A Visual Conversation
curated by Jane Bruce
featuring works by John Brekke, Jane Bruce,
Sydney Cash, Irene Frolic, Natali Rodrigues,
Michael Rogers, and Judith Schaechter
June 7 – August 15, 2012
click image to start
click image to start
John Brekke (glass, painting) lives and works in Brooklyn New York. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he also attended the Art Institute of Chicago and University of Illinois. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Fulbright Scholarship Award, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Recognized for his consummate skill in the Swedish Graal technique, Brekke has taught and exhibited internationally. His work is included in several permanent collections including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Daichi Museum in Japan. In addition to his own studio practice, Brekke designs and executes site-specific installations and commissions for private and corporate clients.
Jane Bruce (curator; glass, drawings) is an independent artist and educator living in New York City’s Lower East Side. A pioneer in the British Studio Glass movement, she earned a Masters of Arts degree from the Royal College of Art in London and co-founded both “Glasshouse,” an innovative artist co-op in central London and a society of British Artists in Glass, before moving to the U.S. in 1979 to further her studies at New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred. Bruce is the recipient of numerous Visiting Artist Awards and Fellowships, including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Australia Council and has maintained a rigorous, international teaching schedule for nearly 30 years. Her work has been widely exhibited and is currently represented in more than two- dozen museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, The Detroit Institute of Art, and the Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, in Germany.
Sydney Cash (glass, painting) is a sculptor, painter, designer and jeweler living in Marlboro, New York. A Detroit native and graduate of Wayne State University, he has been working with glass for over 35 years. Cash has received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He exhibits internationally and his work is held in many public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, The Corning Museum of Glass, and Le Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris. Cash has also undertaken corporate and private commissions including for the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Irene Frolic (glass, drawings) maintains a studio in Toronto has been exploring glass for 30 years. Born in Poland, Frolic was educated at Ithaca College, Cornell University and the Ontario College of Art. Known for her signature kiln-cast glass sculptures, Frolic is a leader in the international studio glass movement, and has been instrumental in the development of kiln-cast glass as a material for artistic expression. Today she continues to exhibit widely and her work can be found in many public and private collections throughout North America and Europe, including the Museum of Decorative Art in Lausanne, Switzerland, The Canadian Clay and Glass Museum in Ontario, and Museo del Vidreo in Monterrey, Mexico. Frolic is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art and is Past-President of the Glass Art Association of Canada.
Natali Rodrigues (glass, drawings) resides in Calgary where she is Head of Glass Department at Alberta College of Art + Design. Born in Kenya to a German mother and Goan father she emigrated with her family to Canada in 1975, Rodrigues received her MA in Visual Arts at Canberra School of Art in Australia and her BFA from Alberta College of Art + Design. Her work can be found in private collections throughout Canada.
Michael Rogers (glass, prints) is currently Full Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences in New York. Previous to this position he was head of Aichi University’s Glass Department in Japan for more than 10 years. His works are widely exhibited and are included in the permanent collections of the Suntory Museum in Japan, First Contemporary Glass Museum in Spain, Museo del Vidrio in Mexico, National Museum in Lviv, Ukraine, and the Corning Museum of Glass in the United States.
Judith Schaechter (prints) resides in Philadelphia and teaches at University of the Arts and the New York Academy of Art. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, her numerous awards include A Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Crafts, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, The Joan Mitchell Award, The Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a 2008 USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. Her works can be found in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as several other prominent institutions. Schaechter's work was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and The 2011 Venice Biennale. Recent commissions include 17 large-scale stained glass windows installed within Pennsylvania’s historic Eastern State Penitentiary.