Axia Modern Art: Echoes of Nature

Nick WIRDNAM, Clare BELFRAGE, Tim EDWARDS

Echoes of Nature

12 – 27 November 2008

Nick WIRDNAM, Wish of Judgement 2008, hot sculpted glass, cold carved, acid dipped & metal stand, H34 x 74 x 10 cm
Nick WIRDNAM, Rippled Wishes 2008, hot sculpted glass, cold carved, acid dipped & metal stand, H33 x 87 x 11 cm
Nick WIRDNAM, Forever Wishing 2008, hot sculpted glass & metal stand, H36 x 191 x 15 cm
Nick WIRDNAM, Chromatic Abstraction Series 2008, blown & acid dipped glass
Clare BELFRAGE, Streaming Group 2008, blown glass/cane drawing, tallest H26 x 46 x 16 cm
Clare BELFRAGE, Untitled #8 2008, blown glass/cane drawing, H40.5 x 29 x 8 cm
Clare BELFRAGE, Luna Floes #3 & #2 2008, blown glass/cane drawing/acid etching & sanded, L- H24.2 x 42 x 13 cm; R- H29 x 38 x 16 cm
Clare BELFRAGE, Leaf Circuitry #8 & #9 2008, blown glass/cane drawing/acid etched, H51.5 x 21.5 x 8 cm; H46 x 20 x 6 cm
Tim EDWARDS, Echo #2 2008, blown glass/wheel cut, H32 x 42.5 x 5 cm
Tim EDWARDS, Looming #2 2008, blown glass/wheel cut, H23.5 x 84.5 x 18.5 cm
Tim EDWARDS, Untitled (Box) 2008, hot worked glass, wheel cut, wood, assembled, H38 x 54 x 12 cm

About the Exhibition

NICK WIRDNAM

Born in England.

‘My aim is to compose work which is calm, peaceful & silent. In the development of my work I allow the glass and the process to contribute to the outcome by acknowledging the physical properties, transparency, translucency and opacity. I find that it is the working properties which bring fluidity, grace and refinement and I always accept there is also an element of chance and unpredictability’. Nick Wirdnam 2008

Nick Wirdnam is widely respected both as an artist and a teacher. For many years he was instrumental in mentoring and teaching a new generation of glass artists at Monash University, Melbourne. He now works from his own private glass studio in Melbourne. Wirdnam has been a major contributor to the Australian art glass scene for many years and, after a solid grounding in traditional glass practice, has made a shift toward conceptual sculpted form.

Wirdnam has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia, United Kingdom, Asia and the United States. In 2000, 2002 and 2004 he was a finalist in the Ranamok Prize for Contemporary Glass, Sydney. Nick Wirdnam’s work has been acquired by various public collections including, National Gallery Australia, Canberra; Glass Museum Niijima, Japan; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia; Ebeltoft Glass Museum Ebeltoft, Denmark; Northlands Creative Glass Collection, Lybster, Scotland and the National Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga.

CLARE BELFRAGE

‘I am interested in moments I have experienced in the natural environment where I am captivated by a dynamic simplicity of a scene or, a moment, where you realise the complexity of life going on around you. This work is inspired by the movement of light. I imagine the rhythm and energy, a drama within a soft kind of stillness.’ Clare Belfrage 2008

Born in Melbourne, Australia 1966.

Clare Belfrage completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Chisholm Institute of Technology (now Monash University) in 1988, and became a glass design associate at JamFactory in 1992. In 1997 Clare went on to become founding members of the Blue Pony Studio in Norwood, South Australia.

Her involvement in numerous national and international glass workshops, residencies, and work as a lecturer in both Australia and the USA has provided key experiences, leading to solo exhibitions in Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and invitations to participate in prestigious international group shows in Paris, Budapest, Munich, Seattle and Venice.

Clare’s works is collected widely by both private and public institutions. These include the collections in Museo do Vidro, Portugal, the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, The National Art Glass Collection in Wagga Wagga, Artbank as well as the state galleries of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory.

In recent years Clare has had great success such as being the 2005 winner of the Tom Malone Glass Prize at the Art Gallery of Western Australia a busy couple of year from 2006–07 in which she has exhibited in Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, USA, Singapore, New Zealand and undertook an artist residency on Tocoma Museum of Glass, Washington, USA.

TIM EDWARDS

‘With this work I’m expressing my recollections of time and place as memory abstracted. The composition explores the interplay between the conscious and the sub-conscious.’ Tim Edwards 2008

Born in Millicent, South Australia 1970.

Tim Edwards completed a Bachelor of Applied Art at Deakin University, Victoria in 1990 majoring in ceramics. He then went on to complete a Graduate Diploma in Ceramics at the University of Tasmania in 1991 and became an associate designer at JamFactory in 1992 in ceramics. In 1995 an associateship in glass was finished at JamFactory, making Edwards the only associate to complete their training in two studio specialisations.

In recent years Edwards has spent time like many Australian Glass artists in USA where he has had a successful exhibition history. Whilst in the USA he has undertaken artist residencies most recently as visiting scholar at Ohio State University.

Edward’s works have been sought out for various exhibitions nationally and internationally including Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Seattle, Chicago, Germany, Taiwan and Venice. His works are represented many public and private collection including the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Art Glass Collection at Wagga Wagga and the Corning Museum of Glass in the USA.

In 2006, Tim was selected as recipient of the prestigious Rakow Commission for the Corning Museum of Glass. This Commission to produced work for the museum has had only 22 previously receipts of this award, and includes such artists as Lino Tagliapietra and Klaus Moje.