NYAB Event - Katherine Gray “This Makes Me Think of That”

Katherine Gray “This Makes Me Think of That”

Heller Gallery

This event has ended.

Heller Gallery presents This Makes Me Think of That, our first solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Katherine Gray.

In This Makes Me Think of That the artist shares the intimacy of her own experience as a glass-maker without relying solely on the visual, but rather by inviting our other senses, in particular smell and sound. Acknowledging that she has always felt lucky to have found glassblowing as a vehicle for self-expression, she designed the exhibition as her way ‘to give a sense of its subtle joys and challenges, to create some kind of simulated experience for those who will never enter a ‘hot shop’ or step foot on a glassblowing pad.’

Central to the exhibition will be Gray’s collaboration with master perfumer Kedra Hart, who created four specially commissioned, hot-shop evoking scents Wax, Paper, Block and Sleeve. Presented at four diffusing stations, and as a limited edition coffret, they will serve to conjure up the olfactory essence of a hot shop during the exhibition. Other works, which relate Gray’s experiences, will include these four pieces. Back and Forth, a recording of the glassblowing tools interacting with molten glass as the artist makes a small drinking glass, is delivered as a sound piece. The eponymous This Makes Me Think of That, consists of two glass wall panels referencing the furnace and the glory hole, sources of heat and light in a glass studio and Untitled, a limited edition photographic wall banner depicts all of the artist’s books on glass. Playing with the idea of material transcending its physical manifestation, A Rainbow Like You incorporates bright theatrical spotlights shining through an assortment of glassware, creating an outsized spectral rainbow projection on the wall above and behind. The piece recalls stained glass windows with a reverse premise and implications.

Gray’s practice draws on the rich historical traditions of glassblowing as well as her explorations of the dichotomy that glass as a material embodies, ranging from mundane to the sublime. She often comments on aspects of glass, which make it physically invisible and psychologically absent. The LA Times praised her works for ‘emphasizing the broad potential of the medium while also showcasing Gray’s very considerable skills,’ and Artforum magazine described her major installation Forest Glass as a ‘neat conceptual maneuver.’

Katherine Gray is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of American Glass and the Tacoma Museum of Glass. Gray is an Associate Professor at California State University San Bernardino.

Media

• Sculpture
• Installation

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