Upcoming Events

New Works by Norma Howard

March 7 - 21, 2008

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Tammy Garcia: Vision in Glass II

Collaboration with Preston Singletary

March 28 - April 15, 2008

Artist Opening: Friday, March 28 at 5:00 pm

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New Works by Hyrum Joe and Mateo Romero

May 2 - 23, 2008

Artist Opening: Friday, May 2 at 5 pm

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Featured Artist

Tammy Garcia, Visions in Glass II

A Collaboration with Preston Singletary

By Ben Rose

The study of art is made of important moments that have changed the course of history-innovations that have lifted individuals above their contemporaries and changed the paths and practices of generations of artists to come. These landmark events are most often seen through the lens of hindsight, and it is not often that we are privileged to witness history veering from its probable course before our eyes.

Artist Tammy Garcia's latest body of work announces just this type of departure. The second installment of her aptly titled "Visions in Glass" presents the possibility of an original approach that will change our understanding of classical forms and symbols that date back to pre-historic Pueblo pottery.

In this, her second collaboration with glass artist Preston Singletary, Garcia again turns her gaze to the infinite possibilities of the medium of glass: the opaque to the translucent, the play of reflection and refraction, the full spectrum of a single color's possibilities under a range of light.

Collaborator Preston Singletary, a master glass artist of Tlingit ancestry, again translates Garcia's ideas and drawings with the sensitivity of a poet. Summoning the raw spirit of the material, and attuned to the potentialities of working in a protean material at twenty four hundred degrees, Singletary literally breathes life and light into Garcia's forms.

The imagery gracing these new forms remains deeply rooted, recounting the ongoing story of Native AmericansÑstories lost and remadeÑmyths, images and symbols carried on in a continuum for thousands of years. Carved with exacting precision in varying depths of relief are renderings of the Avanyu, butterfly, deer, flower and bird mixed with abstracted elemental symbols.

The work of this second collaboration shows great maturity as the artists' knowledge of each other and their media has increased. Each element becomes more refined, finessed, precise. The surfaces evolve into textured glazes that at times mimic traditionally fired ceramics with hand burnished elements, clouds of smoke, and shimmering gunmetal black-on-black finishes awash in sprays of mica. The sand-carved surfaces beneath encapsulate ambient light in frosted grays, whites and even glowing indigo, providing a background for the design work. Opposing the earth tones and natural clay finishes, other vessels incorporate gold leaf, bright magenta, yellow and coral.

The resulting body of work embodies the strength and focus of Garcia's vision. From the classic volumes of historical forms such as seed pots and storage jars, to soaring cylindrical vases finished in fluted rims and sculptural handles, this work remains a tightly knit unit through Garcia's innate sense of design, scale and proportion.

"Visions in Glass II" may represent Garcia's best work to date, lovingly intertwining her developed skills as a craftswoman, her visionary resolve to innovate, and her depth of knowledge of historical forms and designs. It represents a body of work so rich with insight that it will widen and enrich the cultural map of contemporary art and seed the development of artists to come.

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