Galia AMSEL, Emma CAMDEN, Matthew CURTIS, Emma VARGA

Capturing Light

23 November - 23 December

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  GALIA AMSEL, Ignite #4 2009, cast gaffer glass, sandblasted texture, acid etched and polished, 77 x 54 x 17 cm

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  EMMA CAMDEN, The Passage 2010, lost wax, cast glass, 43 x 12.3 x 11 cm

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  MATTHEW CURTIS, Diatom #1 2010, mould blown components/tinted furnace glass, bonded, sculpted & cold worked, 45 x 27 x 11 cm

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  EMMA VARGA, Vapours & Light 2010, cast glass, H83 cm each

About the Exhibition

Capturing Light brings together four of Australia and New Zealand's most prominent glass artists in an exhibition of cast, blown and sculpted glass forms. Each artist employs various surface textures and highly skilled hot and cold glass working techniques including sandblasting, polishing, fusing, layering and resist masking to produce works of timeless beauty.

Galia AMSEL is constantly developing new combinations that invite more light and shade into her work. She uses colour gradation in her quest for movement, pattern and rhythm, and geometric shapes in the form of rectangles, squares and circles, which are broken open or interrupted in some way to evoke tension and feeling.

Emma CAMDEN works with glass castings to expand on the migration theme that runs throughout her practice. Her work takes a deeply personal approach to the idea of movement and genealogy within the family structure, using the architectural images as a metaphor to convey the bloodline from one country or dimension to another.

Matthew CURTIS' hand blown vessels use the technique of cased blown glass where several glass colours are overlaid. His larger monumental sculptural forms explore seemingly random patterns of microscopic forms from nature as repetitive patterns. Differing qualities and varieties of glass are used to articulate the tension between the inner volume and outer shape of the work.

Emma VARGA has perfected the technique of fusing and casting multiple layers of glass. She sets up layers that will make a threedimensional image, inside a large fused and cast transparent glass form. The exceptional and magnificent presence of striking colours in Australia's natural and oceanic landscape is a never ending fascination for her work.

These beautifully crafted glass sculptural forms are not simply just means of expression for the artist's virtuosity and creativity. Rather, they express ideas and thoughts through metaphor and mystical vision. They satisfy as works of serenity and beauty to reveal atmospheres, rhythms of nature, narratives of landscape, glimpsed memories and moments frozen in time.