Abstract, sculptural forms on display March 11-April 8 at Rose Lehrman Art Gallery
Feb. 16, 2009
Harrisburg – Angus Powers, Jessica Julius and Ché Rhodes, artists who work with blown glass, cast glass and other materials, will display their abstract, sculptural forms March 11-April 8 in the gallery at Rose Lehrman Art Center on the Harrisburg Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.
A reception for the artists will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in the gallery. The public is invited to the reception, as well as the free exhibit.
Powers, like many glass artists, started his training making traditional, functional ware. His work is now largely sculptural and often combines other media such as metal, wood, plastic, wax and neon. According to the artist, he is interested in “the intentions and consequences of technological advances, and in presenting these ideas in formats that highlight their amazing aesthetics, the influence they have on our lives, and, very often, their ridiculous nature.”
Powers has a BFA from New York State College of Ceramics, School of Art and Design at Alfred University, where he now is assistant professor of glass, and a MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He also has studied at Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle. He has been a visiting artist at numerous workshops including the Danish Design School, Copenhagen, Denmark; GoggleWorks Arts Center, Reading, and the Glass Art Society International Conference in Pittsburgh. His work is included in the book, “Contemporary Glass” by Black Dog Publishing.
Powers has received several awards including one for excellence in teaching and one from the Cattaraugus County (N.Y.) Arts Council to execute a public commission. His work is exhibited throughout the United States as well as in Denmark.
Julius explores different ways of engaging glass as a means of expression. She uses thousands of glass components to construct installations and create objects that investigate human emotion and experience. She uses glass as a negative to create images with light sensitive paper that isolate and enlarge body parts and fluids to evoke emotional displacement.
Julius explores performance with the concern of not creating objects or destroying them but in demonstrating various properties and capabilities of glass through teamwork, relying on the interaction with an audience. Her intent with all of her work is to deal with issues of classification, perception, and emotion.
Julius, who teaches at Tyler School of Art and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has a BFA from Tyler and a MFA from Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. She also has studied at Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle. She received an Emerging Artist Award from the Glass Art Society and a Fellowship at Wheaton Arts from the Central Glass Center of America in Millville, N.J., among other awards. Her work is exhibited throughout the United States.
Rhodes’ work is comprised of organic shapes, with contrasting hard and soft edges. He rarely uses color, instead contrasts opaque forms with transparent forms. Rhodes says he is not thinking of specific subjects when he creates his forms: “I’m interested in the ‘approach and avoidance’ conflict, contrasting the attractive with the repulsive. There’s a push and pull in the work that creates a certain tension. People can make up their own minds about how they see and feel it.”
Rhodes, who is assistant professor at the University of Louisville, Ky., has bachelor’s degree from Centre College in Danville, Ky., and a MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, where he was awarded a “Future Faculty” Fellowship. In 1998-99, he was an instructor at Tyler and Hot Soup Studios in Philadelphia. He is a former member of the Glass Art Society Board of Directors and was head of the Glass Department at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, from 1999-2004.
His work in blown and cast glass can be seen at, among others, the Marta Hewett Gallery in Cincinnati and the Tobin Hewett Gallery in Louisville.
All Rose Lehrman Arts Gallery events are free and open to the public. Hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday and 5-7 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. For more information, call 780-2435 or e-mail Kim Banister, gallery curator, at kebanist@hacc.edu.
