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20th Annual Peninsula Glass Guild Members Exhibition |
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Juror's Statement by Natalie Bray |
| It's an honor to have the opportunity to participate in this year's Peninsula
Glass Guild Annual Exhibition as a juror. I'm proud to be involved with such a positive, professional and creative
artist-run Guild. The work in this year's exhibition is evidence of a thriving glass community and a dedicated
studio practice by all of the artists involved. Glass, as a medium, is embedded with great potential for poetic virtuosity. This year's award winners distinguished themselves by their understanding of the properties of the medium, and an application of this understanding to the concept of each piece. Beyond simply beautiful configurations, these artists used the attributes and language of their glass to transcend the materiality of form and function. The Best in Show selection is visually striking and conceptually seductive, creating soft curvatures in space with a precise and unfaltering hand that draws art-historical references to Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti. The Hampton Arts Commission Award selection has a machine-like perfection to its form, yet relates to a soft, delicate and romantic element of nature. The optical curvature is internally disrupted by vibrant color. The Second Place selection allows the inherent properties of heated glass to appear vulnerable and tenuous. Despite its brittle result, the material reveals itself as fluid and ethereal. The Third Place selection is a self-contained, opaque pattern of spirals encompassed in an energized disk. This piece operates as an emotive sign using symbolically translucent material. Congratulations to all of the Peninsula Glass Guild artists! Your ongoing creative endeavors are an important and notable contribution to the dialogue within the Virginia art community. Thank you for sharing your ideas and studio practice in this lovely annual exhibition at Charles H. Taylor Center for the Arts. . |
Natalie Bray
