Dearborn exhibit features work of Toledo glass artists

3/24/2011

Works by Michael Arike, such as 'Rubber Band Ball #5,' and Sandy Willcox are included in anew show at Hudson Gallery.

Sixteen local glass artists are celebrated in Toledo Studio Art Glass: New Generations, opening with a 5 to 7:30 p.m. reception April 1 in the Alfred Berkowitz Gallery on the third floor of the Mardigian Library at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, Mich. The exhibit is a nod to the 1962 workshops in Toledo at which a handful of artists figured out ways to make glass in a small studio. Artists include Annette Baron, Patrick Dubreuil, Sharon Frankel, Mary Ellen Graham, Judith Konesni, Steve Kemmerley, Randy Kuntz, Thomas Lingeman, Jeff Mack, Leonard Marty, Matthew J. Paskiet, Robin Schultes, John Sutton, Marvin Thorp, Michael J. Wallace, and Homer J. Yarrito. Continuing through May 12, the exhibit is part of the 2011 Michigan Glass Month events. Information: 313-593-3592.

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Lourdes College launches a free art-talk series Sunday in the Franciscan Theatre & Conference Center, named for Sister Jane Mary Sorosiak, who taught art for decades at the college and at Cardinal Stritch High School. Sister Jane Mary, who has a studio on campus, will deliver the inaugural lecture/slide show at 2 p.m. Specializing in ceramics, tile work, and murals, she has completed dozens of commissions for churches, hospitals, libraries, and schools around the country as well as for the Lourdes campus. The new lecture series is sponsored by alum George Brymer, who was inspired by Sister Jane Mary when he was student, and his wife, Vicky. Because a reception will follow the talk, reservations are requested at 419-517-8940 and sglidden@lourdes.edu.

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Framing Botero: Fernando Botero's Art in Context will be discussed by Deborah Cullen at 7:30 p.m. April 1 in the Little Theater at the Toledo Museum of Art. Cullen is director of curatorial programs at El Museo del Barrio, New York.

Three museum staff have new titles. Amy Gilman has been named associate director and curator of modern and contemporary art;

Carolyn Putney is now chief curator, and Lawrence W. Nichols has been named senior curator.

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A 4 to 6 p.m. reception Saturday opens the eclectic Now Wow Project at Hudson Gallery. The gallery will exhibit selected results from a juried competition it organized that received nearly 500 entries, including paintings, prints, glass, ceramics, and mixed media. It was judged by Thomas Hilty, former director of the art school at Bowling Green State University. The gallery is at 5645 North Main St., Sylvania.

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Oil and watercolor paintings by Norm Abrass are in the Maumee branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library through April 15.

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A Celebration of the Arts Festival at Terra Community College begins this weekend and continues through April 8. The Festival Gallery in the atrium of Building B will display a variety of work including some by faculty artist Daniel Chudzinski, and by Kathy Kosins, a vocalist and the festival's guest artist. The exhibit opens Sunday. For a list of other activities, call 419-559-2233.

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Life in Ceramics: Five Contemporary Korean Artists runs April 2 through June 26 at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The show was organized by the Fowler Museum at the University of California Los Angeles. Kim Yikyung, Lee In Chin, Lee Kang Hyo, Lee Young-Jae, and Yoon Kwang-cho use everyday forms such as bowls and vases as a starting point from which to explore these shapes as works of art. Each artist produces new work grounded in Korea's ancient ceramic traditions. Objects from their everyday-ware collection will be shown so visitors can examine the distinction between fine art and functional design.

Also at the museum is Photoformance: An Empathic Environment, through May 15. A new multimedia installation, it brings together the work of Ernestine Ruben, experimental photographer of the human form; Monica Ponce de Leon, architect of muscular structures; Peter Sparling, choreographer/video artist of new-movement forms, and music by Erik Santos, composer. The environment they create together features a video synthesis of photographic imaging and the choreography of actual bodies projected onto the skins of a multilayered, membrane-like structure, and provides a "walk-through body" and a luminous web. The museum is at 525 South State St., Ann Arbor. Information: 734-763-0395.

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The Cleveland Museum of Art will present The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art, Sunday through Aug. 28. Its 80 objects dating from the 14th to the 21st centuries were selected from the museum's collections and highlight artistic efforts to fuse poetry with visual art via calligraphy, painting, and decorative arts. Also at the museum is Landscapes from the Collection, Saturday through Aug. 14, an exhibition looking at the impact of people on the natural beauty of the environment. Information: 888-262-0033.