Glass Evolving at VisArts

Art history has a curious way to re-arrange what contemporary art critics and even artists tend to think is important and new in the context of art as both part of our daily social interactions and the greater multifaceted tapestry of an “art scene.”

In the first few decades of the last century, contemporary art history credits Alfred Stieglitz as the major force who brought photography to the accepted realms of “fine art” instead of just a novel technological new way to create posed portraits, landscape images and a quick way to record an image in order to later paint from it.

Today, photography is not only accepted as a form of “high art,” but it is also one of its leading forces.

It is interesting then that the first decade of the 21st century seems to be witnessing the same phenomenon with another genre of the arts: glass.

The mere mention of glass to the most open-minded of art critics, curators and artists often brings to mind vessels, bowls and the beautiful large organic works that started to emerge from the Pacific Northwest a few decades ago, kindled by the technologic revolution introduced by Harvey Littleton in the early 60s at the University of Wisconsin.

And it also seems to bring an immediate segregation of the glass genre to the crafts side of the artistic dialogue.

And yet we’re in the middle of a new Stieglitzian event, where brave fine artists all around the world are exploring glass as just another substrate to create contemporary art.

Led in our region by the brilliant minds of the Washington Glass School artists such as Tim Tate, Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and others, glass is being dragged away from the crafts world and into the rarified upper atmosphere of the “high art” world.

In fact, as I've said before, these artists and others are the Stieglitzes of the glass genre. They are forcing all of us to look at glass, and its marriage to video, metal, concrete, found objects and final delivery in all sort of forms and presence that run away from the vessel and bowl and astound the viewer with technological interaction, narrative presence and all manners and forms of new contributions (such as green art) to the contemporary art dialogue.

Glass is indeed evolving, and this important exhibition is another footprint in the important march away from unwarranted segregation as just craft and towards full integration and acceptance as just art.

The beautiful new Metropolitan Center for the Visual Arts in Rockville, MD will open "Glass Evolving" with an opening reception on Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

The exhibition features several glass masters from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region whose work is represented by Tyson's Corner Habatat Galleries.

Habatat Galleries has been at the forefront of the contemporary glass movement, showcasing artists that can be found in museum collections world-wide. They bring artists Dan Clayman, Jon Kuhn, Rick Beck, Robert Palusky and Dan Dailey to the exhibition.

The exhibition also showcases the work of regional artists from the Washington Glass School and others including Tim Tate, Erwin Timmers, Michael Janis, Allegra Marquart, Elizabeth Ryland Mears, Syl Mathis, Lea Topping and David D’Orio.