Codex Apparition | Michael Rogers » News

Toyama City Institute of Glass Art

marsac — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:35:52 +0000

Toyama City Institute of Glass invited me to lecture this past December. It was really a case of visiting old friends as I’ve known many of the instructors there for over 15 years. TIG has long been a leader in glass education in Japan and have invited artists from around the world to lecture and demonstrate at their excellent facilities. The Head Instructor of TIG Ryoji Shibuya is also a practicing artist as is Senior Instructor Jin Hongo and Instructor Makiko Nakagami/Ivy. Visiting Instructors Lada Semecka from the Czech Republic is teaching casting and Robert Lewis from the USA has been teaching glassblowing at TIG. Other teaching assistant staff are Mami Tokizawa and Chicaco Ogawa. I will introduce Makiko Nakagami/Ivy’s and Mami Tokizawa’s works along with TIG Advanced Research Student Work and TIG 2008 Graduation Works first and add images of the other instructors soon.

Makiko Nakagami

Mami Tokizawa

Ai Umino

Kyoko Sano

Erika Asano

Marie Imai

Fumi Amano

Saki Nishio

Tae Kajita

Tamaki Yamamoto

TIG 2008 Graduation Work

Hiroyuki Kawaharabayashi

Itsuku Hosokawa

Kao Asada

Kazuya Yoshimura

Kei Yamaguchi

Keiko Yoshimura

Kouhei Kishimoto

Runa Kosogawa

Youhei Goto

Itaru Miyazaki

Haruka Ishizuka

Kookmin University’s Glass Program, Seoul, Korea

marsac — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:54:04 +0000

Kookmin University’s Graduate Glass Program is vibrant and active. Program Head Ki-Ra Kim one of Korea’s best and brightest educators is working with some of Korea’s most talented and experienced artists to educate the next generation of Korea’s artists working with glass. Kookmin instructors include Joon Yong Kim, Hyewook Huh, Kyou Hong Lee, Hag-Ju Lee, Sunho Lee, and Jung Sun Oh.

Korean Glass is on the rise!

Former Graduate Students include Kyoung Ryoung Kim, Dong Sun Kim, Myong Ho Kim, Seon Min Park, Jung-hun Yoon, Jiin Kim, JoonHo Hwang.

Currently Graduate Students are Seung Hee Jung and, Won Hee Cho.

The following is a visual introduction to the program.

Ki-Ra Kim

K Hyewook Huh

Joon-Yong Kim

Hagju-Lee

Kyou Hong Lee

Sunho Lee

Former Graduate Students at Kookmin University.

Dongsun Kim

Jiin Kim

Junghyun Yoon

Kyoungryoung Kim

Myongho Kim

Seounmin Park

Current Graduate Student at Kookmin U.

Seung Hee Jung

TAMA Art University Graduate Student’s Work

marsac — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:16:19 +0000

Here is an introduction to graduate student’s work from TAMA Art University in Tokyo. Tama has long been at the forefront of Japanese glass art education. Makato Ito, Japanese glass pioneer has headed the program for many years along with Kazumi Ikemoto who will be the next program head. Other noted faculty are Yoshihiko Takahashi and Michiko Miyake.

I must note here that Makoto Ito will retire this year from teaching at Tama! A milestone not only for him but for all of studio glass!

Recently I was invited to lecture and participate in a critique at Tama. I must say that to critique graduate student’s work with Makoto Ito was a great honor and a distinctly memorable experience for me. The following are works from Tama’s first and second year graduate students. The first two students are first year students and the rest second year students currently working towards thesis exhibitions.

Moe Hatanaka

Syogo Nakagawa

Hiroko Fujino

Kojima Natsumi

Sakiko Tsugawa

Akemi Kurita

Megumi Yoshida

Yasuhiko Tsuchida visits OUA from Venice

marsac — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:00:21 +0000

Yasuhiko Tsuchida is visiting Osaka University of Art from his home and studio in Venice, Italy. He is working on a large fused glass panel work with the help of OUA Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students. After fusing Tuschida will laminate the fused glass panels to a large sheet of plate glass for an architectural installation.

Tsuchida was born in Tennoji not far from the university. He has lived in Venice for the past 20 years where he maintains a studio for not only glass but also painting and multimedia. He will lecture tomorrow on his work and professional practices in Europe.

Here is documentation of his project.

Osaka University of Art Faculty and Staff

marsac — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:56:42 +0000

There is Hiroshi Yamano, Yuki Uchimura, Etsuko Nishi at the top and Tsuyoshi Inoue, Kentaro Senuma, Toshikazu Kobayashi as part time instructors. The Staff here is phenomenal! Risako Yahagi, Ryo Sekino, Shohei Yokoyama and Misako Onishi facilitate everything and make sure the trains run on time! I feel fortunate to be working with such a talented group of artists. It’s an extremely serious pace they all set here but they somehow make it all fun and a really good time! Enjoy their works!

Yuki Uchimura

Etsuko Nishi

Toshikazu Kobayashi

Tsuyoshi Inoue

Kentaro Senuma

Risako Yahagi

Misako Onishi

Ryo Sekino

Shohei Yokoyama

A Day at Osaka Art University

marsac — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:58:11 +0000

Hiroshi Yamano demonstrates glass blowing and hot glass techniques in this case how to make a stingray. Yuki Uchimura is holding court in the casting studios. Students are working hard and I’ve never before seen such a busy kiln forming studio.

Uchimura’s Court

RIT/SAC Glass Program’s Graduate and Senior student work.

marsac — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:33:22 +0000

Here is an introduction to the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School For American Craft Glass Program’s Graduate and Senior student works. First find the work of second year graduate student David Fox.

Second Year Grads

DAVID FOX

First Year Grads

Jennifer Halvorson

Beccy Feather

Clay Hufford

Steve Tippin

Next are a few Recent Graduates of the RIT/SAC Glass Graduate Program

Jeremy Griffith

Debra Ruzinsky

David Schnuckel

Cassandra Straubing

ERIKA TADA

RIT/SAC SENIOR WORKS

BECCA ARDAY

DREW SMITH

DEVON COLE

Osaka University of Art Glass Program Meets RIT/SAC Glass Program

marsac — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:05:04 +0000

This project’s aim is to introduce the Osaka University’s Art’s Glass Program to The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Glass Program by posting images of Graduate and Senior student work from both schools for students to see what their counterparts are doing 7000 miles away from each other! I’ll begin by introducing OUA’s Glass Graduate students.

Tomoe Adachi

Noa Tanaka

Kaori Nakajima

Ayumi Honda

Takada Kenzou

The following is an introduction to OAU’s Senior student’s work beginning with…

Shiho Matsui

Akiko Sakaguchi

Haruka Hamamoto

Narumi Yoshida

“

Fujiwara Sawako

Kanako Naito

Yuka Oshimoura

Hitomi Takeuchi

Satoko Tanigawa

Kazuyuki Morishima

Kensuke Kawano

Ryou Fujita

Marie Maeda

Miki Kitamura and Tomomi Takahashi

Azusa Nakagawa and Ayano Hamamoto

Kanako Togawa

Curating a Japanese Glass Art Exhibit

marsac — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:11:35 +0000

Currently I’m acting as curator for a Japanese glass art exhibition next year in Portland. Five artists are interested so far and all are past students at Aichi University of Education near Nagoya where I taught for 11 years before returning to the USA. One of the artists in this group Masahiro Sasaki has just started teaching at AUE this fall as head of the glass program there. The other artists are also all very active in the field, Masayo Odahashi, Hiroki Niimi, Megumi Esaki and Koichi Matsufuji. I would like to introduce these artist’s work as I continue to work on this project. I’ll be more specific as to where and when as soon as details are firmed up.

First I’ll introduce Koichi Matsufuji. Koichi lives in Nagoya and is an instructor at Nagoya University of the Arts. Koichi is preparing for an exhibit now at Aichi Prefectural Art Museum in Nagoya. He works primarily in cast glass and enjoys creating or using unusual installation spaces to put his figures within a broader aesthetic context. Check out his website at http://www.koichimatsufuji.com/

Masayo Odahashi is known for her cast glass figurative work with muted polychrome fired on enamels. Her figures reflect complex interior states of mind through simple gestures. Quiet and reverent these figures seem to whisper to the viewer.

Hiroki Niimi is an instructor at Nagoya University of the Arts. Hiroki has an extraordinary material sensibility. His feeling for materials as well as finely honed sense of surface, form, mass and volume as articulated by light allows him to engage a wide range of human emotions from a nostalgic sense of longing to introspective contemplation. His works have the ability to transport the viewer to distant points of their memory.

Megumi Esaki current works at Utatsuyama Crafts Workshop in Kanazawa. Her delicate cast glass floral wreaths evoke the simple pleasures associated with an intimate appreciation of nature as a garden. In her work the act of being in nature, collecting natural elements such as flowers and leaves and forming the symbolic shape of a ring or circle suggests our essential place as human beings within nature. Esaki’s symbolic language speaks of purity, innocence and a reverence for our fragile relationship with nature.

Masahiro Sasaki has just begun to head the Glass Program at Aichi University of Education near Nagoya a national university in Japan. Sasaki has focused on atypical applications of traditional techniques to arrive at surprising new glass forms. Weather installation or individual object Sasaki applies a focused investigation of his subject matter that is objective and detached. It is as if scientific methods were adopted to offer macroscopic and microscopic views of the object. In this way the internal logic of the object is revealed through a cross examination and comparison of the parts to the whole. Process in this case indicates invisible systems rendered visible.

Sabbatical in Japan

marsac — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:44:10 +0000

In August I’ll travel to Osaka, Japan where I’ll be an artist in residence at the Osaka University of Arts till January. Hiroshi Yamano has extended this opportunity to me and I’ll be working with Etsuko Niishi. I’m looking forward to catching up with past students and colleagues of mine while there as well as developing a new body of work. My colleague Rich Tannin a professor in the Wood Program at RIT and I will travel for two weeks in Japan and plan to visit Ise Jinga, Kyoto, and Isamu Noguchi’s studio in Mure.