‘Focus On Glass’ at the Wustum Museum

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The United Nations along with the International Commission of Glass has declared 2022 as the year of glass. The organization is celebrating the many uses of glass such as the use of glass sheets in solar cells, the glass fiber optics that help power the internet, and in bioglass which helps with healing bones and wounds.

While the United Nations does touch on the influence of glass in art, Racine’s Wustum Museum has decided to highlight their own tribute with its “Focus on Glass” exhibition which opened in late July of this year and will run through May 2023. The exhibition is a celebration of four unique glass artists from diverse backgrounds: Jose Chardiet, Brett Kee Young, Acquaetta Williams and Etsuko Nishi. According to museum organizer Lena Vigna, the exhibit aims to not only “reflect the variety of artists  making contemporary work” but also display the “different components of working with the material and how artists appreciate it.”

The first artist in no particular order is Acquaetta Williams. An alumni of UW Madison, Williams is inspired by African and African American cultures and has been credited as focusing on meaning rather than technique in the glass medium. Her piece chosen for the exhibition, Vessel from Giraffe Neck Women series, is an excellent example of these motifs. The base of the work is a wide see-through glass bottle with rib cage like slits. Adorned on the bottle are various earrings, beads, and a wrap of yarn on the neck.

When viewed as whole, the whole work takes on the abstract aura of a living being. Williams states that her series is particularly inspired by the giraffe like necklace fashions worn by tribal women in Bruma and the South Ndebele women of South Africa. According to her statement, she intends for each piece of the work to possess “the power of healing, settling disputes ... and punishing wrongdoers” and believes accessories such as shells and wood grant these powers. Altogether, the vessel is an intriguing, pleasing tribute to African heritage that lies between naturalism and expressionism.

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Jose Chardiet provides a deeper journey into the ambiguous and uncanny universe glass art can reflect with his selected work, Red Mesa  # 75. Dominated by gold leaf, and a red purple shade, this piece appears to depict a still life of a vase and pottery on a stool. However, Chardiet argues it is not meant to be a direct representation, rather, it is meant to highlight the design itself. Indeed, the blended colors and elaborate shapes allow for viewers to openly interpret the art’s meaning.

Like Acquaetta Williams, Chardiet draws on influences from his own cultural background, such as Spanish still life paintings, but rather than pay tribute, he likes exploring nature and the subconscious. In his public artistic statement for the Wustum Museum, he hopes that the translucency nature of glass allows patrons to “look beyond the surface, to get to the core or soul of the sculpture.” Red Mesa # 75 accomplishes this goal and proves to be a nice accompaniment to William’s symbolic tribute

On the naturalist side of this exhibition, Brent Kee Young offers two pieces inspired by canyons and cave walls: Double Trouble from the Fossil Series and Vessel from The Cooper Canyon series. The former is an elaborate landscape of canyon texture made up of glass, copper, and silver salts against a deep navy blue backdrop. Its traveling companion, meanwhile, is a tribute to fossils with an outline of the skeletons of fish like creatures along with traces of sand against a deeper blue backdrop, as though depicting the ocean floor.

However, Kee Young welcomes ambiguity as a believer both in the Chinese artistic importance of depicting things that can be seen and Japanese artistic importance of things that can’t be seen. The pieces intend to both “speak of a respect for things natural; of ambiguity in space and images that are not there” and “speak of man’s marks, nature’s marks and their relation on one another.” Hence, the glass works are invoking environmental themes while also allowing the audience to develop their own thesis. Brent Kee Young offers a nice balance to Williams’ inventive, touching homage to humanity and Chardiet’s eye catching, imaginative abstractions.

The final artist up for review is Etsuko Nishi who provides a happy medium between the contrasting styles of the previous mentioned artists. Her two pieces, Lace Cage Bowl #168-14 and Pink Wisteria- provide an informative look at an artist who loves to play with theme and format. The first is a yellow and blue bowl that appears “stitched” with the stitching more reminiscent of a clay texture and having the appearance of construction steel beams. It is both a homage to folk art and an experiment in illusion. The latter is a glittery pastel pink and green tribute to the wildlife of Japan, a unique combination of technique and  impressionism. 

The varied textures of Nishi’s artwork come from a process called “Pate De Verre” where a paste made of colored powder glass and binding agent is applied to a mold and baked. Depending on how the paste is applied, the result can contain unique shapes and colors. Nishi’s work provides the audience a look at how method, impressionism, and expressionism come together to make inspiring art.

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The exhibition at the Wustum shows ways that glass can be used to communicate abstract ideas with an approachable angle.  These artists have used the medium to explore what lies between impressionistic and expressionistic art while also touching on aspects of their own backgrounds, employing a variety of textures and arrangements. Vigna hopes that both audiences and artists come away realizing that “there aren’t any boundaries, you can pick from any material you want to make work from.”  The exhibit is available for everyone to visit on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 12 to 4  p.m. until May of 2023. These artists are well worth admiration and contemplation.

The author wishes to thank Lena Vigna and all the Wustum Museum staff for their insights into the exhibition.