Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is known for its impressive art collections that encompasses contemporary, Western heritage and Native American art, across many mediums including paintings, bronze, pottery and jewelry. Beginning June 9, the gallery will present Group Glass Exhibition, a new show that features 10 esteemed contemporary artists.
Preston Singletary (Tlingit), Fog Woman, cast lead crystal, 35¼ x 11½ x 7”
“Glass is a magical medium,” says executive director Denise Phetteplace, “and this exhibition seeks to further illustrate that point. Glass can be blown, stretched, cut, cast, cold-worked, colored, opalescent, opaque and luminous. It can visually look like glass, or it can take on the appearance of other materials. In an exhibition like this, we can highlight just how broad glass art can be; each of the participating artists represents a unique skillset and visual style within the medium.”
Seattle artist Preston Singletary (Tlingit), one of the leading Native American artists in the glass genre, was one of the first glass artists to exhibit at Blue Rain, leading the gallery to grow to include glass artists that work in a unique style and approach. “Singletary has firmly established himself as a preeminent glass artist whose groundbreaking designs, shapes and techniques have set new standards of excellence, both for glass art as a whole and contemporary Native art in particular,” the gallery remarks.
Preston Singletary (Tlingit), Wings On His Shoulders, blown and sand-carved glass, steel, 26 x 11 x 8”
For the June show, Singletary will feature his sand-carved glass and cast-lead crystal pieces such as Fog Woman, a blue animal and human totem. The artist often sees himself as an “ambassador of glass to Indigenous communities,” as he often depicts stories of his Tlingit culture. He notes that he also garners inspiration through artist collaborations.
In show piece Nature Connections, depicting two animals fluidly attached with a human figure situated in the center, Singletary further demonstrates his mastery of shape, design and, of course, storytelling. Besides celebrating his culture in symbolic and traditional references, he hopes to “expose people to the story and give them an interesting experience.”
Dan Friday (Lummin Nation), Sxwo’le Anchor (Blue), blown glass, 14¾ x 11 x 6”
Another show artist, Dan Friday (Lummin Nation), based in northern Washington state, is also heavily influenced by his culture, and the symbol and narrative that surrounds it. Blue Rain Gallery describes Friday as “typically [working] with simple themes and forms to create stylized bears, baskets, totems and salmon, employing subtle silhouettes and sometimes complex cane patterns. His glass-making practices include a combination of furnace sculpting and glass blowing, depending on the particular form he is seeking to create.”
Friday explains, “I hope to create and make inspired pieces of glass in an effort to document not only my family’s history, but the artwork of the Coast Salish people. Glass is a medium that will survive a millennia, and a great way to tell a story…The Sxwo’le (reef net) pronounced shuh-wala, has given me a lot of inspiration. It was a community binding and governing force of my ancestors’ lives. Today we still fish the Sxwo’le method off Cherry Point in the Salish Sea.”
Dan Friday (Lummin Nation), Sxwo’le Anchor (Gold), blown glass, 12½ x 9¾ x 6”
The Sxwo’le has worked its way into Friday’s show pieces like Sxwo’le Anchor, a minimal shape, with an impeccable net design and blue-green color. “I had a residency at the Burke Museum in Seattle,” he explains, “and have been allowed to study in the archeology and ethnology departments. There I have studied many historical effects of my family and Lummi/Coast Salish peoples…Most recently in my research, I have been studying the fishing artifacts, and among those, the Reef Net anchor stones. As archeology in modern times has moved under water, it has become apparent the specifically laid out anchor patterns just how much reef netting was practiced in the Salish Sea. Many of the artifacts of Indigenous people return to the earth through decay. The Reef Net anchors are beautifully preserved, and all that is left of a thriving industry of the peoples of the San Juan Islands.”
Blue Rain Gallery has also included non-Native artists for the group show, making for a diverse, visually breathtaking experience. Drop by the gallery to for Group Glass Exhibtion before it closes on June 25.
Blue Rain Gallery
June 9-25, 2022
544 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 954-9902, www.blueraingallery.com
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