New Glass Now: Corning Museum of Glass

Exhibited pieces encompass everything from large scale installations to delicate miniatures. All were democratically selected based on an open call submissions process by a curatorial committee comprised of leading culture-makers and experts Aric Chen (Design Miami Curatorial Director), Susanne Jøker Johnsen (artist and head of exhibitions at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Denmark), and Beth Lipman (American artist); under the leadership of Susie J. Silbert (Corning Museum of Glass Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass).

Addressing relevant themes such as gender inequality and environmental degradation, the comprehensive show reveals how the medium of glass can be implemented for various expressive and conceptual interpretations, as well as new translations of age-old techniques like flameworking, glassblowing, and casting. Sculptures, photographs, videos, technological speculations, scientific experiments, architectural maquettes, full-scale mock-ups, and even products are stages in different strategically curated arrangements. Silbert sought to establish sharp dialogues between different, seemingly unrelated, works.

For example, Fredrik Nielsen’s “macho” I was here installation sits in the direct vicinity of Deborah Czeresko’s emphatically feminist Meat Chandelier sculpture, a piece very similar to the final work she created during the Corning Museum of Glass-supported Netflix competition series Blown Away.

Pieces such as Liquid Sunshine / I am a Pluviophile by Japanese artist Rui Sasaki reveals how glass can be used to drive conceptual meaning, while Smokey Comet Installation I by Toots Zynsky challenges the perception of what the medium can physically achieve. Reservoir by C. Matthew Szösz and Promise by Nadège Desgenétez demonstrate how far the material properties of glass can be pushed.

Other notable artists, designers, and outright creatives represented in this comprehensive survey include Miya Ando, Atelier NL, Ans Bakker, the Bouroullec Brothers, Monica Bonvicini, Mathew Day Perez, Martino Gamper, Katherine Gray, Jochen Holz, Helen Le, Erwin Wurm, Dustin Yellin, Dafna Kaffeman, Bohyun Yoon, and Mark Zirpel.

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This article was originally published in TLmag’s 2019 Autumn/Winter Edition, TLmag 32: Contemporary Applied.