This Fragile Skin

September 1 – October 15

Main Gallery

Curated by Michael Endo, Steve Klein, and Bullseye Gallery

Relax Yourself by Silvia Levenson

Glorified in paintings and sculpture, the human form is one of the most widely explored subjects in art. Despite this attention, the body continues to be fertile ground for thoughtful interpretation and exploration.  Figuration seeks to make connections. It seeks an empathic relationship between the creative impulse and us. Curated in association with Bullseye Gallery, "This Fragile Skin" explores these connections in kilnformed glass.

Intangible by Ted Sawyer

The artists represented in "This Fragile Skin" only occasionally approach the figure directly. Instead, artists like Silvia Levenson comment on the fragility of our bodies that is evidenced by the number of bottles in our medicine cabinets. Catharine Newell and Michael Rogers, through kilnformed and cast glass installations, remind us of our fleeting existence through meditations on memory.  Mel Douglas and Jessica Loughlin's sumptuous surfaces, like our own skin, are tactile, yet norms prevent us from touching. The anthropomorphic cast works of Richard Whiteley are not figurative in a traditional sense, but seem to knowingly return our gaze. The protective works of Steve Klein surround and enclose us. Clifford Rainey destroys the classical torso and we are left with the beautiful, yet haunting, remains.

It is the flexibility of glass, as a material, that allows for the exploration of so many divergent ideas. Through kilnforming, glass, with all its shiny industrial associations, becomes human. There is a connection between the material, these works, and us. We are connected through our shared experiences of attraction and repulsion, lust and taboo, solidity and permeability, and, most of all, our shared fragility.

Counting by Clifford Rainey

Join master artist Steve Klein as he instructs on The Art of Making Your Work, Wednesdays, October 19 - November 9, 6-10pm. Click here to register now!

Participating Artists: Mel Douglas, Steve Klein, Craig Leaper, Silvia Levenson, Jessica Loughlin, Catherine Newell, Robin Provart-Kelly, Clifford Rainey, Michael Rogers, Ted Sawyer, Jeff Wallin and Richard Whiteley.

Bullseye Glass Co. is a leader in promoting glass art worldwide - through quality production of colored glass for art and architecture, research, education, and the presentation of innovative glass art in their fine arts gallery.

Kilnformed glass and fused glass are interchangeable terms referring to melting pieces of glass together in a kiln. For example, to make a bowl, pieces of glass are cut into circles and fused together in the kiln. Then in a second firing, the round disk is placed inside a mold and slowly heated in the kiln so that the glass slumps into the bowl mold to achieve the shape

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