TG: Transitions in Kiln Glass
October 7, 2022 – January 15, 2023
Bullseye Projects is pleased to partner with Pittsburgh Glass Center to present Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass, an exhibition of works from Bullseye Glass Co.’s biennial juried competition honoring outstanding contemporary kiln-glass design, architecture, and art.
Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass reflects the expansion and evolution of the medium and its community. Tg refers to the glass transition temperature that lies near the center of the region in which the material shifts between behaving like a solid and behaving like a liquid. This metamorphosis embodies the ethos of kiln-glass, the transformation that occurs when glass softens and yields to the fierce heat of the kiln. Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass offers viewers an opportunity to explore the aesthetic choices, conceptual frameworks, and technical innovations of contemporary kiln-glass by artists from around the world.
Exhibit Resources
The participating artists were selected through a juried competition — open to artists and designers of all levels — by jurors Michael Endo, Co-Director of High Desert Observatory and Curatorial Consultant for Bullseye Projects; Helen Lee, Head of Glass at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Founder of Glass Education Exchange (GEEX); and Namita Gupta Wiggers, Founding Director of the MA in Critical Craft Studies at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, and Director and Co-Founder of Critical Craft Forum.
Bullseye’s previous biennial juried exhibition, Emerge, featured rising talent in the field of kiln-glass in ten competitions over a period of twenty years and was developed to encourage artists to explore a method of glassmaking that was relatively nascent at the time. Emerge became Emerge/Evolve with the addition of work by former Emerge finalists who had advanced in their practices and careers and was exhibited at Pittsburgh Glass Center in 2014 and 2017.
The transformation of Emerge/Evolve into Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass reflects the expansion and evolution of the medium and its community. While still encouraging emerging talent, the parameters have been widened to include a broader range of artists and to acknowledge the expansion of kiln-glass into the architectural and design fields. Tg refers to the glass transition temperature that lies near the center of the region in which the material shifts between behaving like a solid and behaving like a liquid. This metamorphosis embodies the ethos of kiln-glass, the transformation that occurs when glass softens and yields to the fierce heat of the kiln. Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass offers viewers an opportunity to explore the aesthetic choices, conceptual frameworks, and technical innovations of contemporary kiln-glass by artists from the US and abroad.
See the Award Winners here
Read about the Award Winners here
Bullseye Projects is part of Bullseye Glass Company, a manufacturer of colored glass for art and architecture based in Portland, Oregon, with worldwide distribution and a strong commitment to research, education, and the promotion of glass art.
Michael Endo, juror and curator of Tg: Transitions in Kiln-Glass, shares a presentation that explores the changing landscape of kiln-glass and the evolution from Emerge—the precursor of the current exhibition—into this new expanded form. Endo discusses the history of Bullseye Glass and the myriad directions in which kiln-glass is headed.
See the exhibition catalogue here. Please contact Bullseye Projects to purchase a printed copy of the exhibition catalog.
TG — To Cohere and Coalesce: The Movement of Kilnforming (Neues Glas, 2022)
