Exhibitions in 2003

Moving Through Nature
Sponsored by EDS and Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation

Michael Kenna: Japan
October 4, 2003 - March 21, 2004
Organized by the Museum of Glass in collaboration with Stephen Wirtz Gallery

The Visual Poetry of Mayme Kratz
October 11, 2003 - March 7, 2004
Organized by the Museum of Glass

Stacey Neff: Becoming
October 11, 2003 - March 7, 2004
Organized by the Museum of Glass

Moving Through Nature is a three-part exhibition with a common theme. The ever-changing, ever-moving natural world is both inspiration and subject matter for photographer Michael Kenna and sculptors Mayme Kratz and Stacey Neff. Although the mediums they use are very different, the three artists offer interpretations of nature that are similarly intense, yet ethereal.

The Bottom of Heaven:
Artwork and Poetry of the Remann Hall Women's Project

September 23, 2003 – February 29, 2004
Art Alley

Sponsored by the Governor's Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee from the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Formula Grant Program, Educational Legacy Fund, Horizons Foundation, and the Fund for Women & Girls of The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation.

This exhibition is part of the Remann Hall Women's Project, a joint venture between the Museum of Glass and Remann Hall. The project gives incarcerated girls between the ages of eleven and eighteen the opportunity to explore their creative talents and encourages them to use artistic expression as an avenue towards healing. Visual artist Darwin Nordin and poet Judith Roche guided the creation of the artwork.

My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation

July 12 - September 21, 2003

Organized by Independent Curators International, New York

This exhibition explores how Western and Eastern artists have influenced one another through their shared interest in the culture of anime (Japanese animation). Presenting works by contemporary artists from Japan, Korea, Greece, Great Britain, Holland and the United States, the exhibition investigates the effect this form of pop culture has had on today's art. The works in the exhibition focus on science fiction concepts such as futuristic technology, cyborgs and other humanoid robotics, aliens and fantastic creatures, and a post-nuclear apocalyptic landscape. It also explores social and economic themes such as gender roles, consumerism and pop culture. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

My Reality: Contemporary Art and the Culture of Japanese Animation originated at the Des Moines Art Center, curated by Jeff Fleming, senior curator, and Susan Lubowsky Talbott, director. The traveling exhibition is organized and circulated by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. The exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center was made possible by support from the Jacqueline and Myron Blank Exhibition Fund of the Des Moines Art Center, The Bright Foundation, the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, and the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation. Additional funding for the traveling exhibition was provided by the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.

Glass of the Avant-Garde:
From Vienna Secession to Bauhaus

June 11, 2003 - January 4, 2004
North Gallery

The Torsten Bröhan Collection from the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte Secretaría de Estado de Cultura, España is presented under the patronage of His Excellency Javier Rupérez, ambassador of Spain to the United States.

Organized by Exhibitions International, this national tour is sponsored by AFINSA. In Tacoma, sponsorship provided by Frank Russell Company, The Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation, and Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

This exhibition includes 185 examples of early twentieth-century glass from Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic set against the background of changing political circumstances. The Torsten Bröhan Collection, one of the most important collections of early modern glass in the world, was recently acquired by the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid and this is its first ever U.S. tour, after which it will return to Spain. A fully illustrated calalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Big Idea: The Maquettes of Robert Arneson

March 15 - May 18, 2003

Organized by the Palo Alto Art Center, Division of Arts and Culture, City of Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA
Sponsored by TRIO a.d.s.

Robert Arneson is widely recognized for his large-scale, groundbreaking ceramic sculpture. Often credited as reinventing figurative ceramics as a significant form of visual art, Arneson's work and teaching at the University of California, Davis, have influenced generations of artists.

This retrospective exhibition focuses on seventy five of the most engaging maquettes produced by Arneson over nearly three decades. These maquettes, many previously unseen and unpublished, parallel the large-scale works he considered to be his most important contributions. The exhibition will be supplemented with several of his notebooks and drawings, as well as a fully illustrated catalogue.

This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation; The Christensen Fund, Palo Alto; the Association of Ceramic and Glass Artists, California; the California Arts Council, a state agency; the Arts Council Silicon Valley; an anonymous donor in honor of the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; John Kotelly; the Morgan Flagg Family Foundation; Dominic and Margaret Di Mare; Forrest L. Merrill; and private contributions.

Glass Eats Light: Innovations in Glass by Bertil Vallien

February 22 - June 22, 2003

Organized by Smålands Museum, Växjö, Sweden in collaboration with the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art
Sponsored by IKEA and Washington State Arts Commission

Bertil Vallien is truly a revolutionary figure in Swedish art. Renowned as the great master of sand-casted glass, he studied at the National College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and subsequently served as head of its glass design program for seventeen years. He has been working as a designer for Kosta Boda since 1963.

Vallien is known for charging his sculptures with radiant light. The simpler the form, the greater is the emphasis on light. Over the past ten years, he has created a new series of sculptures in the form of sand-cast glass heads—masks and faces whose outer aspect is often in stark contrast with the inner message—to explore the theme of the transitional state between life and death.

Installations

The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization, 1992

Viola Frey
October 21, 2003 – October 31, 2004

Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery,
San Francisco, CA
Sponsored by City of Tacoma Arts Commission/Division of Culture and Tourism

Best known for her monumental ceramic figures painted with brilliantly colored glazes, Viola Frey is one of a handful of artists responsible for bringing ceramics into the realm of fine art. Frey's larger-than-life characters are ordinary, thinking, reflective beings, but their scale is anything but ordinary. To achieve the large scale and intricate positions of the figures, each one must be fired in a kiln in sections, and then joined. Featuring a unique grouping of these figures, The Decline and Fall of Western Civiliation will be on display in the Museum's Grand Hall for one year.