Ausglass

Dan is a Sydney-based artist whose work roots itself in the monstrous and the otherworldly to address real-world experiences and concepts. Once inspired by the folklore and fairy tales of her upbringing, the creatures she found there – despite their unusual and sometimes unsettling nature – became a source of comfort, and a means of grounding and expressing what exists within – evolving into an extension of herself. Glass – a material that feels almost otherworldly in its own strange, ethereal, temperamental nature – is the body that gives life and sentience to her meticulously hand-sculpted figures and forms, and harkens to the often-invisible and delicate nature of the themes she explores.

SHROUD (2020) takes the form of a mask to be worn strictly by the artist and incorporates the form of her own face within the internal surface of its design. The external visage supplanted over the artist's adopts the form of a furious animalistic figure – something inhuman and monstrous. Monsters and otherworldly forms are no stranger to Dan's artistic practice, yet here the composition of this creature’s facial structure is a symbolic reflection of tumultuous emotions and experiences that were felt during the year of its creation. Spikes and fangs, a deeply furrowed brow, piercing eyes and forward-curved horns all act as representations of anger, aggression, frustration, and a prickling anxiety that never truly subsides. Carved markings tracing their way down the face from the eyes reflect sorrow, pain, worry, and uncertainty. Yet above all things, this face is strong, bold – standing firm, and unyielding in the face of challenge; something Dan seeks to be.

e: dani.denardis@gmail.com

i: @dan.denardis

The work: SHROUD
17 x 15 x 25 cm: kiln-cast glass (Bullseye billet), copper and ribbon.
Images: Courtesy of the artist

This work is not for sale.

As I get older, I find I look to the past more often than the future. What could I have done better? Was I kind? Did I make a difference? Did I travel enough? What would I say to my younger self? What would I advise her to do to navigate through life and have a life well lived? This piece encapsulates these thoughts.

Curriculum vitae

e: siju@live.com.au

w: www.sijuglass.com

The work: Conversations With My Younger Self
52 x 43 x 0.6cm: four sheets of glass fused, then slumped into fibre paper to form the shape of faces. High points ground back to reveal the underlying shades until it forms the image required. Re-fused, then sections sandblasted.
Images: Steve Cook.

Purchase: $2,500 (check availability)

Estelle continues to work with the nature of community, assimilation and integration. With the world dynamics of social media and cultural change and where one fits in the current climes feeds her creativity.

Using Objects, such as the fortune cookie, as a metaphor of the fragile nature of communities and the shifting struggle to belong, while exploring ideas of multiculturalism and a comfortable fit.

The ancient Pate de verre method of forming glass sculptures combined with the freeform approach developed over a few years hopes to both excite and challenge the viewer and the artist.

The artwork “Too Much” continues her exploration into techniques of freeform folding the glass frit while at its optimum temperature for manipulation and combining the static nature of a moulded Pate de verre form.

Curriculum vitae

e: deanestelle@hotmail.com

w: estelledean.com.au

The work: Too Much
30 x 15 x 30 cm: glass frit, freeform manipulation and pate de verre.
Images: Estelle Dean

Purchase: $1,100 (check availability)

Olivia Gates is a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art and Design based in Canberra, ACT. Gates's work often draws on the natural landscape that surrounds her coastal hometown on Dharawal Country. She explores notions of ancestry, generational knowledge embedded within a shared memory of place, environmental conservation and how these influence her sense of belonging. With a focus on glass, Gates explores her themes through feminine perspectives, as symbols of creation, abundance, and to be nurturing and heterotelic in nature. These ideologies permeate as patterns, movements and textures within her work.

Curriculum vitae

e: oliviagatesart@gmail.com

w: oliviagatesart.com

The work: Listening Shells
~ 11 x 8 x 20 cm: blown glass murrine, hot sculpting, cameo engraving.
Images: Brenton McGeachie

The work is not for sale.

The painted and fired vessels, the response of Victorian master glass blower Richard Morrell to my design specifications, are loosely based on classical Greek amphorae. I was aiming for transparency, rather than solid colour in the vessel, such that the enamels applied to the surface could be seen through from opposing sides.

As a grouping of multiple elements, there is a conversation established within the group which varies with every iteration, producing a subtly changing sculpture; the arrangement of the elements is entirely at the discretion of the particular curator.

The gestural painting on the surface of each vessel sets up a dynamic within the group whereby the eye travels across the surface of each vessel, jumping from one to another.

With Quintet in Pink I have pared down the enamel decoration compared to earlier, more complex works, aiming for more drama: bold splashes of black applied with a large brush, a more subtle spray of light green and a scattering of ruby red.

Curriculum vitae

e: jhamilton@stainedglass.com.au

w: stainedglass.com.au

The work: Quintet in Pink
40 x 50 x 31 cm: Vitreous enamels fired onto glass vessels, blown by Richard Morrell in response to my sketches and colour selection. Two miniature granite plinths included.
Images: Greg Piper

This work is not for sale.

Rita Kellaway draws on ancient geological processes and manifests these through the innovative use of glass powders to create fractal imagery and mark making from chemical reactions during repeated kiln firings.

Subterraneus II is highly textured with fissure like openings, reminiscent of rugged gorges, juxtaposed with unique skin-like texture.

Spending her early, formative years in the Australian outback town of Woomera (Kokatha Country), surrounded by an arid, treeless desert, Rita was inspired by the imagery of ancient geological formations.

Intimating arid land, the imagery and forms in Subterraneus II are directly extracted from satellite imagery of ancient northern deserts of South Australia.

Curriculum vitae

e: ritakellaway01@gmail.com

w: ritakellaway.com

The work: Subterraneus II
85 x 58 x 1 cm: kiln-formed glass using Bullseye glass sheet and powders. First firing creates the fractal imagery and forms traced from satellite imagery, slumped into/onto fibre-board and rope. Second firing fires sheet glass sifted with reactive powder onto first firing. Third firing deepens the colour reaction. Edges are then smoothed by a combination of grinding and linishing. Fourth firing flattens the three-dimensional forms to the final outcome.
Images: Michael Haines

Purchase: $3,200 (check availability)

I am a Polish-born Australian glass artist specialised in kiln-formed and stained glass. My artwork is heavily influenced by nature and its colours, lights and shadows. The importance of nature in my art is also reflected in the choice of setting my glass art studio in the Bunyaville Conservation Park (Albany Creek, QLD). I also source artistic inspiration from people, emotions and life experiences.

Glass is my preferred medium of expression, although I also work with traditional graphics (and in particular linocut) and mixed media. I particularly enjoy creating painterly-style pieces with the use of glass sheets, powders and frits along with traditional stained glass paint and enamels. This includes creating artworks that have visual depth through the combination of multiple layers of glass.

The submitted artwork is part of a series I am currently developing titled “Searching for tranquillity”, which is inspired by the natural surrounding of my glass studio and my numerous walks in the adjacent forest. This series includes both kiln formed artworks like the one submitted, and objects created using pate-de-verre. The observation of the natural world is for me a form of meditation, which brings internal calm and serenity.

Curriculum vitae

e: m@glassartistry.com.au

w: glassartistry.com.au

The work: Whispered Calm
15 x 21 x 2 cm: Kiln-formed glass, using Bullseye sheet glass, frits and powders, and stained glass paints and enamels. This piece is part of a series I am currently developing titled “Searching for Tranquillity”.
Images: Magdalena Marciniak

Purchase: $2,200 (check availability)

Mother Underwater is a portrait of my sister, Caitlin Maling is an established Western
Australian eco-poet. She is also an avid
snorkeler and diver. Recently, she became a
mother. Crossing into parenthood has given her
work, which often deals with topics of climate
change and oceans, an additional layer of
anguish and desperate optimism.

This is an experimental piece developed in paint, silver stain and enamels on glass over several firings. Each piece is plated and contains sandblasting details.

I aim to always be risk-taking in my approach to my stained glass craft, reinventing traditional approaches, and this piece is no exception.

e: hannahmaling1949@gmail.com

w: hannahgregoryglass.com

The work: Mother Underwater
1.5 x 90 x 80 cm: This piece was developed in paint, silver nitrate and enamels on clear float glass over several firings. I used organic matter (seaweed) as a brush tool to achieve the floating seaweed details within this piece. It is plated and contains sandblasting details and is completed as a leaded stained glass window.
Images: Joe Scerri.

Purchase: $2,100 (check availability)

Unity Rituals brings forth the notions of connection and shared experiences. The fragility of glass opposed by the weight of the goblets, inviting the holders to embrace and cherish the moment they share while linked by the vessels joining chains.

Curriculum vitae

e: julianleighmay@gmail.com

w: julianleighmay.com

The work: Unity Rituals
12 x 21 x 12 cm, each: blown using soda-lime glass & sterling silver. Designed by the artist. Produced in conjunction with Patrick Wong.
Images: Annika Kafcaloudis.

The work is not for sale.

Hard to Swallow. These food-shaped objects made with frit convey the anxieties surrounding eating disorders. This is in direct response to the recent suicide of a close friend who was not able to cope with their eating disorder.

Using the transparency and sharpness of glass, this group of works explores the idea of how it can be extremely difficult to ‘swallow’ the thought of interacting with food, and the inherently discomforting relationships that can manifest through the act of facing eating as an activity. This journey is an extremely personal and isolating experience, both mentally and physically destructive and yet compulsively necessary. It sustains our bodies and is part of a broader cultural need to connect with others, and yet torments those who cannot build positive relationships with it. The glass medium further articulates the coldness and finality of the persistent presence of food that cannot be consumed without causing harm.

Curriculum vitae

e: iichina.artist@gmail.com

i: @ichina_art

The work: Hard to Swallow
100 x 90 x 50 cm (overall): Food items and cutlery made with Bullseye frit and kiln-fired. Plates, glasses and placement are all found objects Crushed glass is scrap Bullseye glass remnants.
Images: Ichina Parker

The work is not for sale.

Fear and anger, cause and effect. We return to anger as a familiar defense and succor, but one which damages all it touches.

Scaled-up 50 calibre bullets, these kiln cast objects have been cut, ground and polished.

Sourced from a larger assemblage called Sweet Fruit from the Garden of Fear, this grouping is reminiscent of a livid bruise…which is, of course, the result of internal bleeding.

Curriculum vitae

e: aplummer@xlx.com.au

w: andyplummer.com.au

The work: Bruise
24 x 54 x 24 cm: kiln-cast (lost wax) Bullseye glass, cut, ground and polished. Ms Maho Ota assisted with cold-working.
Images: Mr Chuck Bradley.

The work is not for sale.

This art glass piece comprises 9 X 20cm square pieces of clear glass on which are fused pieces of coloured sheet glass which act as the background for the subsequent images. These images represent a variety of doodling characters that together create a dynamic abstract. Many people doodle with pen or pencil while concentrating of other projects and artists too. Some examples are Mr Doodles Hong Kong Night, Street graffiti art, Banksy’s art and artists such as Klimt. Klimt especially used doodle-like symbols in many of his works adding colour and form to the basic work.
So, this glass art project aimed to make the doodle the feature. Finely ground coloured glass powders are mixed with a glue to form the ‘glass paint’. The technique uses various implements – paint brush, palette knife and wooden stick to apply the ‘paint’ mixture to the glass panel underneath. In addition to the powder mixture there is also frit, stringers and balls to create the doodling images. It is then fired in the kiln which burns off the glue and allows the coloured powdered glass, frit, stringers and balls to fuse to the clear sheet glass underneath. The image is built up using multiple firings, adding additional colours over the top of the previous firing. The panels are arranged and adhered to produce the overall image and finally framed.

Curriculum vitae

e: bpussell@bigpond.net.au

w: brucepussellglassart.com

The work: Doodling on Glass
60 x 60 x 2 cm: production notes above.
Images: Bruce Pussell

Purchase: $770 (check availability)

The functional past meets the brutal reality of the climate future. Like an iceberg breaking away from an ice shelf, it feels like hand made things and artisan industries are slowly disappearing but perhaps the climate is just changing and we need to adapt with it. Lost wax crystal casting feels like a niche industry shrinking due to increased cost, reduced availability of materials (in Australia) and diminishing access to broad and good quality education. But this is where innovation happens- ‘scarcity is the mother of invention’ they say. In the international year of glass, we not only need to celebrate where glass has come from and where it is now, but also explore where we might be headed in the increasing digital future. I hope there is still a role for the hand made and a diverse ecology of glass makers.

Curriculum vitae

e: susanreddrop@hotmail.com

w: susanreddrop.com

The work: Ice Plane
40 x 15 x 20 cm: Lost-wax cast crystal, using Australian made Blackwood crystal. Local Kiln (GE & GE kiln) refurbished for glass. Made on site at Montsalvat, Eltham Victoria using traditional techniques taught at Monash University.
Images: Pam Kleemann-Passey.

The work is not for sale.

Bronwyn Sargeson is an artist who lives and works on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country (Canberra). Bronwyn majored in glass at the Australian National University and continues to work with the material from her studio at the Canberra Glassworks. Bronwyn utilises glass to create compositions that abstract medical procedures and reference bodily forms. Her work seeks to translate the experiences of a wounded body into moments of wonder and playful exploration. Glassblowing is a method that allows the artist to be present in the moment of transformation and through active engagement with the material, seeks to intervene in the same way medical procedures are performed on the human body. Challenging notions of beauty often associated with glass, her work captures the dissonance between distress and awe, between the body as personal or medical, seeking to realise the potential for transformation in these moments of confrontation.

Curriculum vitae

e: bronwyn.sargeson@gmail.com

w: bronwynsargeson.com

The work: foreign body
23 x 90 x 54 cm: blown and coldworked glass, synthetic wadding. Hotshop assistance from Annette Blair, plinth production assistance from Ed Garnett and Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan.
Images: Brenton McGeachie.

Purchase: $2,200 (check availability)

Spring is for many a symbol of new beginnings, for life, rebirth, joy and love. Spring is the essence of all that is good, and symbolises life in all its glory.

Curriculum vitae

e: anneandbarrysorensen@hotmail.com

w: annesorensen.com.au

The work: Spring
60 x 18 x 7 cm: powder printed images.Kiln-formed glass. Oceanside glass.
Images: Barry Sorensen

Purchase: $2,900 (check availability)

Convergence/Divergence. The bane of visually seductive glassart is its propensity for unabashed, in-your-face beauty. Indeed, life as we experience it over decades, toggles aimlessly between gratifying utopia’s convergence and crushing dystopia’s divergence.

Domestic relationships fluctuate over time! Energetic altruistic first-love devolves into neutral self-centred indifference, then into downright alienation as decades pass. Such a time-honoured, entropic process spawns loss of cranial hair, sun-damaged skin, sullen distant gaze.

Being grounded on psychological stygian bleakness that observable spiral is unavoidable. Should life’s challenges range between black ’n white certainties, or between clear 'n clou’dy ambiguities? The latter methinks! Life lesson: not every cloud has a proverbial ‘silver lining’, nor rejuvenating rain.

Glassified EyeCandy’s commerciality diverges from unsaleable Glassified ‘ArtBrut’… metaphorical ‘poison-ivy’. This heavy-duty cast-glass three-piece sculpture straddles both paradigms…. material sun-kissed charisma battling covertly sinister domestic barbs. His ’n her head-profiles in curved bas-relief, bookended by socially-distanced 3D portraits.

Harvey Littleton kickstarted American university-centric Hot Glass Studio Movement in 1962 stating: “Glass can be a sculptural material!” and “Technique is cheap!”. Three USA-trained Glass maestros, Marquis, Boysen and Herman in 1974, dignified Aussie HGSM’s convergence. Marquis rebuked Littleton: “Technique is not so cheap!”. Skillitzi then responded: ”Glass: a mind-altering psychological material!”, and “Mixed-media and mixed-messages: worthy bedfellows!”.
Theoretically, would a total absence of us 1960’s ‘evangelistic’ glass pioneers have deprived the 2022 international scene of its current maturity? No!… given the post-WW2 ‘tsunami’ of idiosyncratic global talent swamping yesterday’s zeitgeist.

‘Pottery in Australia’ magazine, 1969 [Australia’s very first article featuring Contemporary Studio Glass], published Skillitzi’s comment: “… the analogy between musical composition and my ceramics [clay and/or glass]: I’m metaphorically harmonising violins and bass drums”. Pertinent convergent/divergent insight?!

glass.earth.fire@gmail.com

e: glass.earth.fire@gmail.com

w: artlogic.com.au

The work: CONVERGENCE/DIVERGENCE
50 x 100 x 100 cm: kiln-cast over carved plaster moulds [@ 950Cc] and kiln-bent over steel or ceramic forms [@ 700C], optical spectacle lens blanks [whole or crushed] . Three glass-only components: Total mass: 130 kgs.
Images: Stephen Skillitzi

The work is not for sale.

Splitting Image glass neckpiece, 2022 is a personal exploration into the undeniable identical traits shared between my toddler son and I. The mirror image format, expressed with colour and form reflects the precious duality of the bond we hold. Everyday reveals shared new similarities in movement, demeanor, values and most of all appearance all of which are treasured between us.

Through my art research, I investigate new and innovative ways of creating wearable glass jewellery objects. This on-going focused research explored continuously for 30 years has provided new material knowledge and possibilities in the context of a jewellery object-based practice. Through this research, I create artworks for exhibitions as one-off pieces and private commission pieces.

Curriculum vitae

e: kathrynwardill@hotmail.com

w: wardill.com

The work: Splitting Image
20 x 4 x 30 cm: Neckpiece hand-fabricated from lampworked glass and oxidised sterling silver.
Images: Kathryn Wardill.

Purchase: $2,200 (check availability)

I created Lost Brumbies to give visual voice to the complexity and plight of the Brumbies. This is a highly divisive issue that is well suited to exploration in glass because of its duplicitous nature. The issue of should Brumbies be left to roam or be eradicated from the wild and beautiful country “where the wild bush horses are”. (A.B Patterson).

European settlement brought horses to Australia. There has been acceptance of the existence of large Brumby populations since the late 1800’s as evidenced in Banjo Patterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy River’. Due to the growing awareness of environmental issues and the desire to preserve the Australian landscape as authentically as possible, there is now a push for the eradication of the wild horses particularly in the Snowy Mountains area.

Here, for many, lies the conundrum. The present-day herds have been established over many generations and those that roam the wild bush today have evolved as true wild horses of mixed breeding possessing hybrid vigour. Unfortunately, the once noble equines are now seen as pests, invaders, and destroyers of the natural landscape and by extension a threat to native species, grasses lands and watercourses.

There is considerable support for the culling of the herds if done so humanely. Equally there are those who draw attention to the fact that these horses – Brumbies - are uniquely Australian and are part of evolving Australian folklore.

My choice of dark blue transparent glass for the background is deliberate to indicate that the sun has gone down on these cultural icons of the High Country. It is cold as snowflakes swirl amongst the snow gums and ice flows, to envelop moonlit Brumbies on their last fleeting gallop through the ancient terrain to pass into distant memories of what used to be.

Curriculum vitae

e: Shwday@bigpond.com

w: whimsicalmakings.com

The work: Ghost Brumbies
30 x 30 x 0.8cm: COE96 fusible sheet glass, frit, powders, stringers, enamels, high temp acrylic pen and chrome paint. Traditional pate de verre, frozen in a silicone mould. Modelling glass (Lois Manno, Glass Bird Products), snow gum. Wafers heated at very high temp give tattered foliage and ice flows. Moon & stars - powdered glass, enamel. High temp acrylic pen. Reverse of the backing glass ‘textured’ both the horses painted with chrome paint.
Images: G.Kikos.

The work is not for sale.