sedimentary clam cloud and sandstorm winkle

nancy callan: neonature
exhibition runs: june 6 - 29, 2008
opening reception: thursday, june 5, 5 - 8 pm

The Traver Gallery is pleased to present NeoNature, a solo exhibition featuring new work by Seattle-based artist Nancy Callan. Combining extraordinary technical expertise with innovative design and a contagious sense of fun, Callan presents a variety of whimsical, large-scale blown glass sculptures inspired by - but not limited to - the forms, colors and patterns of nature.

“Nature is a muse for many artists, but it is hard to match her perfection,” says the artist. “My intent is not to mimic nature exactly, but to produce new hybrids of form, color and pattern. The fantastic shapes and markings found in insects, birds, and flowers are sometimes so outrageous that they seem implausible. Even more unreal and beautiful life forms live on the ocean floor.”

Drawn to unusual looking creatures, Callan interprets their flamboyance and flaunts their ambiguity in her sculptures. Many of the works in this series have caterpillar-like articulations and rounded, inflated bodies. Their organic shapes are adorned with glass cane patterns designed to amplify and draw attention to the forms. Like fabrics by Pucci or Marimekko, the colorful and graphic patterns in Callan’s work present a stylized, playful vision of nature.

Nancy Callan has been working as a glass artist since receiving her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1996. She has been a member of Venetian maestro Lino Tagliapietra’s glass blowing team for over ten years and she has traveled throughout the world as his teaching assistant. In addition to working with Lino, Nancy has taught courses at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, The Studio at Corning Museum of Glass and Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. Her work has been included in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions and is part of many prestigious public and private collections throughout the United States.

patchwork fruit (deer)

amy rueffert: time passes, the souvenir remains
exhibition runs: june 6 - 29, 2008
opening reception: thursday, june 5, 5 - 8 pm

William Traver is proud to introduce emerging artist Amy Rueffert in her first solo exhibition with the gallery. Through the blown glass sculptures presented in Time Passes, the Souvenir Remains, Rueffert examines the objects that surround us in our everyday lives, with a special focus on those that shed light on our society’s beliefs about domesticity and femininity.

The forms of Rueffert’s modern-day Curios are inspired by Victorian decorative arts, which are known for their orderliness and ornamentation, as well as their tendency to mix characteristics from past stylistic eras. The artist’s sculptures are adorned with vintage enamel decals from the 1960s and 70s, creating a playfully poetic patchwork of imagery that refers to another time while also commenting on women’s roles in society.

“Vintage, commercially produced ceramic decals create a complex sense of time in these Curios,” says the artist. “Their simple flower prints and decorative patterns recall a different era, while the medium of glass provides opportunities - through the use of optics - for the dynamic presentation of the imagery.”

Amy Rueffert has worked in glass since 1994. She earned her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art in 1998 and pursued independent study at Ohio State University with Ruth King. Rueffert has received scholarships for study at Pilchuck Glass School and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and she recently received her MFA at Mills College in Oakland where she studied sculpture and ceramics with Ron Nagle.

Rueffert has taught at The Studio at The Corning Museum of Glass, Pilchuck Glass School, The Glass Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and San Jose State University. She has worked for many years with Richard Marquis on Whidbey Island, Washington; Jeff Benroth at the Glass Studio in Berkeley, California; and Simple Syrup Glass Studio in Brockton, Massachusetts.

cooper’s hawk

jane rosen and karen willenbrink-johnsen: collaboration
exhibition runs: june 1 - 29, 2008
artist talk: sunday, june 1, 2 pm

Also in June, the gallery will present a small, collaborative exhibition featuring avian imagery by Jane Rosen and Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen. The show, which will be on display from June 1 - 29, highlights a selection of Rosen’s prints, drawings and sculpture and Willenbrink-Johnsen’s sculpted glass birds. Jane is currently completing an artist residency at Pilchuck Glass School and working closely with Karen (who is serving as her gaffer) to execute her visions in glass. To celebrate their creative collaboration, the two will give an artists’ talk at the gallery on Sunday, June 1 from 2 - 5 pm.

About Jane Rosen:

Painter, sculptor, and printmaker Jane Rosen has dedicated her career to exploring the laws of nature. On the one hand, Rosen’s work is complex in its search for a thread of continuity that runs throughout all life forms. Her artistic dialogue is equally multi-dimensional, as it combines the traditional ideas of such artists as Leonardo da Vinci and a post-minimalist rejection of “clean” shapes and textures. At the same time, Rosen is committed to making her art accessible to all. Although she does not necessarily intend to create uplifting art, she wants it to be meaningful.

So important to Rosen was her investigation of nature that she left her native New York ten years ago to live on a ranch in California. She sought to immerse herself in an environment “where nature is larger than culture.” According to Rosen, our daily encounters with cultural symbols override such natural instincts as knowing the contours of the human body. Therefore, Rosen attempts to reconnect with her instincts by not just simply drawing the human figure as she sees it, but as if she were actually touching it. By experiencing the human form on more than one level, she better understands her own being and communicates with the viewer about how his or her being may relate to it.

Often, her work also incorporates animal figures, for which “animal nature [acts as a] key to understanding our own nature.” As she creates the figures with her hands, the process of art-making inevitably engages a kind of understanding that stretches beyond regular cognition. It is this heightened state of awareness that leads Rosen to view animals and humans as though they share the same essence.

For Rosen, art is a language through which she can explore these questions that her mind alone cannot fully grasp. In the process, she hopes to inspire and activate the viewer to contemplate life’s possibilities.

About Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen:

Throughout history, owls have symbolized widely varying ideas and experiences to people around the world. Few creatures have held such a constant yet shifting position in human mythology, being at times revered, and at times feared and despised. While they are alternately associated with victory, death, darkness, and wisdom, owls are always associated with vision and perspective. They are watchers - and we see ourselves reflected in their wide, knowing eyes.

Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen is also a watcher. She has taken the time to observe - to really see - every feather, talon, and branch presented in her work, and invites us to do the same. While glass is increasingly being employed as a sculptural medium, the level of realism found in Karen’s work is unprecedented. Combining unmatched technical mastery with a profound love for her medium, nature, and her husband and creative collaborator Jasen Johnsen, Willenbrink-Johnsen uses sculpted glass to explore entirely new territory.

“I was raised in Southwest Ohio, the naturalist daughter of a naturalist father. Many a day were spent on forays through the woods, exploring fossils, animals and trees, becoming imbued with a love for the natural world. I am constantly inspired, revitalized, and awed by the power of nature, and my work arises from a need to experience and acknowledge the essence of living things. It is this passion that drives me to further explore, and intensify the expression of my craft.”

After earning her BFA in sculpture from Ohio University, glass quickly became the driving force in Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen’s life. She moved to Washington State in 1987, and soon afterward began working as an assistant to the legendary glass artist William Morris. Karen’s unique vision and passion for glass is evident in her work, which has been shown extensively in galleries and museums throughout the country. She co-teaches glass-sculpting classes throughout the world with her husband and collaborator Jasen Johnsen.

Seattle
110 Union Street #200
Seattle, WA 98101
206.587.6501 phone
206.587.6502 fax
info@travergallery.com

Seattle gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday 10-6,
Saturday 10 - 5 and Sunday 12 - 5
www.travergallery.com