This year’s British Glass Biennale, the centre piece exhibition of the International Festival of Glass which takes place at venues across Stourbridge’s Glass Quarter at the end of May, has announced the 76 artists who have been selected for the exhibition.
The selected artists were shortlisted from over 200 entries by a panel including curator Janice Blackburn, writer Graham Fisher, glass collector Mark Holford, glass artist David Reekie and Ikon gallery director Jonathan Watkins. They will compete for a number of prizes including the British Glass Biennale Award for Best in Show and several awards sponsored by The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London.
Now in its sixth edition, the Biennale is open to UK-based artists, designers and craftspeople working in all areas of contemporary glass practice or using glass as a key design element. This year’s exhibitors include artists originally from Costa Rica, South Korea, Israel, Sweden, Germany and Japan, and there are also 13 students included in the selection.
Speaking about the selection process, Elisabeth Johnson, International Festival of Glass project director, said: “The quality of submissions was remarkable and the jury had a really tough time creating the shortlist.
“We were impressed with the variety of styles and range of techniques on offer and were particularly pleased to see so many student submissions, showing that the appetite for studio glass continues to grow. I can’t wait to see the final exhibition and am on tenterhooks for the awards evening on 27 May.”
The full list of selected artists is:
Karen Akester, Margaret Alston, Vic Bamforth, Scott Benefield, Juli Bolaños-Durman, Karen Browning, Edmond Byrne, Keeryong Choi, Katharine Coleman, Nicholas Collins, Erin E Dickson, Shirley Eccles, Rachel M Elliott, Fiaz Elson, Louis Thompson and Hanne Enemark, Sally Fawkes and Richard Jackson, Carrie Fertig, Corrina Field, Katya Izabel Filmus, Livvy Fink, Alec Galloway, Zoe Garner, Stephen and Kate Gilles Jones, Ashraf Hanna, Gillian Hobson, Ana Rosa Hopkins, Ingrid Hunter, Elin Isaksson, Max Jacquard, Shelley James, Angela Jarman, Alison Kinnaird, Emma Mackintosh, Julia Malle, Geoffrey Mann, James Maskrey, Gayle Matthias, Helen Maurer, Rosa Nguyen, Linda Norris, Amanda Notarianni, Jochem Ott, Inge Panneels, Jacque Pavlosky, Kevin Petrie, Bruno Romanelli, Ruth Shelley, Lisa Sheppy, Cathryn Shilling, Amanda Simmons, Ayse Simsek and Heike Brachlow, Nancy Sutcliffe, Ayako Tani, Deborah Timperley, Eliot Walker, Cara Louise Walker, Karin Walland, Surinder Warboys, Emma Woffenden.
The selected student artists are: Jenny Ayrton, Emma Baker, Eddie Belvedere, Dan Bowran, Phoebe Gowen, Haley Haddow, Sienna Holihan, Deborah Martin, Faith Mercer, Harry Morgan, Alicja Patanowska, Tao Shen, and Julia Williams.
British Glass Biennale 2015, Glasshouse Arts Centre and Ruskin Glass Centre, Stourbridge, 28 May – 28 June 2015. www.biennale.org.uk
International Festival of Glass, 28 – 31 May 2015, various venues, Stourbridge. The full programme includes exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, masterclass sessions and workshops. www.ifg.org.uk
