Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs

Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs

September 20 - October 12, 2013

Opening reception: Friday, September 20, 2013, 6 - 8 PM

Maurine Littleton Gallery is very pleased to announce
Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs, an exhibition featuring three-dimensional glass works and prints by artists Dale Chihuly, Erwin Eisch, Richard Jolley, Harvey K. Littleton, and Therman Statom.

Vitreography is a printmaking process that uses glass plates instead of traditional materials such as metal, wood, or stone. Developed in the mid-1970s by Studio Glass Movement founder Harvey K. Littleton, vitreography has been opened up to a wide range of possibilities by artists working in sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Over one hundred artists including those featured in this exhibition have created more than seven hundred print editions at Littleton Studios.
Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs offers a unique opportunity to view sculptures and prints by master glass artists side by side, giving insight into their individual creative processes.

Dale Chihuly’s vessels and prints reference the history of art and organic forms, but bold curves and brilliant colors give his work an otherworldly quality. He studied under Harvey K. Littleton at University of Wisconsin-Madison and cofounded the Pilchuck School of Glass in Stanwood, Washington. Chihuly has exhibited in galleries and museums around the world.

German artist
Erwin Eisch is known as a cofounder of the European Studio Glass Movement. His expressive, freeform work in glass had a major impact on his longtime friend and colleague, Harvey K. Littleton. Since 1981, he has created over sixty editions of vitreographs at Littleton Studios.

Richard Jolley’s prints and sculpture in this exhibition explore the human figure and mythology with a rich color palette. Over the past forty years his work has been widely exhibited and collected in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Jolley is currently working on a large glass installation for the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Harvey K. Littleton is credited as the founder of the American Studio Glass Movement. He began working with glass in the early 1960s and established a hot glass studio at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was a professor for over twenty years. In 1976 Littleton set up a studio in Spruce Pine, North Carolina where he created his abstract, luminous color overlay glass sculptures and vitreographs featured in this exhibition.

Therman Statom creates his sculptures by cutting, painting, and assembling plate glass. Found materials such as maps and photographs often find their way into his work. He began making vitreographs at Littleton Studios in 1999. Statom has exhibited internationally and worked on several public commissions over the last thirty-five years.

Day and Night print
Richard Jolley, Day and Night, 2002