Looking through glass

The glass animal figurines suspended from the ceiling of the Israeli Glass 2011 exhibition at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv greet you with their title, “Nice to Meat You.”

By ANNA ETRA
glass 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
glass 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The glass animal figurines suspended from the ceiling of the Israeli Glass 2011 exhibition at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv greet you with their title, “Nice to Meat You.” The display, by artist Olya Brener, is just one of the 67 artists featured in the exhibition. Israeli Glass 2011 opened on July 15 and features glass work by new and experienced Israeli artists in the past four years. “We wanted to show how glass can behave, the different languages of glass and what paths of expression one can find in glass.
It is such a versatile material and it has its own morphology. It can be liquid and it can be hard, harder than stone; it can be transparent or colorful,” says Henrietta Eliezer Brunner, curator of glass at the museum. The artists were given no specific subject for the exhibition, just the opportunity to propose what they find interesting about the material. The difference between this exhibition and Israeli Glass 2007, explains Brunner, is that she was looking for “a fresh new look” in terms of glass work in Israel.
Some artists have been featured in both shows.“It is really an artistic field that has only developed in recent years in Israel. In other countries glass, has already been highly developed,” she says. All the pieces on display are made of at least part glass, but many of the artists come from many different backgrounds and artistic fields, including painting, sculpture, jewelry design and textile design.
Robert Nechin, with little formal art education, found art later in life, after graduating from Westpoint Military Academy in the US. He explains his attraction to the material. “The color of glass is deep. When light comes through glass, it adds another dimension, which I find fascinating. I really got to love glass, and I thought that I could express myself in it.”
According to the exhibition catalogue, “Almost all known glass-working processes are illustrated in various combinations, as well as interdisciplinary crossover in a wide assortment of technique and media” are featured in the exhibit.
The artists “took chances because they wanted to elevate themselves. I am really impressed with the amazing progress I have seen in the past four years,” says Brunner.