Exhibitions in 2005

Paul Stankard: A Floating World, Forty Years of an American Master in Glass

October 22, 2005 to January 15, 2006

Organized and Circulated by the Museum of Arts & Design, New York
Sponsored by The Ben B. Cheney Foundation

Paul Stankard: A Floating World Forty Years of an American Master in Glass highlights the extraordinary work of the undisputed master of floral glass paperweights. In Stankard's world-renowned art, nature is crystallized: with amazing technical skill, the artist creates flowers and insects that rival the perfection and diversity of nature by melting and manipulating colored glass rods in the "lampworking" process, and then encasing them in glass crystal. The magnifying effect of the crystal brings out every intimate detail, from the fuzz on the inside of a petal to the fine sheen on a dragonfly's wing, demonstrating Stankard's acute powers of observation and exceptional artistic sense.

Debora Moore: Natural Reflections

October 22, 2005 to January 15, 2006

Organized by the Museum of Glass

Natural Reflections showcases Debora Moore’s most recent works which are exotic studies of orchids, bamboo, moss, leaves, and tree forms. She works hot glass in a very organic and fluid fashion, giving the botanical sculptures a sense of naturalness while retaining an expressive, interpretive quality. Her art is inspired by the nature excursions she has taken to places such as Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Moore's new works are marked by a dramatic change in size and include a large bamboo grove and an orchid tree that climbs the gallery walls. Her new works also shift attention to the beauty of natural textures like moss-covered branches, unfurling leaves and the fecundity of old growth forests.

William Morris: Myth, Object and the Animal—A Mid-Career Survey

June 4 - December 31, 2005

Organized by the Museum of Glass and William Morris Studio
Sponsored by Russell Investment Group

This exhibition is the first major examination in the Pacific Northwest of William Morris's work and commemorates his significant contribution to contemporary art. The exhibition will trace twenty years of work by one of the most prominent artists to emerge from the Studio Glass Movement and include four major installations, along with several important and rare sculptures from the artist and prestigious private collections.

Creativity: The Flowering Tornado
Art by Ginny Ruffner

June 24 - November 27, 2005

Organized by Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Exhibition and Tour sponsored by The Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation, Dr. Barry L. Wilson and Corinna M. Gauntt, Southern Guaranty Insurance Company, The Bagley Wright Family Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Benaroya and the Harmon-Cone Company. In Tacoma, the exhibition is sponsored by The Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Foundation.

Ginny Ruffner, a storyteller, uses the unique canvas of glass and sculpture to communicate her dreams, desires, frustrations and fantasies. In her new installation, Creativity, The Flowering Tornado, Ruffner features suspended picture frames that incorporate sculptured items of some of her favorite things-flowers, bear traps, hearts and arrows, with the centerpiece being a large tornado with wings. Each element represents a different facet of the creative process.

The exhibition also includes 23 examples of the artist's finest lamp-worked glass pieces and bronze sculpture. Drawn from Ruffner's private collection, they will form a brief retrospective of her career. Ruffner has brought new respect to her medium and has inspired a new generation of flame workers. Her work is an unabashed celebration of life that invites us to celebrate with her.

Best In Show: Works by David Gilhooly, William Wegman and Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen

March 26 - October 9, 2005

Organized by the Museum of Glass

Best in Show: Works by David Gilhooly, William Wegman and Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen is a thematic group exhibition that celebrates the endearing and playful relationships between humans and dogs. In a strikingly creative way, it examines the artists' use of the dog as a muse, metaphor and model. Although these artists share a love of dogs and humor, what we also experience is the delightfully diverse outcome of their choices of media and modes of interpretation.

Tom Patti: Illuminating the Invisible

November 20, 2004 - June 12, 2005

Organized by the Museum of Glass
Sponsored by Heritage Bank and Heller Gallery, New York

Illuminating the Invisible is a 30-year retrospective exhibition that traces the evolution of an artist and his vision. In the 1970s, Tom Patti (American, born 1943) explored the sculptural potential of glass, pioneering the use of architectural and industrial glass within the new studio glass movement. Since the 1980s, Patti has continued to refine his artistic and technical skills, creating small, sculptural works that are both geometric and ethereal. His work since the 1990s includes large-scale architectural installations, which are located in many corporate headquarters and private residences throughout the country.

The Museum of Glass is an especially fitting venue for the art that reflects Patti's multi-disciplinary interest in architecture, engineering, science and the power of creativity. An architectural and engineering tour de force, the Museum has developed an ambitious education program of equal stature. Our Science-of-Art program uses art and the creative process of glass blowing to lure students into relevant investigations of physics, chemistry, math and music. This unique exhibition addresses the relationship between art, architecture, science and technology and furthers the public's understanding of the artist's role as designer, architect and engineer as he masters the material of glass and its scientific properties. A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Einar and Jamex de la Torre:
Intersecting Time and Place

January 22 - May 22, 2005

Organized by the Museum of Glass
Sponsored in part by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and Channing Chase & Daniel Saxon

Brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre consider themselves both American and Mexican. Born in Mexico to an American-Mexican mother and Mexican father, they spent the majority of their adolescence in California. As a result, the subject matter of their work is closely related to their unique voyage of self-discovery.

The de la Torre brothers include numerous references to pre-conquest Mexico, a culture they find as rich with source material as their own. They incorporate time-honored styles such as Mexican folk art and symbols of Catholicism as well as universal subjects such gender roles and cultural integration. As a result, viewers of their work are able to place one foot in the Worlds of Pre-Columbian Mexico while the other is planted firmly in contemporary society. This exhibition will include 19 sculptures and one serigraph and is accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue published in collaboration with the University of Washington Press.