2018 Horn Gallery_ALCHEMY

Dean Allison | Amber Cowan | Daniel Clayman

ARTISTS

Dean Allison

Giles Bettison

Daniel Clayman

Nate Cotterman

Amber Cowan

Nickolaus Fruin

Katherine Gray

Jiyong Lee

Kit Paulson

Mark Peiser

Marc Petrovic

Tim Tate

For more information about the artists please contact 828.765.6211

Nickolaus Fruin (detail)
Jiyong Lee
Marc Petrovic

“I continue to be impressed by works that engage the materiality of glass. “Glassy thinkers” such as Nick Fruin ….use the chemistry of glass as a means to create and convey meaning. Fruin, a highly accomplished glassblower, spent much of 2017 developing a formula for a highly refractive lead glass that is compatible with standard soda-lime blowing glasses. He combines these glasses to create traditional Venetian canes whose patterns are visible only through the differing refractive indexes of the glass. It is subtle, intellectual work that combines hand, mind, and object.” ~ Susie Silbert, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, NY.  from her essay in New Glass Review 39.

Amber Cowan
Mark Peiser

“For me, expanding my vocabulary usually implies a development of technique. The fact that I’ve spent so much energy seeking technical solutions is not because I love frustration – it’s to accomplish my visions in what to my imagination is the simplest most direct, most knowing way. For me, technique is not cheap – it’s imperative.

Glass is a tough lover, fragile and unforgiving, demanding and costly, high maintenance. But glass has no imagination or hidden agenda. If you are attentive, learn its ways, are understanding in what you ask of it and treat it with care, its spirit emerges.” ~ Mark Peiser

Katherine Gray
Katherine Gray (detail)
Giles Bettison
Nickolaus Fruin
Dean Allison
Nate Cotterman
Kit Paulson

“Alchemists were notorious for attempting to make synthetic gold, but their goals were far more ambitious: to transform and bend nature to the will of an industrious human imagination. For scientists, philosophers, and artists alike, alchemy seemed to hold the key to unlocking the secrets of creation. Alchemists’ efforts to discover the way the world is made have had an enduring impact on artistic practice and expression around the globe.” ~ Getty Museum

Tim Tate
Tim Tate
Kit Paulson
Tim Tate
Tim Tate

A special thank you to each of the artists for their support of the Penland Gallery, and to Katya and Doug Heller and Duane Reed for generously loaning works from their galleries for this exhibition.