CONNECTIONS
Glass From Every Angle
GAS Member Exhibition
The 2023 exhibition was juried by Karlyn Sutherland – Scotland; Ruriko Tzchida- Japan; and Ferd Hampson – USA.
“The GAS Member Exhibition is a representation of the range of innovation and vision that emerges from our community. Showcasing a diversity of expression, technical innovation, and varied research it is an opportunity for us to expand our engagement and awareness of the creative people in our field. Congratulations to our Members that participated in the 2023 Member Exhibition!”
– Brandi P. Clark, Executive Director, Glass Art Society
Winners
Geoffrey Bowton
🌎 American 📍United States
Augmenting his earlier career methods of metal fabrication and military service, Geoffrey R. Bowton informs his current studio
practice by applying the investigation and illustration of his ideas. Grounded in a military and veteran perspective, Geoffrey’s work is
primarily focused on war, post-traumatic stress, and mental wellness —to further explore how military deployments configure unparalleled human experience. While deployed, a person lives under perpetual
anxiety and the threat of death, this mental burden can compound the physical stress of warfare, resulting in post-service psychological and physical challenges. Juxtaposing war and the fragility of glass is
bridging conversation throughout different multimedia platforms, galleries, museums, and even public events; inviting the audience to look upon the front lines into those realities.
Geoffrey uses mixed media and the power of craft to supply insight while creating work that embodies these multi-faceted experiences—to discuss the loss of identity, the traumatic stress endured, and newfound Mental Health practices. This pâte de verre work is transforming old dusty gear into a visual landscape of the service member’s life. In 2019 Geoffrey graduated from the Oregon College of Art and Craft with a BFA in
sculpture. While graduating, he received national recognition from the Center for Craft in Asheville, North Carolina, earning the
Windgate-Lamar Fellowship Award becoming the first for his school over the past 14 years. Previously, he received the May Georges
Metals Scholarship and a Windgate Student Scholarship Award to attend Penland School of Craft, learning the art of Pate de Verre. His
work exhibit during the 2019’s Ireland Glass Biennale, at the Coach House Dublin Castle, Dublin, IE. Also, 2019 winner, The Glass Prize, by Warm Glass UK. In recent years of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Geoffrey has participated in online group exhibitions for the
International Art-Folio Annual and the International Engage Art Contest, awarded Honorable Mention. Also, for the 2020 and 2022 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, awarded third place in the
combat experience and sculpture categories. Geoffrey is in recent publications by Glass Art Magazine, Pate de Verre – The Material of
Time, Glashaus Magazine, and Military Officers Magazine. In May of 2022, he collaborated in a presentation with world-renowned glass artist Josh Simpson for the Distinguished Artist Series in honor of
the 40th anniversary of James Renwick Alliance for Craft and the 25th anniversary of the Center for Craft. Also, in November of 2022, he exhibited new work at the Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Gallery in
Bainbridge, WA. Throughout the upcoming months of 2023, Geoffrey is attending a residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, also, participating in the Not Grandma’s Glass International Glass Competition NGG 2023, and attending the EAiR residency program in the fall at Pilchuck Glass School.
Sykes Regulars are a group of resolute infantry personnel who deployed and fought throughout the longstanding wars in the Middle East. My Pate de Verre continues to live and navigate through military narratives, unpacking the mental weight of old duffle bag and rucksack stories. This work is constructed by hand-building multiple layers of glass powders and shards, which compose a thin hollow object. Carefully explore each surface and discover the considerations made to portray wartime experiences to the individual, such as a gunshot wound, or shrapnel abrasions, and incidents that happened while serving on the battlefield.
Péter Borkovics
🌎 Hungarian📍Hungary
Schools: 1986-1990 Secondary School of Visual Arts, Budapest, Glass Design; 1994 University of Applied Arts, Budapest, degree in glass and ceramic design Masters : György Buczkó, Zoltán Bohus, Márton Horváth and Zsuzsa Vida /student of professor Libensky; 1995 University of Applied Arts, Budapest, MD in glass design,
master : Endre Gaál; 2001-2003 University of Applied Arts, Budapest, Ph.D. of Liberal Arts 2002 Politecnico di Milano, computer design
department; Since 1997 – Art teacher at the Secondary School of Visual Arts, Budapest, glass department; Since 2018 – Senior lecturer at the Hungarian University of Art and Design (MOME)- Glass Design
specialisation; 2020 DLA Doctor of Liberal Arts / Summa Cum Laude /MOME
Prizes : 2008 Smithsonian Renwick Award, Habatat Galleries, Michigan, USA; 2013 International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa,
‘Honorable Mention Prize’ Japan; 2014 42nd Annual International Glass Invitational Award Winner, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Michigan,USA; 2016 44th Annual International Glass Invitational Award
Winner, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Michigan,USA; 2016 Warm Glass
UK. Glass Prize; 2016 ‘Other Category’ UK; 2022 International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa, ‘Jurors’ Special Prize’, Japan; 2022 ‘The Coburger Glaspreis 2022’ visitors award, Germany; 2022 Connections 2022, 2nd prize, Glass from Every Angle – The Glass Art Society Member Exhibition during the 50th Anniversary GAS conference in Tacoma, USA
I modeled the crinkling mechanisms of glowing fluids. I recorded the stability of the initial states and I tracked and learned the changes. The glass objects made in this way do not meet the criteria of the narrowly defined fine art design, but they do not bear the mark of the planned industrial object culture, either. I looked for a new, personal design. I looked for a design where glass material dictates only for me, so I can be the first to write it down.
Sandra Bacchi
🌎 Brazil📍United States
Sandra Bacchi is a Brazilian-American visual artist based in Pittsburgh, USA, working with photography, video, and glass. Her documentary and conceptual work weave together fiction and truths to tell more open-ended stories on how human beings find common ground. Bacchi believes that when we take the time to value others’ differences, we are more open to exposing the differences in ourselves and living a more full and expressed life. After earning a degree in photography at Escola Panamericana de Artes in 1997, Bacchi worked in the Brazilian film industry. Between 2002 and 2012, she was the executive producer and owner of the video production company Estação 8, based in São Paulo, Brazil. Bacchi moved to the US in 2012 and turned her focus to her artistic career. Since then, her work has been in thirty national and international group exhibitions, including shows at the McDonough Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Houston Center for Photography, and reviewed in publications, including LensCratch, Float Photo Magazine, and A Curator. In 2019-2020, Bacchi was an artist in residence at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC), creating new works to be part of The United Exhibition at PGC, and participating on the “Hanging on Every Word, Listening and Learning on immigration Art” Panel discussion at SOFA, Intersect Chicago, 2020. In 2021, her short film “Seeking Nowhere” was screened during the “Glass, Meet the Future 2021 Film Festival” at the Toyama Glass Art Museum, Japan, the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, and at the North Lands Creative’s website. In the fall of 2022, Bacchi’s Watermelons Are Not Strawberries photo series was published as a photobook by Yoffy Press, with an essay by Sarah Kennel, and exhibited as a solo show at the Concept Art Gallery in Pittsburgh, where she joined Sarah Kennel or a talk. Bacchi also invited her two daughters, the series’ subjects, and Divya Rao Heffley for a conversation at Silver Eye Center for Photography’s book fair. Bacchi is a Pittsburgh Glass Center board member since 2021, a member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, and an artist-in-residence at the 2022-2023 Distillery residency Program at Brew House Association in Pittsburgh.
Seeking Nowhere investigates the sense of belonging that immigrants seek when they leave their homeland. It takes enormous courage and strength for immigrants to leave behind everything they know to explore new horizons. For each of these travelers, the experience is unique – even when the circumstance seems similar.
Seeking Nowhere is composed of 35 photographs, capturing five different sea horizons; each repeated seven times. The photographic decals were manipulated using various glass materials, techniques, and firing processes. Accompanying the piece, an audio interview is played on speakers sharing stories of immigrants from different parts of the globe.
Gallery
