FUSE Glass Prize 2016
2016 Winners
Clare Belfrage
Winner - Established Artist Category
Inspired by experiences in the natural world for many years, Clare Belfrage has forged an international reputation for her distinguished work with detailed and complex glass drawing on blown glass forms. She has maintained a vibrant practice for over twenty-five years. She has been an active part of artists’ communities particularly in Adelaide and Canberra, including the glass based studio Blue Pony, of which she was a founding member, JamFactory’s Glass Studio in Adelaide, and Canberra Glassworks where she played a pivotal role as Creative Director from 2009 to 2013. In addition to Australia, Belfrage regularly exhibits in North America, Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Her work has been recognised for its innovation and originality and in 2005 and 2011 she was awarded the Tom Malone Glass Prize by the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Belfrage’s work is represented in major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning,
New York.
“As an artist, my point of view is often looking from close up. The big feeling that small gives me is intimate and powerful. The industry in nature, its rhythm and energy, dramatic and delicate still holds my fascination as does the language and processes of glass.”
Into the Deep, 2016
blown glass with cane drawing
480 x390 x 130. Photo: Pippy Mount
Alex Valero
Winner - Established Artist Category
Alex Valero studied art at the University of South Australia, where he first encountered glassblowing. Fascinated by the material, and the challenge of working with it, he completed his Visual Art degree with a specialisation in glass. Following art school, he completed the Associate training program at JamFactory. For those two years, Valero was immersed in the world of studio glass, learning traditional craft skills and working on production teams. Valero currently leases studio space at JamFactory and continues to assist other artists in the JamFactory glass studio. Through his practice, Valero aims to expand the sculptural possibilities of the material, pushing and combining traditional techniques in unconventional ways.
“The Grave objects are the outcome of a series of experiments which aimed to generate novel work by subverting common glassworking techniques. By forming pieces from solid rod colour, I was able to cold work and reheat the objects to reduce the surface, yet preserve the lines and texture made possible by the cold process. Grave in this case references the abandoned unit of measurement that eventually became the kilogram.”
Grave (Infra & Ultra), 2015
rod colour, 170 x 70 x 40
Photo: Anna Fenech Harris
2016 Finalists - Emerging Artist Category
Lewis Batchelar
Lewis Batchelar is an emerging artist currently training at JamFactory in Adelaide. Studying under Nigel Jones, Lionel Teer and Kathryn Whightman, Lewis received his Diploma in Glass Design and Production from the Wanganui School of Glass, New Zealand in 2012. He then relocated to Adelaide, Australia to commence the Associate training program in Glass at JamFactory in 2015. Before moving to Adelaide, Lewis worked for several established artists around New Zealand at Chronicle Glass Studio, Wanganui, Lava Glass, Taupo and Monmouth Glass Studio, Auckland. In 2012, Lewis received the Ann Robinson Glass Award and the Wanganui Sargeant Art Review Merit Award in 2013.
“As an artist my focus is the vessel. I am inspired by traditional technique and strive to make aesthetically driven works that pay respect to the tradition and craftsmanship of the material. I have drawn inspiration from the anthropomorphic nature of gourds and cacti to create a composition of quirky objects to reflect notions of family.”
Animism, 2016
blown glass, 770 x 750 x 300
Photo: Michael Haines
Hannah Gason
Hannah Gason is a Canberra-based glass artist, who has recently graduated from the Australian National University School of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Glass) with First Class Honours and a University Medal. Hannah has undertaken residencies at Bullseye Glass, the Canberra Glassworks, and has received scholarships to attend classes at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School, as well as assisting at the Penland School of Crafts. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been acquired by the National Art Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga, the collection of the Australian National University and various private collections.
My work is an exploration of self as I try to understand the intangible; the structures in my work are built from the gathering of my experiences and perceptions. My creative process is embedded in the activity of making, and is an immersive and intuitive process. I explore the materiality of glass, using transparent coloured glass in combination with graphic lines and mark-making, before reconstructing these seemingly random components in pursuit of harmonious balance, using systems of relationships and representations.
Altered Scape #7, 2015
kiln formed glass, 340 x 1120 x 30
Photo: Greg Piper
Marina Hanser
Marina Hanser is a Canberra-based emerging glass artist. Originally from Austria, she moved to Australia in 2010 to complete a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honors at the Australian National University. She has studied glass in various institutions in Europe, including Glasfachschule Kramsach, Austria and Vetroricerca Glass School, Italy. Since graduating from the Australian National University in 2014, her activities have included undertaking residencies at Bullseye Glass and the Canberra Glassworks and working as aTeaching Assistant at Pilchuck Glass School, Corning Museum of Glass and Pittsburgh Glass Centre as well as teaching at Berlin Glas. She has received a number of Awards including, the Warm Glass Prize UK and the Boronia Award in Glass. Besides developing her own practice as an artist in her studio at the Canberra Glassworks she is a cold working, mold making and studio assistant to established artists.
“My work explores ideas of revealing, concealing and states of transition. Inspired by notions of loss, transformation and remembrance, I work metaphorically with the ideas of healing and transformation, drawing influence from medical, scientific and emotional concepts and material investigations. I start by creating drapes and folds with cloth, covering them with a layer of wax to stiffen the surface of the material, which I then cast in glass. I then combine traditional and non-traditional kiln casting, cold working and pâte de verre techniques to transform the work through stages of revealing and protection.”
Conceal/Reveal III, 2016
pâte de verre, kiln formed and cast, 420 x 1360 x 30
Photo: David Paterson
Andrew Plummer
Andrew Plummer migrated with his family from the United States to Australia in 1983, becoming an Australian citizen in 1985. Having studied Mining Engineering at Colorado School of Mines in the early 1970s, he enjoyed a 40 year career in the coal mining industry in both the United States and Australia and in the corporate advisory and investment banking sector in Australia. Since his retirement in 2012 he has actively pursued a practice in glass – building his own kiln-forming studio in Brookvale, NSW and participating in numerous short courses at Sydney College of the Arts, at Canberra Glassworks (Klaus Moje and Kirsty Rea), at Pilchuck (Warren Langley and Laurel Porcari) and at Corning (Richard Whitely). Plummer has been a passionate supporter and advocate for artists working in glass and was co-founder of the celebrated Ranamok Glass Prize which ran for 20 years from 1994 to 2014.
“The builder tribes of Sydney have been furiously communicating with their spray can styluses. Overnight, the footpaths of the City bloom with graphic images – coded messages packed with information. These compact messages are made quickly and deftly with no pretence at composition or design – after all, time is money. However, while his job is to quickly and clearly communicate specific information, the surveyor is also ‘unconsciously’ producing imagery that is rich in line and form. I’ve abstracted the surveyors’ markings by first liberating them from the context of their footpath ‘canvas’ and also from the contiguous markings which give them reference. I’ve further modified the imagery by subjecting it to my own hand, weaving it into a ragged and pixilated tapestry made from hundreds of strips of glass. This spare and economical communication, combined with the un(self)-consciousness of composition, line and form reminds me of haiku poetry. Urban hieroglyphs. Elegant in line and form. Conscious unconscious.”
Urban Hieroglyph - Clarence & Market (07/15), 2015
kiln formed glass, 420 x 420 x 13
Photo: Christian Mushenko
2016 Finalists - Established Artist Category
Mel Douglas
Mel Douglas has achieved great success in the sixteen years since graduating from the renowned Glass program at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra. She has held many group and solo exhibitions in Australia, the United States, Italy and Singapore. Douglas’ glass has been featured in numerous international publications and is included in many museum collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Her delicate, subtle work has earned Douglas many grants and awards including the 2002 Ranamok Glass Prize, the 2007 International Young Glass Award, Ebeltolft and the 2014 Tom Malone Prize. The slow, steady process of creating each piece is integral to the reading of Douglas’ work. The evidence of process is apparent in each blown and painstakingly engraved object. She seeks to focus the viewer’s attention on the proportion and linear relationships of the work. Each line is a unique mark influenced by the object’s physical shape and surface; it is a contour, a stroke, an outline. The repetitious and time-consuming method of mark making is not only a meditative process; in its very creation it describes a singular moment and a certain place.
“Objects and drawings are often thought of as two separate entities. My work explores and interweaves the creative possibilities of this hybrid space, where the form is not just a ‘canvas’ for drawing; but a three-dimensional drawing itself. Using the unique qualities of the material, and the rich potential of mark making on and with glass, I am using line as a way to inform, define and enable, three-dimensional space.”
Wove. Weave. Weaving, 2016
blown, cold worked and engraved glass, 310 x 310x 310 each
Photo: Stuart Hay
Tim Edwards
Mel Douglas has achieved great success in the sixteen years since graduating from the renowned Glass program at the Australian National University School of Art in Canberra. She has held many group and solo exhibitions in Australia, the United States, Italy and Singapore. Douglas’ glass has been featured in numerous international publications and is included in many museum collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Her delicate, subtle work has earned Douglas many grants and awards including the 2002 Ranamok Glass Prize, the 2007 International Young Glass Award, Ebeltolft and the 2014 Tom Malone Prize. The slow, steady process of creating each piece is integral to the reading of Douglas’ work. The evidence of process is apparent in each blown and painstakingly engraved object. She seeks to focus the viewer’s attention on the proportion and linear relationships of the work. Each line is a unique mark influenced by the object’s physical shape and surface; it is a contour, a stroke, an outline. The repetitious and time-consuming method of mark making is not only a meditative process; in its very creation it describes a singular moment and a certain place.
“My current body of work continues my deep and enduring interest in the vessel. Domestic, humble, distilled, accessible to people through experience and daily use. For years I’ve looked at the way objects are rendered in the mediums of: film, animation, graphic novels and comics. The varying graphic qualities feed into both my drawing and glassmaking.”
Line Drawing #12, 2016
blown and wheel cut glass, 360 x 470 x 230
Photo: Grant Hancock
Wendy Fairclough
Wendy Fairclough migrated from New Zealand to Australia in her teens. After completing her Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in Sculpture and Printmaking, she completed post graduate study in Adult Education and Training. During this time she attended a glassblowing workshop which inspired her to enrol in a Bachelor of Applied Arts (majoring in Glass) at the South Australian School of Art, which she completed in 2000. Fairclough draws on this background to create still life installations using a combination of casting, cold-working processes, engraving and found objects. Based in the Adelaide Hills her practice comprises production, exhibition work and commissions. She has exhibited in Asia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Australia. Fairclough’s work is represented in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian National Art Glass Collection, the Australian National University Collection, the Museum of Australian Democracy, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I work within a loose framework of the still life genre wherein the reference to familiar objects allows the viewer to immediately identify with the work, and bring to it their own stories and understandings. Recent work focuses on that which we have in common regardless of culture or religious beliefs. I have found expression for these commonalities in the small gestures and details of day to day activities surrounding food, ritual, and work. There is universality in the labour of the ordinary worker. In addition I admire the creativity and ingenuity of the human mind and hand in the meeting of basic needs such as warmth, food, and shelter. I reference some of these things in Fill to Line.”
Fill to Line, 2014
cast lead crystal, 730 x 280 x 280
Photo: Grant Hancock
Brenden Scott French
Brenden Scott French is a South Australian artist who works in both blown and kiln-formed glass. He has trained extensively in glass practice, completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts in 1997, the Associate training program at JamFactory in 1999 and a Bachelor of Art with Honours at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 2003. During the past ten years he has exhibited extensively both in Australia and overseas at venues such as Saatchi Gallery, London, William Traver Gallery, Seattle and Sabbia Gallery, Sydney. He was the recipient of the Stephen Procter Fellowship in 2007. French has also undertaken residencies at the Canberra Glassworks, Australian National University Glass Workshop, the University of South Australia and Northlands Creative Glass Centre, Lybster, Scotland. His work is held in numerous private and public collections.
“I have been creating works in glass that depict the evolution of a familiar landscape over a geologic timeline. Works that are portrayals of kiln forming and hot glass processes but also motifs for the industry of human intervention upon the land. The surface of the land and the happenings that occur upon it tell our story most accurately. This new work. View from Window is a landscape view that disrupts perception and frames what may lay in the strata of reality. It is unashamedly committed to the surface, with the capacity to reshape image and identity. But it is also equally committed to exploring what lay beneath that shape shifting façade – the peril and uncertainty that makes reinvention seem so crucial to survival.”
View from Window, 2016
murrine, kiln formed glass, 655 x 965 x 40
Photo: the artist
Elizabeth Kelly
Elizabeth Kelly began working with glass as a trainee at the original JamFactory Workshops in St Peters, in 1985 before undertaking a Certificate of Art at North Adelaide School of Art. She completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, and a Masters degree at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, where she also taught and was a research assistant in coloured glass. Following this she spent three years as Studio Head of Glass at JamFactory in Adelaide and then travelled through the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe working and demonstrating in various studios. In 2003 she established her own purpose built studio – Studio Tangerine – in Canberra to further her artistic aspirations. Kelly maintains a broad practice, embracing sculpture, commissions and object design, with a strong emphasis in coloured glass applied to architecture. In 2010 she was awarded a Churchill Memorial Fellowship to travel internationally to research glass in architecture.
'“Groovy is one in a body of work I am currently developing that examines the origins of life and elemental organic geometry as a basis for research. Abiogenisis as yet it is not understood in how the natural process of life arises from non-living matter such as simple organic compounds. I examine at the chirality of chemical structures that trigger growth sequences, and have had strong serendipitous inspiration from marine invertebrates, all brought about by rhythmic repetition and patterns of cast glass elements. Materiality, form language, colour and light play a huge part in the thought process of construction; I am informed by having worked with this material for the last 30 years in which I have always striven to understand scale and explore structure.”
Groovy, 2016
sculpted cast glass, 220 x 260 x 230
Photo: Steve Keough
Jessica Loughlin
Loughlin has worked as an independent studio artist since graduating from the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University in 1997. In 2007 she co-founded Gate 8 Workshop, a not-for-profit organisation that provides space for local professional artists. She has also been Acting Head of Glass at the South Australian School of Art, and continues to lead masterclass workshops in Australia and overseas. Loughlin’s work has been collected by both public institutions and private collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. She has received several major awards including the Ranomok Glass Prize in 1998, the Outstanding New Artist in Glass Award in 2001 from Urban Glass, New York and the Tom Malone Glass Prize in 2004 and 2007.
“An ever changing familiar cloud provides a necessary reprieve. The far reach of our vision can be a place for dreams, reflection and perspective, as the mind tries to place itself in a landscape larger than its grasp. Using a combination of light and glass my work aims to address both visibility and the act of seeing. I’m interested in how the viewer perceives place and responds to it.”
Unfolding Continuum 10:00, 10:05, 11:30, 1:00, 2016
kiln formed glass and enamel, 350 x 4450 x 25
Photo: Rachel Harris
Nick Mount
Nick Mount is one of Australia’s most accomplished and celebrated studio glass artists. Approaching his fifth decade working in the field, he has been at the forefront of innovation and achievement since the early 1970s. Mount’s earliest and most enduring influences include the United States west coast glass scene and the traditions of the Venetians. Informed but not confined by tradition, Mount is known for his production, commission and exhibition work. Since the late 1990s the latter has comprised of an evolving series of sculptural assemblages. Ranging in scale and character, they describe an aesthetic that is both provocative and playful, intimate and spectacular. Mount’s work is represented in most major public collections in Australia and in museums in Japan, the United States and Denmark.
His reputation as a generous teacher, demonstrator and mentor sees him teaching regularly at glass centres around the world.
“My series of Beacons celebrate no specific time or place but are markers that indicate every moment for what it might be. These pieces are composed of a number of components that are considered, addressed, stacked and balanced as a warning, reminder or a guide.”
Beacon, 2016
blown glass, surface worked, low fire glass enamel, patinated mild steel, 850 x 260 x 260
Photo: Pippy Mount
Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley is an Associate Professor, Head of Glass Workshop and Convener of Craft and Design at the School of Art at the Australian National University in Canberra. He was a member of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council from 2009 to 2011 and now serves as a peer for this organisation. His works are held in major museums and private collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, and the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China. Whiteley has undertaken a major public art commission for ActewAGL as part of the enlarged Cotter Dam and has received many research grants to develop creative works and perform technical research, including a major glass-recycling project with Sydney based company, Verastone Glass.
“This new series of work has emerged in response to the deciphering of MRI imagery and the experience of trying to grasp the uncertain physical nature of what is being revealed within the body. The translucency of glass allows the overlaying of exterior structures and internal forms; light shudders through the material, bringing with it an ambiguity regarding what is solid and what is void, provoking us to lose sight of what we are viewing as we look into these bodily forms.”
Absence, 2016
cast glass, 300 x 250 x 140
Photo: Greg Piper
Kathryn Wightman
Wightman began working with glass as a student at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom in 2000, where she obtained a degree in Glass and Ceramics followed by a Masters degree in Glass, 2005. In 2006 she was awarded a Craft Council placement to assist in establishing a creative practice. This led to PhD research undertaken at the University of Sunderland in 2012 focusing on the integration of glassmaking and printmaking processes, funded by Arts Humanities Research Council, England. Since completing this research Wightman has undertaken work as a visiting lecturer
at the University of Sunderland and has also worked as a glassmaker at the National Glass Centre, Sunderland. In 2012 she relocated to New Zealand to take up a position as Glass lecturer at the Wanganui Glass School. Since living in New Zealand, Wightman has been awarded the Emerge Glass Prize 2014 and the Ranamok Glass Prize 2014. She delivers workshops around the world and lectures in creative areas across the Wanganui School of Design in New Zealand.
“My work explores the connection between human existence and surfaces in the home that we interact with on a daily basis. The replicated glass surface serves as a metaphor for the realities of circumstance and experience. In this work glass and mirror have been manipulated to create a wall of impalpable shadows where imagination augments the values of reality. Digital technologies and traditional working methods are blended in a way that seeks to demonstrate sensitivity and understanding to material, process and idea. Hybrid decorative patterns are invented then deconstructed to create complex multiple layered compositions. Layers are screen-printed, stacked then sintered allowing the patterned forms to grow from the surface of the glass.”
Capturer, 2016
sifted and sintered glass powder on sheet, 2620 x 2950 x 24
Photo: Tia Ranginui
2016 Judges
Robert Bell
Former Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the National Gallery of Australia
Robert Bell was Senior Curator Decorative Arts and Design at the National Gallery of Australia from 2000 - 2017. He was responsible for contributing to the Gallery’s policy, exhibitions, research and collections programs in the areas of Australian and international decorative arts and design, which include more than 12,000 contemporary and historical works. Dr Bell was born in Perth. He joined the Art Gallery of Western Australia as its inaugural curator of craft and design, and from 1978 to 2000 and was responsible for the development of its craft and design collections and exhibitions. He held a PhD from the Australian National University and in 2003 was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the decorative arts in Australia. In 2010 Dr Bell was awarded an AM for service to contemporary craft and design as a curator and advocate, and to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Australia.
Lisa Slade
Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia
Prior to her appointment as Assistant Director, Artistic Programs, Slade was Project Curator at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Her major curatorial projects at the Gallery have included The Extreme Climate of Nicholas Folland, Heartland: Contemporary Art from South Australia and the hugely successful Magic Object: 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. She also managed the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art in both 2012 and 2014. Slade currently lectures in several postgraduate courses delivered by the University of Adelaide in collaboration with the Art Gallery of South Australia and has written and published reviews, academic essays, catalogue entries and monographs. She has held previous curatorial positions at the Newcastle Art Gallery and the University of Queensland Art Museum.
Margot Osborne
Independent Australian arts writer and curator and author of the 2005 survey Australian Glass Today
Adelaide writer and curator Margot Osborne has authored widely on Australian art and design since the 1980s, writing books including monographs on glass artists Nick Mount and Giles Bettison, as a contributor to key art magazines and journals including Artlink, Art Monthly and Craft Arts International, and as a former art critic for The Adelaide Review and The Advertiser. In 2013 she contributed a chapter on Australian kiln formed glass to Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific North-West, published by Tacoma Museum of Glass. She is a former curator at JamFactory, Adelaide and in 2013 was co-curator with Brian Parkes and Margaret Hancock Davis of Designing Craft/Crafting Design: 40 Years of JamFactory. Her professional career spans more than forty years, working in Sydney and Adelaide with a wide range of arts organisations, including the Adelaide Festival, CACSA, SALA Festival, Adelaide Central School of Art, Arts NSW, the University of NSW and the Australia Council.
Tina Oldknow
Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at Corning Museum of Glass, New York from 2000 to 2015
Recently retired as Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, New York, Tina Oldknow is credited with the curation of the inaugural display of the Museum’s Contemporary Art and Design Wing, the largest space in the world devoted to the display and demonstration of contemporary art and design in glass. She also oversaw the complete reinstallation of the galleries with modern and contemporary glass from 1900 to 2000. Prior to her tenure at the Corning Museum, Oldknow held curatorial and advisory positions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, and the Seattle Art Museum. She holds a B.A. in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.A. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Brian Parkes
Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director at JamFactory
Brian Parkes has been CEO at JamFactory since April 2010. He has overseen significant growth of JamFactory’s exhibition and training programs and is passionate about promoting the social, cultural and economic value of design, creativity and the crafts. During 10 years as Associate Director at Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney, he curated several important exhibitions including the landmark survey of contemporary Australian design; Freestyle: New Australian Design for Living. In 2008 he was an Adjunct Curator for the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Parkes is a graduate of the Tasmanian Schoolof Art in Hobart and also has a significant background in commercial management within museums and galleries. He managed the merchandising and retail operations at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney from 1998 to 2000 and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra from 1995 to 1998.
