“I was made in Hong Kong, born in Taiwan, and my parents are from China. I received my BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1999 for Glass Sculpture after a short stint at Hampshire College studying Latin American Literature and the behavior patterns between wolves and sheep dogs. I left the East Coast heading west after college, in part to heal from an accident that left a few titanium pins and stainless steel plates in my head. I couldn’t smell or taste for three years. I moved from New Mexico to Southern California, then finally Oakland. Glass making has been my passport to seeing the world. I’ve traveled through Japan, China, Taiwan, and most recently Scandinavia. I’ve worked on various projects including custom lighting.”

Jerry Kung and Alexander Abajian are the founders of FirePrint Studio in Oakland, CA, where they collaborate to create glass sculpture utilizing age-old techniques while integrating a contemporary aesthetic. They were awarded People’s Choice honors at the 2011 Museum of Glass Red Hot Party & Auction.

For the past four or so years, Alex Abajian and Jerry Lin-Hsien Kung have been making “creatures” — tripodal formations of bended glass, typically coated in a mirror finish. In isolation, one of these creatures might appear a merely decorative object — a chic, sensuous addition to a posh lobby or some such space. However, Abajian and Kung have no interest in delivering their creations to such a fate.

To thwart such a banal reading, the duo crowds the creatures in a runway installation, wherein they become a reflective, mercurial melee of limbs and curves, capturing viewers’ reflections and enlivening one another. “They naturally want to go together in certain ways,” said Abajian. “Like one will be pushing and the other will be pulling. They nestle into these groups and you see it looks like a group of people, how people actually congregate.”

With a $40,000 grant from the Tacoma Museum of Glass, Abajian and Kung were able to create quite a sizable congregation. This also makes the exhibition, Creatures, now at Vessel Gallery, one of the most expensive in the history of Oakland’s gallery scene.

But it’s not exactly clear how someone seeking art should approach these objects. One thing is sure: They are not like conventional sculptures, where the art is in some sense encapsulated in the finished form. Rather, Abajian and Kung’s art is in the process.

The artists have been collaborating since they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design. They have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of shared stories, and even possess matching cranial scars (each the result of a serious injury; neither glass blowing-related). Together, they pursued the craft end of glass-making for a while, but soon started drifting toward something else — a more playful, organic process free of rigid expectations.

 

Alexander Sarkis Abajian graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 with a Bachelors Degree in Glass Sculpture. Since then he has exhibited nationwide, Colorado Springs Museum, Colorado Springs, CO; Adam Whitney Gallery, Omaha, NE; Pismo Gallery, Denver, CO; San Francisco Design Center at the A. Rudin Showroom. He has also been a recipient of many awards and scholarships: The General Pilchuck Scholarship, The Martin Foundation Young Craftsmen Award, The Taos Open- Best of Craft Award, to name a few. He was recently a visiting artist at the California College of the Arts. Alexander Abajian is a prolific young artist untethered by convention. He integrates a variety of different elements to his own sculptures. Whether electroplating metal to glass, combining kiln castings with hand blown accents, manipulating solid pieces of color to forge vessels impregnated with intricate designs, or translating his own figurative paintings into three-dimensional sculptures, Alexander manifests an interminable drive to create. He is on the forefront of glass art, truly utilizing the material as a means of expression, free from the constraints of craft.  Alex now lives and works in San Francisco California.

Collaborations: Alex Abajian and Jerry Lin-Hsien Kung
For the past four or so years, Alex Abajian and Jerry Lin-Hsien Kung have been making “creatures” — tripodal formations of bended glass, typically coated in a mirror finish. In isolation, one of these creatures might appear a merely decorative object — a chic, sensuous addition to a posh lobby or some such space. However, Abajian and Kung have no interest in delivering their creations to such a fate.

To thwart such a banal reading, the duo crowds the creatures in a runway installation, wherein they become a reflective, mercurial melee of limbs and curves, capturing viewers’ reflections and enlivening one another. “They naturally want to go together in certain ways,” said Abajian. “Like one will be pushing and the other will be pulling. They nestle into these groups and you see it looks like a group of people, how people actually congregate.”

With a $40,000 grant from the Tacoma Museum of Glass, Abajian and Kung were able to create quite a sizable congregation. This also makes the exhibition, Creatures, now at Vessel Gallery, one of the most expensive in the history of Oakland’s gallery scene.

But it’s not exactly clear how someone seeking art should approach these objects. One thing is sure: They are not like conventional sculptures, where the art is in some sense encapsulated in the finished form. Rather, Abajian and Kung’s art is in the process.

The artists have been collaborating since they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design. They have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of shared stories, and even possess matching cranial scars (each the result of a serious injury; neither glass blowing-related). Together, they pursued the craft end of glass-making for a while, but soon started drifting toward something else — a more playful, organic process free of rigid expectations.

 Started working in glass in the 1990’s.
whidbeyworkingartists.com/Katrina_Hude.html

Katrina began working with glass as an undergrad at California College of Arts and Crafts and then received an MFA from San Jose State University, California in sculpture in 1995. Since then, she has been awarded the fellowship at The Creative Glass Center of America and Emerging Artist in Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School. Katrina has lectured and demonstrated as a guest artist in Japan, Australia and here in the US. Recently she taught at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and the Edwin T. Pratt Center for Fine Arts in Seattle.

Katrina Hude

Started working in glass in 1990s.
www.katherine-gray.com

Katherine Gray received her undergraduate degree from Ontario College of Art in Toronto and her MFA 1991 from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. Her work has been exhibited most recently at See Line Gallery and Acuna-Hansen Gallery, both in Los Angeles, and been reviewed in the LA Times and on Artforum.com. It can also be found in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Museum of Glass, among others. Katherine has written about glass, curated several exhibitions, and has taught workshops around the world. Currently, she lives and works in Los Angeles, California. In 2007 she joined the Art Faculty at California State University, San Bernardino.

My work primarily involves glass. It is a material that we spend a lot of time not looking at, but I have invested a good part of my artistic livelihood trying to perfect working with it, to make visible the invisible. This means highlighting both the material itself but also the long journey towards glassblowing mastery. I want my work to represent the inequity that exists between sublime beauty and manufacturing extravagance, because I have arrived at a place where I am no longer confident that I made the right choice. At the very least, my subtle disillusionment is overwhelmed by the value in making things in a society increasingly ruled by machines and simulated experiences.

“Aglow”
Katherine Gray
2012
pre-existing ice buckets, lead crystal and acrylic stand
48″ tall, 30″ diameter

“White Mounds”
Katherine Gray
2008
Blown Glass
20 x 20 x 10 in.

Started working in glass in 1991 in Aichi, Japan, and has been working in California for 12 years.
www.kanatanaka.com

A reverence for light phenomena characterizes Kana Tanaka’s body of work. She seeks to inspire curiosity and exploration through glass and light. As an Arts & Crafts major at the National Aichi University of Education in Japan, she became captivated by the qualities of molten glass, leading her to specialize in glassblowing. She continued to study glass as a medium for emphasizing experiences of light during her advanced studies for an MFA degree at Rhode Island School of Design (1996-1999).  Her style shifted from making small objects to creating site-specific installation works involving the viewer in rich, multi-dimensional experiences.

Tanaka creates situations that surround the audience and affect their senses directly and broadly. By means of exaggeration, amplification, distortion and division, she seeks to generate new perceptions. Viewers become part of the work as they interact with it and observe light. Glass is the net she uses for sharing the experiences of light with others.

As a recipient of artist grants from Pollock Krasner foundation and POLA art foundation of Tokyo, Tanaka has exhibited her work at galleries and theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2002. She has also completed several large-scale permanent public art installations in Fairfield, Lafayette, and Alameda, California, as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Born and raised in Aichi, Japan, Tanaka moved to California at the end of 2000 to expand her career in art with glass and light.  She currently works on public art commissions for Washington State University and Central Connecticut State University.

“Spirit of Camelback”
Kana Tanaka
2009
Glass and fiber optics lighting, Hot sculpted glass
28’ x 3’ x 12’

“of Capturing a Moment”
Kana Tanaka
2005
Glass, stainless steel. Hot worked glass, cored.
24’ x 36’ x 40’

Started working in glass in 1997 at California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA.
www.aurorasculpture.com

Ed Kirshner of Oakland, California was born in New York City in 1940.  He studied architecture and sculpture at Cornell University, the University of California at Berkeley and the Oskar Kokoschka School of Vision in Austria.  After thirty years of developing and financing affordable housing, he returned to study art at the California College of the Arts in Oakland as well as at Pilchuck and Corning glass schools and Northlands Creative Glass in Scotland.  His glass and gas plasma sculptures have been exhibited throughout the U.S. as well as in Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Turkey. His work, “Cone of Chaos,” was a Corning Glass selection and is included in Corning’s “25 Years of New Glass Review.”

Ed’s plasma sculptures are in the permanent collections of the diRosa Fine Arts Preserve in Napa, California, the Swiss National Science Center, Technorama, near Zurich and the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  He has taught glass and gas plasma workshops in the U.S. as well as in Asia and Europe and is on the faculty of the Crucible Fire Arts School in Oakland and the Glass Furnace in Turkey.  He has also been a Trustee and the Treasurer of the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Los Angeles and is currently on its Technical Advisory Board. Recently, Ed was elected to the Board of the Glass Arts Society (GAS).

“Fiery Bowl”
Ed Kirshner
boro flameworking by Bernd Weinmayer
2012
Double walled boro glass bowl with Neon and Xenon gas plasma set in glass light shade on bamboo salad bowl base with electronics inside
15” x 15” x 18”

“Vase with Cup of Chaos”
Ed Kirshner
boro flameworking by Bernd Weinmayer
2004
Double walled boro glass cup with Neon gas plasma set on blown glass vase with electronics inside pedestal base
11” x 11” x 26”

Started working in glass in 1997 at Cal Poly SLO, in San Luis Obispo, CA.
ad.sjsu.edu/glass/faculty

Cassandra Straubing’s sculptural work addresses issues of domestic and industrial labor using multiple mediums and processes including glass casting, blowing and metal fabrication.  Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society and acts as the Glass Faculty Head and Studio Coordinator at San Jose State University in California, refining the program to its full potential.

“Mrs. Evans”
Cassandra Straubing
Photo credit: Esteban Salazar
2009
kiln-cast glass
22.5″ x 30″ x 3.25″

“At the end of the miner’s day he returns to his empty house to bathe and retire for the night”
Cassandra Straubing
Photo credit: Esteban Salazar
2011
cast glass
3.5″ x 12″ x 17″

Started working with glass in 1999 in Pinole, CA.
www.nightsidestudios.com

Ralph McCaskey has been creating sculptural glass beads for 13 years in his subterranean studio 3-1/2 stories beneath Downtown California. He wishes to thank his wife for making it possible, and his children for making it necessary.

“Ghastly Trio”
Ralph McCaskey
November, 2008
Soda Lime glass, copper
(left to right) 2” x 1” x 1.25”; 2” x 2.25” x 2”; 1.5” x 2” x 2.5”

“Blind Spot”
Ralph McCaskey
September, 2007
Soda Lime glass, copper, verdigris patina
2” x 2” x 3.5”