The 40 exquisite glass works on view reveal the results of disciplined study, hard work and an intense reverence for craft.

• Due Piccioni Con Una Fava by Lino Tagliapietra continues through July 31 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St. 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010 : TWO SPECIAL EVENTS TO MEET LINO TAGLIAPIETRA

LECTURE AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Lino Tagliapietra and Richard Harned:
A Comfortable Conversation about the Glass

Friday, June 4, 2010. 4:00 p.m. at Ohio Union – The Ohio State University
US Bank Conference Theater, 1739 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43210
RSVP as Space is Limited: 614-225-9595, susan@hawkgalleries.com
Parking is available in the Union Visitors Garage
Sponsored by The Ohio State University Department of Art’s Glass Program

ARTIST RECEPTION AT HAWK GALLERIES

Lino Tagliapietra: Due Piccioni Con Una Fava

Reception for Lino Tagliapietra immediately following the lecture
Friday, June 4, 2010. 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. RSVP 614-225-9595, susan@hawkgalleries.com
Hawk Galleries, 153 East Main Street, Columbus, OH 43215

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Luminous Cast-Glass Sculptures

By Rosemary Carstens - webzine FEAST

When your heart and head are filled with music, and your artistic medium is glass, the two naturally blend to create an evocative symphony. Latchezar Boyadjiev studied music for many years before turning to his ultimate expressive instrument - the vibrant, reflective medium of cast-glass sculptures. Form, color, light, and detail are intertwined in his work, much as a melody floats throughout a favorite song.

The free-flowing lines and emotional energy of Boyadjiev's work reflect his belief in the importance of personal and creative freedom. Boyadjiev was born and raised in communist Bulgaria. After spending most of a decade studying music, and then being unable to attend music school, he began his art education in 1979 in Sofia at the Academy of Applied Arts. He then continued in Prague, Czechoslovakia, under the guidance of the renowned glass artist Stanislav Libensky. As much as he admired his colleagues, he was stifled by the deeply proscribed atmosphere of the country. To succeed as an artist, he would be forced to join the communist party and, as he explains, "I wasn't communist, nobody in my family was communist, and I had a lot of problems with the government."

Boyadjiev wanted to be free to follow his dreams in his own way. With great difficulty, he and his wife escaped to Italy and ended up in an overcrowded refugee camp in Latina. They were finally granted political asylum in the United States and arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area in September 1986. He was unknown and without an artistic network to draw on, but he had passion and was free at last, His first l0 years were spent cutting, grinding, polishing, and bonding optical glass and colored filters into abstract sculptures. But he longed to create work with more softness and more energy, and soon he began to move into glass casting. Over time his innovative pieces earned him increased attention and respect from collectors and colleagues, and his reputation has continued to grow. In 1997 he began traveling back to the Czech Republic to cast his designs there.

Independence

Counterpoint serves Boyadjiev the artist as it did Boyadjiev the musician. In his deceptively simple works, contrasts define and enhance: He uses variations in density and transparency, smooth sweeps of color and textured detail, to create perspective and interest, energy and fluidity. The language of the artist's work is the language of line, balance, and movement. Each piece contains the nucleus of a singular emotion - an emotion that flies beyond written language to evoke sensation.

Boyadjiev's process is as complex as the man himself, encompassing work in a range of materials and travel across two continents. Every sculpture initially takes form on paper as he sketches with charcoal, searching for and distilling his concept until it takes final shape. "It has to be the right combination of size, composition, balance, and energy," says the artist. He recreates on paper exactly how it will look, including its color density and texture. Nothing is left to chance. Once he has his final drawing, he renders it in clay. On a small table in his studio, he sculpts a model with a palette knife. Boyadjiev then creates a plaster mold, a negative of his design. From this he casts another positive. Now he's ready to travel.

He flies to the Czech Republic where his career began, carrying his plaster positives as luggage. From Prague he drives north to the town of Turnov, where he first selects his colors. Czech Republic glass offers unique color choices achieved by adding chemicals such as copper or gold to clear glass, and it is 45 percent lead, which brightens the hues and creates a softness that helps in the casting process. Sculptures are cast in up to six different colors for each design, with a new mold used for each color since the mold is destroyed in the extrication process.

At this point the pieces are left at the Turnov studio where his longtime colleagues, Tomas Malek and Tomas Flanderka, following Boyadjiev's careful instructions, complete the grinding and polishing that gives each piece its final luster. Their assistance with some of the technicalities of the work frees Boyadjiev to spend more time on the creative side. When finished,the sculptures are shipped back to the United States, ending their journey where their conception began.

Boyadjiev's sculptures range in size from table-top pieces to stand-alone pieces over 6 feet high. Their form is essentially abstract, frequently utilizing bold colors reflective of each piece's emotional expression. His award-winning work has been extensively exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and private collections.

Soon Boyadjiev, whose life has been driven by a need for creative freedom and who dislikes boundaries, will perform his search for inspiration and artistic expression in a new 6,800 square foot studio. He sums up his goals this way: "I want my work to be monumental in size as well as in design. I want it to become a part of modern architecture and the contemporary environment, to reflect the era in which we live."

Passion

• Works by Latchezar Boyadjiev continues through May 30, 2010 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St. 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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Miniatures Overflowing with Details

Sunday, March 21, 2010

By Jacqueline Hall (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

New Mexico artist Emily Brock takes viewers into poetic and often-humorous miniature worlds with her delightful glass environments, on display in Hawk Galleries.

Her complicated three-dimensional works have been seen in several solo shows at the Hawk venue and can also be found at the Franklin Park Conservatory and in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum of Art.

Her exhibit "Retreats," the artist says, focuses on places or activities that are "an expression of our culture": libraries, offices, coffee shops and secluded gardens, for example.

The 11 pieces in the show were created in 2009 and '10. They are superbly designed complex environments with many realistic details. All are executed in demanding glassmaking techniques, including slumping, fusing, casting and lampworking.

Some, including several works in the "Book Nook" series, were inspired by Brock's passion for reading.

In Chapter Three, books are stacked helter-skelter on the floor, tables and armchairs, with the scene presided over by a big gray cat that looks longingly at a butterfly fluttering above. In In the Book, a female figure (probably the artist) reclines between the pages of a book. Next to her lies a golden retriever, and surrounding them are multicolored books. Both scenes exude an almost-tangible love of literature.

Latte

Brock is also inspired by public gathering places. She pays homage to the coffee shop in Latte (above), a scene she created earlier but has updated by adding a customer seated with his laptop. Books are still an element in the 3-D composition.

Hiding in Paperwork, a cluttered scene with stacks of paper surrounding a desk and computer, pokes fun at a wasteful culture.

One of the most poetic environments is Quiet Garden, an exquisite version of spring.

Iris

At 17 inches high and 24 inches in diameter, Iris (above) is the largest work in the show, marking a departure for Brock from her usual miniature work. Yet the beautiful piece also contains a tiny surprise: Inside the iris at the center are a small flower bed and male figure.

Brock's diverse themes and variations in scale make for an enchanting exhibit.

• Retreats by Emily Brock continues through Apr. 11 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St. 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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Albert Paley in City Center, Las Vegas

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Commissioned by MGM Grand for the Aria Casino in City Center Las Vegas, are two Kirins – Asian dragons. The two sculptures, installed in December 2009, are positioned left and right of the VIP entrance of the casino for good luck. The Kirin, a celestial deity, embodies good fortune and incorporates favorable attributes from the animal kingdom – the elk, ox, lion, deer, fish, and the head of a dragon.

Kirins - Asian Dragons, 2009 by Albert Paley

Currently, work is underway with the Iowa West Foundation and the City of Council Bluffs for the fabrication of four sculptures for the 24th Street Bridge Plaza. Recently opened in early October is a one man show, Dialogue with Steel, at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. Dialogue with Steel will remain open until April 2010. The Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York will feature Albert Paley’s work in a one man show beginning in May of 2010. In conjunction with the exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery will be the release of a new publication featuring the last decade of Albert Paley’s work.

Certainly one of America’s most recognized and sought-after sculptors, Albert Paley has been active as an artist for over 30 years. At his workshop Paley Studios, Ltd., located in Rochester, New York, he and his staff work in a variety of metalworking disciplines.

Albert Paley is the first metal sculptor to receive the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects, the AIA’s highest award to a non-architect. His work has been praised for its intrinsic integration of art and architecture.

Commissioned by public institutions and private corporations, Paley has completed more than 50 site specific works. Notable examples include the Portal Gates for the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Portal Gates for the New York State Chambers in Albany, a plaza sculpture for AT&T in Atlanta, and a 70-foot sculpture on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has lectured on and exhibited extensively around the world, including Australia, England, Germany, Finland and Japan.

His pieces can be found in the permanent collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. For more information, contact Tom Hawk at Hawk Galleries in Columbus, Ohio, (614) 225-9595.

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Highlights of Sculpture and Innovation

Saturday, November 7, 2009

By Jessica Kronika (CHICAGO FINE ARTS EXAMINER)

Running the gamut from traditional forms to contemporary explorations, thronging with guests and filled with treats for the eye and the collector, this year’s Annual Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Fair is a grand success. Featuring over sixty-eight galleries, eight SOLO artists, eight Special Exhibits, and thirty-one lectures with artists, collectors and organizations the 16th Annual SOFA has something for every taste in three dimensions.

Beginning the tour of the Navy Pier Festival Hall with special exhibits, visitors were treated to the classic curves of Sam Maloof’s furniture in tribute to his legacy and in honor of his life. Bold new directions were illuminated in BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass, and insights into the student mentor relationship were explored within The Evolving Art of Woodturning. Ceramics were in the spotlight at Watershed Artist’s LEGENDS booth, exhibiting a range of techniques and styles, from Honor Artists at the Watershed’s residency program.

The displays from local, national and international galleries and artists included delicate works in glass with powders which seem to be of great antiquity from artist William Morris at Wexler Gallery and Hawk Gallery. Explorations of collaboration on the sense of momentary perception and the qualities of water between glass artist Stine Mikkelson and video artist by Martin Oluf Thaulow were visible in Falling Water at the Special Exhibit BIGG. The mixed media wall hangings of Jeanne Raffer Beck at Maria Elena Kravetz Gallery bridged the written word and lost personal histories utilizing silk screen. In woodworking, talents such as Joey Richardson explored turned and pierced forms containing incredibly detailed stories in personal symbology, along with other constructions and lathe turned creations by artists represented by Del Mano Gallery. In ceramic, Don Reitz, represented by Lacoste Gallery, exhibited his layered and patinaed stoneware which seems to float weightily on the wall as part of the Special Exhibit Legends: Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts Honor Artists. Mark Chatterly’s freestanding and wall hanging figures which boldly embrace tones unlike skin while presenting texture and story within the forms at Next Step Studios & Gallery. Galleria San Marco Arte & Design, Venezia’s own Roberto Bortollo explores the forms of bamboo with glass mosaic and chromed brass, creating free standing sculptures that create delicious reflections of all that surrounds them. Mirielle Riggie creates delicate leaves much larger than life in fused glass that cup and exude luminosity in her works Breath and Madre. Also exhibited at the Special Exhibit BIGG, Ditte Johansson employs textile techniques and the appeal of handmade clothing in her series of glass works, including Vigg, Bathingsuitez and Lodjursogz. Michael Rogers marries etched metal and glass in his ambiguous works, such as The Language of Bees, while encouraging a vintage appeal at Bullseye Gallery. Canadian Mary K. McIntyre works with supple bronze and patinas to create nature inspired jewelry like the Antler Tiara modeled by executive assistant, Anna Kempffer of Lafreniere Pai Gallery.

Working with prints, artificial sinew and animal forms, Anne Lemanski provokes viewers to think about human impact on the larger biosphere with works like Deerfield USA at Ferrin Gallery. Drawing inspiration directly from the environment, Peter Bremers returns to the studio to cast incredible sculptures in light and glass that harken back to his recent journey through the Antarctic, and is represented by Litvak Gallery. Riikka Latva Somppi plays with nature’s geometry and the idea of preciousness with her adventurous metal leafed blown glass at Galleria Norsu .

For more information about this years SOFA, see the website at: www.SOFAEXPO.com

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All the good news you've been waiting to hear

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Dealers have faced one of the most challenging years in recent memory.

The volume of all artwork sold – in galleries, at fairs, and at auction - dropped dramatically on a global basis during the last year. Finances – for both dealers and collectors - have been strained and in many cases continue to be difficult. Dealers have been forced to reduce staffs, reduce advertising, curtail fair participation, and even close galleries to bring expenditures in line with reduced sales.

It now appears that the “deep freeze” is thawing…

Auction results at the New York impression, modern, and contemporary sales exceeded expectations. Sales of British work in London were excellent. Volumes were excellent, prices often exceeded high estimates, and buy-ins were down.

Most importantly, this suddenly positive activity generated an enormous amount of positive press globally concerning the perceived rebound in the art world. This promises to give collectors renewed confidence as we move toward the January and February fair seasons.

We had a large number of inquiries and requests for space for both our Palm Beach and Miami fairs in January and February during this last week. Dealers clearly understand the implications of the positive auction results and the renewed positive press. They recognize that they must be face-to-face with the 25,000 attendees in each fair (or the 75,000 fair attendees in total) who have annually visited our South Florida art fairs since they began in 1991. This exposure to a high volume of affluent collectors is crucial for dealers to generate needed sales this season and will enable many of them to turn inactive inventory into more liquid cash.

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Neon gas to light up Chihuly works

Sunday, September 20, 2009

By Michael Grossberg (THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Central Ohioans seem to have an insatiable appetite for glass works by Dale Chihuly.

Since 1988, at least five major exhibits of the Seattle artist's colorful art have been presented in Columbus.

An ongoing "Chihuly in Columbus" celebration includes "Chihuly Reimagined" (through March 28 at the Franklin Park Conservatory) and "Chihuly XIV" (opening Oct. 2 at Hawk Galleries).

The Columbus Museum of Art, too, will soon be in on the act. The museum, which drew more than 200,000 viewers to "Chihuly Over Venice" in 1998-99, will open "Chihuly Illuminated" on Friday. Although the 1931 portion of the building at 480 E. Broad St. will be closed in the fall for renovations, the rest of the museum will remain open -- including the Ross Wing, where visitors can see the glass sculptures, some with a new twist of neon.

"Our theme is 'Chihuly in light,' because light is a critical aspect of working with glass," Executive Director Nannette V. Maciejunes said. "Some of the pieces are actually lit inside. . . . We've never seen anything like this in Columbus.

"At the conservatory, you can see the art with the plants," she noted. "Here, we're creating these darkened, pin-lighted and mysterious spaces where the glass just sort of glows."

Chihuly, who is celebrating his 68th birthday today, has worked steadily as an artist and entrepreneur since the early 1970s. In 1971, he founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington.

Amber and Crystal Waterford Chandelier, 2009 by Dale Chihuly

Blind in one eye after a 1976 auto accident, he functions today as an artistic choreographer, directing others in the blowing and shaping of glass.

The museum exhibit will present six installations, each with many individual pieces. The works span Chihuly's early career to the present, including recent works inspired by his botanical-garden installations.

The neon installations are Glass Forest #3 (2008) and Dark Violet Rain Forest Tumbleweeds (2005), the sole work to be displayed in the museum lobby.

The neon pieces glow and change color because of the combination of several gases inside, said Lisa Dent, the museum's associate curator of contemporary art.

Glass Forest #3, composed of white milk glass and neon, is a re-creation of one of Chihuly's 1971-72 installations at New York's Museum of Contemporary Crafts.

"It looks like the glass is oozing out of a black ground," Maciejunes said.

To create the work, Chihuly stood on a ladder and let molten glass drip down to create long, stemlike objects, Dent said.

Because glass solidifies in about 20 to 25 seconds, Chihuly needed to position himself carefully and work with collaborator James Carpenter.

"It's very tricky," Dent said. "He managed to create a 6- to 9-foot piece that was stable enough to hold the neon gases inserted into it."

Two new chandeliers will be shown: Smoky and Gilded Opal Chandelier and Onyx and Caramel Chandelier .

Mille Fiori ("a thousand flowers" in Italian) is a garden of glass consisting of bold forms in vibrant colors. The piece is derived from garden installations such as those Chihuly did for the conservatory.

"He wanted to create that energy again but in an interior space," Dent said.

Maciejunes calls the piece a "baroque symphony" of shapes and colors.

An installation in one room combines Tabac Basket Grouping With Drawing Shards and Oxblood Body Wraps (2008) with American Indian blankets and baskets and Chihuly baskets.

It was inspired, Dent said, by a room in Chihuly's Seattle studio where he keeps a collection of Indian baskets and blankets.

"The (blankets) inspired him to make several series of glass sculptures because of their geometric pattern and strong colors."

The "very personal" installation, Maciejunes said, isn't often presented because of the fragility of the blankets and baskets.

Overall, the exhibit includes several thousand individual pieces and offers insight into an artist Columbus has found to be a favorite.

"The way the exhibition is organized, you can get a sense of Chihuly over four decades of his life and work," Dent said. "You get a sense of his personal successes and some insights into his creative process."

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Two venues showcase shapes, colors, textures of glass

Sunday, July 19, 2009

By Kaizaad Kotwal (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Glass, for all its fragility, is remarkably malleable and versatile.

"BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass," a large exhibit in two Downtown venues, exemplifies the dynamic visions of 43 international artists who play with glass in unique and beautiful ways.

The must-see show is at Hawk Galleries and the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space.

Artists approach the medium in a variety of ways. Sometimes, glass is merely the vehicle for transmitting a larger idea or particular narrative.

In other works, the glass itself becomes the focus, allowing the viewer to revel in the sheer beauty of the medium.

Hawk Galleries

In Vectoral Tower and Spine, Vanessa Cutler uses ribbon-thin strips of water-jet cut glass and makes circular segments that are then uniformly stacked to create tubular objects. Though abstract, they resemble models for modern architectural designs.

Sungsoo Kim's Rediscovery 090101 and 090102 -- stacks of cast glass that are also architectural in structure -- play with color, texture and opacity.

Solitude by Richard Price

The figurative blown-glass Solitude (above) by Richard Price uses a wonderful combination of colors and gilt to create the skin of a woman.

Eun-Suh Choi's installation Reincarnation best embodies the fragility of glass and its play with light. Large and small cocoonlike balls are suspended from the ceiling. Made from borosilicate glass, the latticework eggs are dainty and gorgeous.

Urban Arts Space

Tiefe #2/Depth #2 and Blossom III -- playful bowls by Veronika Beckh -- are ultramodern in their minimal use of line, curve and form.

Beckh also experiments vividly with surface treatments, contrasting matte surfaces with mirrored ones, or dark colors opposite lighter tones.

Buoy by Mielle Riggie

In Breath, Pallbearers and Buoy (above), Mielle Riggie use pate de verre to create large, fragile leaves with precise textural details. Each leaf, as if sculpted from ice, seems alive.

Scott Darlington's The Glass Pyramid is a large installation of transparent blown glass, imposing in size yet fragile in how the blocks are assembled to create tension and contradiction.

Finally, Karen Reid's large installation Creek is remarkable. Nine pieces of cast-optic crystal resemble strips of frozen water. The inertia of the icelike forms is balanced by Reid's use of line, form and texture to give the river of glass a sense of movement and flow.

• "BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass" continues through Oct. 10 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St.; and the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space, 50 W. Town St. Call 614-225-9595 or visit www. hawkgalleries.com; or call 614-292-8861 or visit www.uas.osu.edu.

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The Columbus Dispatch names Hawk Galleries a two time winner!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Hawk Galleries has been twice honored for the best visual art events of 2008 in central Ohio.

'Les Dames de Verre' ('Women of Glass') Hawk Galleries: Cassandria Blackmore, Adrianne Evans, Robin Grebe and Mary Van Cline approach glass in different, often unconventional, ways. All of their works demonstrate the medium's expressive potential and versatility. -- J.H.

'Lino Tagliapietra' Hawk Galleries: Moving into his mid-70s, the glass-maker continues to create vessels and wall hangings that keep him at the top of the studio-glass world. -- Bill Mayr

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Diverse duo's creative flair reflects versatility of glass

Thursday, December 4, 2008

By Bill Mayr (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Cappy Thompson and Mary Van Cline are friends and peers in the thriving world of glass artists in Seattle. The similarities end, however, when one compares their works.

Thompson makes wall hangings and vessels, with lushly painted narrative images reminiscent of the grand scenes found in the stained-glass windows of European cathedrals. Van Cline creates elegant cast sculptures and photography-based pieces using modern technology. The exhibit at Hawk Galleries amounts to a compare-and-contrast opportunity to see glass art taken in unexpected directions.

Thompson does reverse painting, or painting on the interior surface of glass vessels; she also paints on the reverse side of glass panels to create wall hangings. "It's a very traditional painting technique," she said. "It was used in painting the cathedral windows, like Chartres." Her scenes tell stories, as cathedral windows often do.

We Are Crossing the Great Water

We Are Crossing the Great Water (above) shows a sailor in an ancient sailing vessel transporting urns that seem to be filled with various colors of paint. Fish, dolphins, sea horses and other creatures frolic in the water; a handsome face wrapped in a cloud blows to fill the boat's sail with wind. Thompson paints herself into the scenes: The sailor's face is hers.

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve (above with Thompson's face as the woman's and her husband's as the man's) shows the couple falling prey to the devilish serpent as they eat apples, with the serpent wrapped around the tree trunk. Assorted animals fill the Garden of Eden; an owl, perhaps representing true wisdom, overlooks the scene. "I'm interested in symbolism, the mystery tradition," Thompson said. Dreams, she said, are a source of inspiration. "They don't happen that often, but once in a while I get an amazing dream and I use it in my work."

Van Cline started working in glass three decades ago. "All of us who have been in glass that long have invented something," she said. "Putting photography and glass together -- that's what I'm known for." She worked with Eastman Kodak in the late '70s to develop an emulsion that would produce a positive photographic image, as opposed to a traditional negative, on a glass plate. She laminated the finished image on another glass plate to create the art.

Along the Curve of Time, a Japanese-inspired sculptural piece, has at its heart a photographic print, with the image seemingly floating in transparent glass.

Kodak no longer produces the materials that Van Cline uses; she said she has enough supplies for only six or seven more works. So she moved her technological quests to DuPont.

The Listening Point, rear, and Winter Ice Branches

One result: The Listening Point, (above) an almost-6-foot photographic image created in transparent glass. She uses techniques associated with making safety glass, which contains a layer of clear plastic sandwiched between layers of glass. Winter Ice Branches, (also above) a piece that accompanies The Listening Post, is a sculptural work of large, long leaves cast in icy-looking white glass.

The pate de verre casting technique, in which a paste of small particles or powders of glass is applied to the mold, creates a look both ethereal and lifelike. The approach accents a pair of life castings of partial torsos. The pieces have the elegance of marble sculptures and a feeling of the vitality. "I'm really a photographer by nature," Van Cline said. "I'm really about photographic sculpture."

• Works by Cappy Thompson and Mary Van Cline continues through Dec. 28 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St. 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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Sculptures, prints forge strong show

Portal

Sunday, September 28, 2008

By Jacqueline Hall (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Sculptor Albert Paley isn't new to the Columbus art scene: Hawk Galleries has presented his work several times in the past two decades.

This time, though, his sculptures are accompanied by fine-art prints by his wife, photographer Frances Paley. The combination makes a resonant, impressive show.

The exhibit illustrates several stages of Albert Paley's sculptural progression. Not represented, unfortunately, is the striking, large-scale jewelry he made early in his career in the 1960s.

But examples of his wrought-iron furniture and decorative art objects are featured -- especially the candlesticks that dominated much of his work in the 1970s. During the period, he was influenced by the organic forms of art nouveau that prevailed at the turn of the 20th century.

Driveway Gate Model

Then there is Driveway Gate Model (above), which harks back to one of Paley's most successful themes: architectural metal gates. This phase of his career began with Portal Gates at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art in Washington (1974). The work opened the door to numerous public-art commissions, especially at the New York Senate chambers in Albany (1980); the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1994); and, more recently, the St. Louis Zoo (2006).

Animals Always, a ceremonial steel archway for the zoo, launched Paley in a new direction: the naturalistic representation of animals. Examples in the show include Rhino, Gorilla #1 and Zebra.

Epoch

Epoch (above) -- a monumental, complex composition of panels and ribbonlike steel sheeting -- represents a major commission from the 1990s.

Portal (Top of Article) illustrates his affinity for architecture. (Indeed, Paley was the first metal sculptor to receive the lifetime-achievement award from the American Institute of Architects.)

Coins Head Front

The tantalizing images of Frances Paley are large and fluidly colored, suggesting watercolors. The works are actually black-and-white photographs altered with digital pigments and prints on an Iris printer.

Cleverly composed through the camera viewfinder, they offer bold and intriguing visions of subjects that seem wrapped in mystery.

• Works by Albert and Frances Paley continues through Nov. 2 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St.
1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass

Saturday, October 4, 2008

By Lavanya Ramanthan (FOR THE WASHINGTON POST)

It is perhaps the one time in a museum that it is advisable to lean in very close. And while you're at it, take it all in from several angles as well.

In fact, the less distance between you and Lino Tagliapietra's stunning glass vessels and sculptures, the more you will see, so laden with surprises is the master glass-blower's work.

This week, the Renwick Gallery opened the touring exhibition "Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass," featuring 140 pieces by the renowned septuagenarian artist. Modern to the core, Tagliapietra's work is a contradiction to his methods, Old World techniques he picked up as a child in the glass center of Murano, Italy.

Particular to Tagliapietra's glass are the honeycombs, striations and chips cut into the surface of some of the pieces after they have cooled, creating more texture on works already deep with intricate colored patterns.

There are goblets, flat glass works and a large hanging sculpture; but glass fans will find none of the snaking curlicues characteristic of contemporary Dale Chihuly's work.

Among the showstoppers are "Provenza," a nearly two-foot-tall vessel of blown red glass laid so thick with colored "canes" that the vessel looks as if it were made of yellow glass, not red. (Canes, used widely by Tagliapietra and part of the Murano glass tradition, are sticks of heated colored glass applied to the surface of the pieces during the production process and rolled in till they're absorbed as stripes of color.) In "Madras," the canes create lines that make the vessel look unmistakably like madras plaid.

Without a doubt, you will wonder, "How did he do it?" To answer your question, we can only advise: Look closer.

Free. The show runs 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily through Jan. 11. Renwick Gallery, 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. 202-633-1000.

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Sculptor's unusual glass pieces use light to create illusions

Desert Flower

Sunday, December 2, 2007

By Jacqueline Hall (FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Few other artists dazzle the way Christopher Ries does with glass sculptures.

His recent works are on view in the Hawk Galleries exhibit "Guiding Light."

Ries, a former Columbus resident who lives in Pennsylvania, uses the purest optical crystal, which he calls the "quintessential medium for light," in a cold-glass technique -- rather than the hot-glass method favored by most other glass artists.

Instead of heating the glass, molding it and manipulating it, Ries casts the molten crystal in large forms, allows it to cool, then uses classic reductive methods to create forms.

He shapes, polishes and grinds the block of crystal so that it becomes a vehicle for penetrating light to create a fantastic, illusory world.

What appears inside the glass simply results from curves and facets on the outside that reflect back and forth within the crystal.

That illusory world seems to occupy a huge space out of proportion with the sculpture itself. In Desert Flower (above), for instance, the realistic flower looks ready to shatter the sides of its glass container.

Lotus

The large facets and sharp angles on the exterior of Lotus (above) create an ambiguous and tantalizing world of shifting planes and floating forms. As viewers move around the sculpture (or as the turntable on which it is placed spins), light penetrates the interior at different angles, creating abstract designs with irrepressible animation.

Wild Orchid

In Spring, a facet painted a delicate shade of blue-green creates unexpected areas of color at the top of the piece as well as at the base of the teardrop inside.

With two works, Harmony and Sonata, Ries departs dramatically from his usual approach, suggesting a new direction in his sculpting.

Harmony is made of two tall, rectangular pieces of optical crystal that have been cut, ground, polished and engraved. Instead of focusing visual interest on the interior of the glass, Ries has created a piece with light playing on its edges, calling to mind water gently flowing along the sides.

Sonata -- a huge, 700-pound circular piece of cobalt-blue optical crystal -- is polished and ground. The only surface interest is its heavy linear engraving. The sculpture is unusual yet beautiful.

• "Guiding Light" continues through Dec. 30 in Hawk Galleries, 153 E. Main St.
1 to 5 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Call 614-225-9595 or visit .

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Glass Pavilion: A Crystal Showcase Reflects a City’s Glass Legacy

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Standing in front of the new Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art can reawaken that belief in the power of glass to enchant.

TOLEDO, Ohio — “Without a glass palace, life becomes a burden,” the poet Paul Scheerbart wrote nearly a century ago.

Standing in front of the new Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, designed by the Japanese team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, can reawaken that belief in the power of glass to enchant.

The pavilion, which houses the museum’s vast collection of glass artworks, is a testament to an earlier era when American industrial production and cultural growth were profoundly intertwined. Toledo was once a major center of glass production; now most of its factories are closed and the glass workers gone. The enormous sheets of glass needed for the pavilion were manufactured in Germany and molded in China in preparation for the Aug. 27 opening.

Yet this wholly contemporary building conjures up potent memories of the city’s history. Composed with exquisite delicacy, the pavilion’s elegant maze of curved glass walls represents the latest monument to evolve in a chain extending back to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Its understated elegance recalls a time when investment in the public realm was still driven by civic pride rather than a lust for tourist dollars. The Glass Pavilion is part of a loosely knit complex that includes the Beaux-Arts-style art museum here and the University of Toledo’s Center for the Visual Arts, designed by Frank Gehry. With its grand staircase leading up to a row of Ionic columns, the original museum is both a temple to art and a monument to the belief in high culture’s ability to uplift the life of the worker.

The new structure’s low, horizontal form fits in this context with remarkable delicacy, as if the architects hesitated to disturb the surroundings. Seen from the museum steps, the pavilion’s reflective facade, surrounded by a soft carpet of glass, is barely visible beneath the shadowy canopies of ancient oak trees. Just beyond it is a row of stoic Victorian houses.

The closer you get, the more the building reveals. Its main entry is positioned off center, to line up exactly with the art museum’s grand stairway across the street. The pavilion’s cafe and a glass workshop extend out from there, punctuated by the intense orange glow of the glass furnaces. All this glass brings to mind Philip Johnson’s famous 1949 Glass House in New Canaan, Conn. Both facades dissolve into a collage of reflected and transparent images. Both structures rest on a thin base, firmly rooting them to the ground. In both cases the roof is a thin slab, as if it exists only to frame the view of the interior.

But Johnson’s masterpiece is the work of an exhibitionist. The facade acts as a picture frame, casting a visitor into the slightly creepy role of a peeping Tom. The first time I saw it, nearly two decades ago, I found myself hesitating uneasily as I approached the door. When Johnson’s hand gently pressed against my back, pushing me through, I felt like Alice falling through the looking glass.

By contrast the Glass Pavilion’s design is a diaphanous maze. The interior is a series of rounded glass rooms wrapped in a secondary glass skin, which creates a remarkably layered visual experience. From the lobby, for example, fragments of the landscaped lawn on the other side of the building are visible through a series of glass-walled galleries. Three simple interior courtyards, the largest with its windows hung in a gauzy curtain, separate these rooms, framing views of the sky and allowing light to spill down into the interiors.

The effect is hypnotic. And it is reinforced by the sinuous pattern of lines made by the walls meeting the ceiling, which draws you deeper into the spaces. Once inside the galleries, the eye is constantly slipping around curved surfaces before coming to rest on a particular view: a work of art, a tree in the landscape.

But it is the graceful interplay of human forms that gives the pavilion its enigmatic, ghostly quality. The double layer of glass sets up a delicious contrast between the stillness you experience inside the glass rooms and the more fluid interstitial spaces that separate them. As passing figures drift through these spaces, they seem to momentarily caress one another before pulling apart again where the walls curve to envelop the galleries.

At times the movements look ceremonial. As you watch, you become keenly aware of the different degrees of intimacy and isolation.

The art too looks good. Most in simple cabinets, the objects — elaborate chandeliers, Roman vases, a cast and gilded-glass Louis XIV mirror — seem to hover within the transparent spaces, allowing you to focus on individual pieces or uncover unexpected relationships among objects that are physically segregated in different galleries.

The architects, whose firm is known as Sanaa, designed two opaque galleries for more light-sensitive works. These solid white forms also serve to anchor a structure visually that might otherwise seem about to drift off into space.

That Sanaa could make all of this look so effortless is a sign of its mastery, and an illusion of course. To keep the roof so thin, for example, all of the major mechanical systems — heating, ventilation, plumbing — were buried in the basement or hidden in a nearby building. Pipes, wiring and air ducts were woven through the building’s structural beams as precisely as wires laid into a computer board. A loading dock was buried underground so that it would not detract from the purity of the facade.

The building hides a complex ecological organism, divided into three independent climate zones. A radiant heating-and-cooling system inside the interstitial cavities is used to control the climate in the public areas and to prevent condensation on the glass. The “hot shop” — where visiting artists will hold classes in glassmaking — provides heat for the hot-water systems. The climate in the galleries, which requires more control, is regulated independently.

For me the meaning of Sanaa’s creation snapped into place when I arrived at an empty room overlooking the back garden. Lined with a few simple benches, this area was conceived as a contemplative space, a place to refuel mentally before venturing back into the galleries. In an age when museums are packed with bookstores, cafes and shops, persuading curators to keep this space empty must have been a triumph.

But it also reveals the architects’ awareness of the delicacy of their own creation. This is not a design that can easily sustain an endless crush of tourist traffic. It recognizes that emptiness, in our world, is increasingly a luxury. It is not architecture with a Big Message. It is about empathy for the human condition. Once you drift outside again, the tree branches seem to sway more gently, the light feels softer, the world more tender. Most important, you are more attuned to the distances between people. There are few higher compliments you could pay a building.

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