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Art of Glass
There’s glass, and there’s art. And there’s art made in glass. Beautiful, glowing, entrancing, transparent, semitransparent and opaque works of art, blown, cast and otherwise shaped and modified. Aotearoa has some of the world’s top practitioners, supported by the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass (NZSAG – www.nzsag.co.nz) established in 1980 as a non-profit organisation with over 200 members, from artists to institutions and collectors.
Various areas of New Zealand are particularly relevant to the glass art network, like Hokitika in the South Island, where you can buy glass products and watch glass being blown and shaped. There’s the Höglund International Glass Centre in Nelson (www.nelson.hoglund.co.nz), while Wanganui has been a centre of glass teaching since 1987, when the Wanganui Glass School was set up (www.wanganuiglassschool.com) to teach hot glass, kiln-forming and cold working. Beautiful objects have been made in glass for thousands of years, from beads to coloured glass set into metal jewellery, to beakers and vessels. Thought to have been invented during the Bronze Age over 5000 years ago, the earliest man-made glass objects have been found in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. Since those early days, glass has come a long way. Brian Chrystall is president of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass and edits the society’s monthly newsletter. He points out that many think of blown glass when someone mentions glass art, and in many ways that’s the easiest way to produce an object that looks highly polished and appealing. But Chrystall is continually amazed at the diversity and skill of New Zealand glass artists and the range of techniques that they use; flame-worked glass, fused and slumped glass, and cast and cold-worked glass. “All offer different characteristics, and in some cases more than one technique is used to get the final piece.” Glass Art Awards The biggest glass art award in the country is the annual Cavalier Bremworth-sponsored Luminous Glass Awards with a $5000 main prize, and other merit awards. About 60 artists from throughout New Zealand have already registered interest, and will submit images of their proposed works for awards’ selection which takes place August 25th to the 30th at Auckland’s Hilton. Also relevant is the Molly Morpeth 3D awards (Whakatane) with a $5000 first prize, and the Art Section of the Royal Easter Show in Auckland with a $1000 first prize. Ranamok (www.ranamok.com) is a competition run annually in Australia for Australian and New Zealand glass artists. New Zealanders have regularly been finalists and the winner of last year’s $A10,000 prize was Evelyn Dunstan of Manukau who started her artistic career as a ceramics artist (http://www.ranamok.com/2007_detail_pages/Dunstan.htm). The Glass Artists Steven Bradbourne Last year’s Cavalier Bremworth Luminous Art winner was Steven Bradbourne. Like Evelyn Dunstan, Bradbourne also started out in ceramics but an intense period in production at Garry Nash’s hot glass gallery in Ponsonby (www.glass.co.nz/nash.htm) opened his eyes to the range of glass-making techniques. Later exposure in Melbourne to Italian methods led Bradbourne to explore the *murrine (patterns or images made in long rods of glass whichh are revealed when cut in cross-section) mosaic and cane hotglass techniques. Garry Nash Nash’s name comes up often – he has been creating innovative glass art for nearly 30 years. Ann Robinson, Peter Raos and other notable practitioners worked together with Nash at Sunbeam Glassworks in Ponsonby, Auckland. Nash eventually bought the original Sunbeam workshop, which he still operates today at 70 MacKelvie St. Ann Robinson Robinson (www.annrobinson.co.nz) works in cast glass and has won many awards since the Phillips Glass award in 1984. Her work appears at Auckland Museum, the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt and Wellington’s National Museum, as well as in many overseas galleries. Robinson teaches and exhibits both here and overseas. Peter Raos Raos likes to express his ideas of archetypal objects reflecting art and nature; his work reflects the natural elements shaping his immediate environment. His work can be seen at his gallery (www.raos.co.nz) in Devonport (2 Queens Parade, phone 09 445 4278). Ron Reichs Reichs is a former diamond tool industrialist who first got involved with glass art through supplying finishing tools to glass artists. “I decided I needed to be able to polish it myself. That’s where my interest started and from there it became something of an obsession.” Reichs says glass is a very seductive medium. He is entirely self-taught in cold-working and polishing techniques but learnt the rudiments of casting glass from his fellow artists. He now spends most of his available spare time creating works in glass, having begun by carving jade, gemstones and other hard materials although the fragility of glass as a medium still concerns him. “Once one has developed the appropriate skills, there tends to be less disappointment with damaging glass during finishing. Lead crystal is very fragile and tends to be damaged more by galleries than by the artists. I tend to push the boundaries into the unknown when casting glass, therefore the failure rate can be quite high. I have attempted to cast one piece four times before succeeding.” Reichs’ work is in several galleries around the country and outdoor sculpture venues. He works out of Waiatarua in Auckland (http://greenglassstudio.com) producing work ranging from large outdoor pieces to jewellery. Dominic Burrell Among the younger practitioners is Dominic Burrell, part of the thriving Wanganui Glass Group (http://wanganuiglass.com/index). Burrell’s modernist work often uses fused glass – an advocate of formal compositional qualities, Burrell is drawn to the aesthetic placement of point, line and plane, and the use of colour within these parameters. Te Rongo Kirkwood Another young practitioner is Te Rongo Kirkwood, who produces fused, kiln-formed glass. Kirkwood has been a full-time practising glass artist of just three years. Collecting Glass Art Stuart Park is an enthusiastic collector of glass made by New Zealand glass artists. He sees his collection as documenting the history and development of glass art in New Zealand, something he takes to another dimension with his blog (http://newzealandglass.blogspot.com/) in which he provides an entertaining overview of New Zealand glass art. 
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