Exhibiting Artists: Sarah Max Beck, Robert C. Beck, Ian Burns, Jim Campbell, Paul DeMarinis, Lili Maya, James Rouvelle, Sunita Prasad and John Roach
The expanded use of glass as an artistic medium emerged in the late sixties, roughly coinciding with the rise to prominence of video, performance, bio art and other "New Media". Since their emergence, these new media have developed along similar trajectories to that of the studio glass movement. From nascent periods of direct and drippy material experimentation they developed adolescent obsessions with increasingly slick expressions of skill for skill's sake. In their current midlife iteration, both have landed in a realm where craft is assumed and deftly applied to concept.
The artists included in Pushing Buttons represent a myriad of backgrounds and fields of inquiry, yet all share an inherently hybrid and inquisitive approach to making and thinking. Their intuitive and exploratory artistic practices have allowed them to effectively integrate the creative and conceptual possibilities of combining glass with New Media. Much can be learned about the expressive potentials of the material by tracking these artist’s innate responses when presented with a new and potent art making tool.
Drawn to the acoustics, transparency, and optics of glass, the artists in the exhibition have cleverly engaged glass to contain, reveal, distort, and resonate systems of image, sound, and information.
