New Glass Review 24

From “Juror’s Choice”

By Tina Oldknow, curator of Modern Glass,

The Corning Museum of Glass, New York, 2003, pp 29

Kazuo Kadonaga (Japanese, b,1946) Glass No.4J Japan, Kanazawa, 1999 Melted glass D. 87 cm Photo: courtesy Greg Kucera Gallery. Seattle

I am partial to large-scale sculpture and installations, and my selections for the “Jurors’ Choice” section of New Glass Review reflect this bias. In the context of large-scale work (which is generally more difficult to achieve than small scale), I am constantly amazed by what can be done with glass. In what other medium can you have the visual and tactile range of such pieces as Ginny Ruffner’s bronze, steel, and blown glass Color Poem of a Vertical Landscape; Iran do Espiríto Santo’s sandblasted glass and bitumen Restless 17; Kazuo Kadonaga’s half-ton, dripped Glass No.4 J; and Jerry Pethick’s assembled bottle man, Le Semeur ? These four sculptures have radically different concerns, formally and conceptually, but they share an undeniable delight in the material and its ability to generate light, color, and depth. …