Young & Loving 2012! retrospective+1
Showing at S12 gallery and workshop and Gallery Format in Bergen
Curators: Bergljot Jonsdottir, manager of S12 gallery and studio and Jeremy Welsh, visual artist, Professor and Dean at Department of Fine Art at Bergen Academy of Art and Design.
International glass art to Bergen
From August 10th to the 23rd, Bergen will host an extensive exhibition of international glass art, through simultaneous showings at two locations in the city centre: together, S12 gallery and workshop – at Skostredet 12 – and Gallery Format Bergen – at Vågsallmenningen 12 – will show Young and Loving 2012!. The exhibition comprises pieces from ten glass artists and gives the viewer a good idea of what is happening on the glass art arena in the Nordic countries and the world at large.
Up and coming!
Young and Loving is a playful translation of ‘ung og lovende’ [tr. promising young {talent}], and a playful approach to glass art as a part of a distinctive artistic expression. The exhibition concept was developed by S12 and an exhibition was held for the first time in 2007. Young and Loving 2012! is a retrospective of Young and Loving! exhibitions curated by Bergljot Jonsdottir and Jeremy Welsh. At S12 and Format, a selection of ten artists who have contributed to previous exhibitions will be shown – with a single exception: newcomer Allison Hoag (US), hence the appellation ‘retrospective+1’.
The curators have focussed on assembling a multitude of expressions where the point of departure is glass, though the glass may not be visible in the finished piece. The artists and pieces represented will provide a good picture of current goings on in the world of glass art, and may add to the debate on what glass art can be.
The glass carries reflections on the perception of reality
Through their sculptures, installations, and pictures, the exhibiting artists address a number of themes, such as childhood and recollection (eg. Ingrid Nord’s ‘Sutteklut’ [tr. ‘Security Blanket’] and Alison Lowry’s ‘Found (and lost)’ and ‘What little girls are made of’), body, place, and identity (eg. Allison Hoag’s ‘Inhalation’ and ‘Inner Ear’, Charlotte Potter’s ‘Bottled Emotions’, Petra Thorgren’s ‘Sunset’ and ‘The writing’, and Hiromi Takizawa’s ‘One Thousand Halos’), poetic studies in media (eg. Mette Colberg’s ‘Portraits’ and Anna Malkowsky’s ‘Hand-made’ and ‘X-ray’) and visually philosophical ruminations on the natural sciences (eg. Stine Bidstrup’s ‘Let Your Eyes Be the Invention’ and Julia Malle’s ‘Rhizome’).
A common trait amongst these artists is that they play with light and shadow. Another seems to be investigating the relationship between reality and illusion, reality and perception, or reality and dream/memory. The artists are concerned with the perception of reality and see the properties of glass as well-suited to carrying out an exploration of these ‘relationships between’ – with light shining the way.
Hiromi Takizawa says that she integrates optical phenomena into her personal stories: ‘(…) by using the “shifts of perception” that glass, and only glass, generates.’
S12 gallery and studio and Gallery Format Bergen invite you to this exciting opening!
Charlotte Potter (US), Petra Thorgren (Sweden), Hiromi Takizawa (Japan), Stine Bidstrup (Denmark), Mette Colberg (Denmark), Anna Mlasowsky (Germany), Alison Lowry (Ireland), Allison Hoag (US), Julia Malle (GB), Ingrid Nord (Norway).