ALEX ANAGNOSTOU

Born in Toronto, Alex has danced around with the visual arts for over 20 years. Sculpting blown and cast glass since 2000, much of her conceptual work deals with the plight of the human condition.

"Sculpting with glass is a little dangerous, challenging, and always exhilarating. It reminds me of the restless feeling one has when traveling to a foreign land for the first time. The material speaks as a metaphor for human nature with all of its contradictions and layers; fragility, strength, sharpness, reflection, malleability, transparency, translucency, opacity and an interior visual surface. It flows and moves when hot yet is frozen in time at room temperature. I relish the spontaneity of blowing glass and sand casting, and the more cerebral process of forming a kiln cast sculpture."

CALI BALLES

I am fascinated by form. The repeating patterns found in natural forms and in city structures intrigue me and influence my work. Using photography as a research tool, I document these forms at close range. I later attempt to evoke these functional forms in glass; branches, fronds and tendrils become a vocabulary for composition. By working in clear glass, avoiding the use of colour and utilizing a range of surface textures, the focus on form and strcuture predominates. By combining various glass techniques such as blown forms that are lifelike and fluid with mould blown forms that are more controlled and rigid, I attempt to illustrate the details of my environment.” Cali Balles is a graduate of the Material Art and Design program at Ontario College of Art and Design, and studied glass at Sheridean College of Crafts and Design.

JOSEPH DI LORENZO

“I’ve always been a creative person and I enjoy working with my hands. In the past few years, I’ve fallen in love with the possibilities associated with manipulating liquid-hot glass, producing both functional and sculptural objects. Being a very technically demanding material to work with, glass forces me to continuously hone my skills as a craftsperson. Its ability to become almost anything provides me with an artistic outlet where I may seek to express thoughts, concepts and emotions that would otherwise be difficult to communicate. Through my work, I hope to achieve this, and create a series of functional glass objects that people may enjoy for a lifetime.”

EMMA GERARD

“I love candy, bright colours, and the little things in life that make people smile. Candy was a constant in my house when I was growing up, whether is was a special treat, a staple for movie night, or that much needed comfort food. It seemed only natural that I am now making my own line of candy jewellery. This candy is definitely not dentist recommended, but the good news: one hundred percent glass, zero calories!” Emma has been drawing and creating for as long as she can remember. This love eventually led her to pursue ceramics at Sheridan’s Crafts and Design program. Upon her arrival, she was bitten by the glass bug and has been addicted to it ever since. Following her schooling and a residency at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, she became a teaching assistant at Sheridan College and a Resident Artist in the flameworking studio at the Living Arts Centre. www.emmagerard.com

LUCY ROUSSEL

Lucy Roussel's work focuses on organic forms and textures inspired by nature. Artists such as Tiffany, Lalique and Galle have influenced her hot glass forming work. Lucy's works are reflective of a variety of techniques including kiln glass casting, pate de verre, blown glass, sandblasting, stain application, glass frit work, applied silicone, and colour.

Her inspiration comes from observing our relationship to nature and how it informs and shapes our life experience. She believes that "the need to create is integral to human nature and that the ability to transform and animate the basic elements of life into the endless variety and beauty that surrounds us is a constant source of wonder."

ROBERT TANNAHILL & MIIA VIRTASALMI

Robert and Miia have been a practicing glass making team for over 10 years. They met at the School of Craft and Design, Sheridan College, and both completed a MA in Ceramics and Glass Design at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland.

In 2008, they will be showing together at the Norfolk Arts Centre in Simcoe. Robert will be taking part in a group exhibition at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery and the Design Museum of New York. After living in Finland, they are now hoping to make a transition to the Canadian glass art scene and launch their respective careers in glass.
www.pipeandpunty.com

KARLI SEARS

Through her travels and her place among a family of biologists, Karli has come to notice and appreciate the details of the world around her. In her work, she aims to convey the life force that dwells within the physical world using the living qualities of glass - its glowing colours, fluid movement, interior spaces and interaction with light. She draws on the forms of seeds, fruits and flowers for their fascinating beauty and how they act as containers for new life. In the very physical process of glassblowing, one's body must be attuned to the movements of the material. When such a connection happens, one may infuse the object she is creating with her own life energy. www.karlisearsglass.com

RACHAEL WONG

“I am creating installations that interact with and affect their environment: walls, floors, ceilings, and space. I am looking to capture the energy their relationships evoke so the viewer can be immersed in the idea, in their own subjectivity. If this energy becomes the space in its interactions, then the work may become more than just its parts. It is more than object, more than objectified." Rachael Wong works with blown glass elements dealing with play, communication, and experience in space and installation. She completed a BFA at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary and was a resident in the Glass Studio at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. She has also received her MFA degree from Alfred University in 2009. www.rachaelwong.ca

Heather Konschuh

'My art has been centered on an abstraction of shapes and forms found in my life. Having grown up on a cattle and grain farm in the countryside, nature has played a huge part in the creative process. My work is a reflection of my greatest inspiration - the beauty of nature. During my studies in Australia I became fascinated with the parrots in Canberra. They were so beautiful to look at, but sounded atrocious. Their powerful beaks are symbolized in my Flightless and Featherless Series of tall blown vases. The spouts on these vessels represent the curvature of their bills while the fresh colors imitate how brightly colored they are.'

"When I discovered glass, I had finally found the art form that challenged me in all the right ways; it was physical, intellectually challenging and 3-Dimensional."

Konschuh received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary, Alberta. She undertook some of her studies at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.www.heatherkonschuh.com

Michelle Lewin

Michelle is always open to new experiences having travelled extensively, lived abroad, and all over North America. She has a background in literature, which informs her approach to art-making. She earned a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Her work explores a variety of materials and often involves subtle narrative. After three years as a resident artist at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, she went on to receive a MFA from Ohio State University in 2005. In 2007 she attended a sculpture residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and is presently a resident glass artist at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.

As a visual language, my work stems from subjective experience. Through distilling the nebulous into the tangible and concrete, I try to capture fleeting moments and render them permanent and substantial. Glass is a medium which embodies these paradoxes. The inherent nature of the material and its intrinsic tensions lend themselves well to my aesthetic and conceptual concerns. Contradictions and ambiguity interest me, for this is where poetry can be found.

Kyle Brooke Harrison

“I focus on the nature of the glass as a material combined with inspiration from my natural surroundings to create my work. I see art through technical processes and observances of negative space, line, curve, and colour. My purpose is to create work that is both beautiful and compelling, while allowing the viewer to develop their own interpretations of what they see in my work.”

Kyle Brooke Harrison grew up in the mile high city of Denver, Colorado right outside the Rocky Mountains. Raised by a family of artists, Kyle’s childhood was filled with gallery visits, art fairs and a deep appreciation and passion fort he arts. Due to this, Kyle has always strived to learn new and different techniques and have developed and exceptionally broad background in different art media.

Matt Robertson

Matt Robertson, a Hamilton native, spent 4 years studying glass and other media before graduating from The Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in 2007.  Upon graduation he traveled to California, Oregon and Florida to further study and explore his craft.  Excellence in craftsmanship and attention to detail are two of the many qualities that have put Matt Robertson in a class of his own.  He has exhibited and sold his collections at many prestigious galleries such as:  The Petroff Gallery; The Sandra Ainsley Gallery and Streetsville Gallery. 

While working hard in his studio to keep up with the demand for his work in galleries, he also teaches part-time at the Living Art Centre in Mississauga as he is also well versed in art history and creative design. www.mattrobertsonglass.com

Michael Deptuch

Michael Deptuch started working with glass almost a decade ago. His journey started in Vancouver, BC when his bike-ride to work brought him past Joanne Andreghetti Glassworks. Michael left the west coast to pursue a personal invitation from Dan Creighton to study at Sheridan College. Michael was a summer resident at Harbourfront Centre and following his graduation he worked as a teaching assistant at Sheridan.

Michael's art has been displayed in galleries in Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo. He has been creating blown and cast pieces for outdoor sanctuaries in both the urban core of Toronto and Ontario country estates. He has been a regular invitee of Perth Ontario's "Art in the Garden" and the "Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition"

Since 2005 Michael has been working with warm and hot glass casting techniques. This creative process culminated in 2006 when Michael cast a series of hot formed sculpture that narrates the enormity of geological time. The refinement of his technique is seen in the balance and integrity in the cooling of large volumes of molten glass.

"I choose glass for expression because of its kinetic quality. I endeavor to control heat, fluidity and velocity to give form and texture to my ideas about being in the world. I am interested in the interaction of humanity and the physical environment. The perceived fragility of glass often stops the human touch; I want to overcome this fragility, showing the strength of the material."

Paula Vandermey

“One can appreciate my sculptures as a celebration of creation, regeneration and mortality. I create my own cultural identity in which the visual codes of my subconscious become reanimated. I creatively reconstruct the past and redefine its meaning.

My art gives form to the soul and entices the audience to interact and unravel the mysteries of who we are as human beings. Touch is as revealing as vision, and when this exchange happens the audience can internalize and correlate a story unique to them.”

Paula studied glass at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. She accomplished a BFA (hons) glass at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom. She has worked with a diverse group of internationally established artists which has allowed her to diversify and develop her work in other countries. Paula explores the technical process of three-dimensional sculptural sand casting, hot glass, and kiln casting. She combines mixed media and found objects as part of her process to create tactile, erotic sculptures. www.pvandermey.com

MATTHEW AGOSTINIS

Cantilevering, simplicity, and weightlessness are recurring visual aesthetics in my work. The idea of suspending or elevating a heavy-looking object in a delicate manner is intriguing to me. I try to use the most minimal parts possible so thatI can to create a rather simple style, based on a concept and followed through from beginning to end. By understanding the strengths found in selected materials such as wood, metal, concrete, and bent laminations, I have been able to generate forms that appear thin and vulnerable.

ROBERT CHAN

Robert Chan describes himself as a studio furniture maker whereby he creates unique, functional and beautiful work. He loves to produce the extraordinary, the surprise, and combines form, function and talent in each of his unique pieces.

His work is representative of both traditional and modern sensibilities but does not rigidly reflect any one period or style. "I try to instill a timeless quality. In general, the lines are clean and crisp and I let the wood make its own statement with its wonderful and endless variations of grain, pattern, colour and texture. I try to enhance my work with particular design elements such as stylized cuts for doors or unique joinery.

MELLISA MORROW

Melissa earned her Honours, Bachelor of Science, from the University of Toronto and the Craft and a Design Diploma in Furniture from Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. While at Sheridan, she was awarded the Betty Kantor Award for Excellence. She was also the recipient of the Nienkamper Award.

KAREN KRUPA

Karen Krupa is a textile artist known for her unusual dye techniques, airbrushing, rich surface embellishment and ability to work on large scale, three-dimensional textiles. She is "interested in combining unusual materials with cloth to achieve an unpredictable narrative". Her unlikely combinations often create strange hybrids with surprisingly revealing content that stimulates and provokes.

PAT HERTZBERG

Fibre art has been a life-long passion for Pat. She has a sophisticated sense of colour and design, and an in-depth knowledge of textiles allowing her to use fabric to express herself, as a painter uses paint, or a sculptor uses clay. As an artist, she is constantly experimenting, and creating new techniques of fibre manipulation. Pat now works full-time on her art producing commissioned pieces, both for the wall, and for wear. Her work can also be found in galleries and at art shows where textile art is sold.

After completing specialized Fine Art programs in Ottawa, she attended Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning and York University. Pat has completed apprenticeships under numerous fibre artists, studying the chemistry of fibre and a wide variety of textile art techniques.

REETA SAEED

Reeta’s current work deals closley in the tradition of textiles and weaving. Her works are soft sculptulres with strong iconic references resonating between both Eastern and Western cultures. For her post-graduate thesis project, Saeed “un-knitted” several woolen tops and sweaters, mounting them on plaster and producing photographs. The resulting prints reflected this scrutinization of cultural symbolism. Reeta Saeed was born in Pakistan and currently resides in Toronto. She completed her primary arts education in miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Larhore, Pakistan. Afterward, she became a post-graduate student at Byam Shaw University of Arts London. Her current practice investigates the deconstruction of traditional artist material, canvas, and found objects, wiith a focus on reverse weaving.

CATHERINE GRIGGS

“My art practice began in the traditional media that were offered at the time. At university, I was trained in many visual arts areas: painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and photography. After one encaustic workshop, I was hooked. Encaustic fascinates and excites me. When I work in encaustic, I feel power, energy and fire burst from within. It is a medium I am at one with and must use to create.

The encaustic series I am working on right now has led me into a visual discussion of society’s needs, nature and nurturing. I have been using different techniques in this series such as carving wax, painting with wax, and using photo-transfers.”

JAN FUNDANO

“The Super-Saturated project is one way of allowing the viewer to SeeWhy. Each work is composed of six orthographic views replacing traditional drafted topics like architecture, cars and mechanical objects with the unorthodox such as people, pop culture and politics. While I sometimes just convey dynamic, visual point-of views in appreciation of the subject matter, I also like unfolding other sides of a story, shifting the viewer agnostically in relation to the status quo.” Jan received his Honours BA from the University of Toronto in 2008, majoring in Visual Studies and Architectural Design, and eventually plans to obtain a MFA. Though his strength lies in graphical arts, he hopes to expand his vision through other media.  

NONI KAUR

'Tradition' or ethnic traditions are directly referred to in my work - my roots are strongly based in Indian culture; it affects the materials, colours and shapes that I use. My installations are loosely based on the shape of the anatomy as a landscape, and of the female body. They are created on the floor. Other motifs or subjects that keep surfacing in my work are from the domestic sphere around me and inevitably reference my identity as a woman, as an artist, and as someone from an ethnically distinct background.

As an artist, I am concerned with enticing the viewer to think about a woman's identity beyond the domestic context. My work celebrates the body as sexual and sensual through the creation of my food installations. The idea of sexuality, desire, and consumption, are integral to my concerns as a result.

ISHRAT RAZA SUHRWARDY

"When I was in my final year at Punjab University, one of my professors had a potter's kick wheel made for the students. I took a spin on it and discovered the entire experience to be extremely therapeutic and enjoyable. It put arts, crafts and science together with the beauty of imagination and I found that it allowed a person to keep on developing aesthetically, while using the logic of chemistry."

Ishrat is inspired by the richness of her Pakistani roots and the pottery being created by artists in those communities. Her connection to her heritage and interest in science has compelled her to develop her own body of clay and glazes by incorporating natural materials from different regions and parts of Pakistan.

Daniel Drzymalski

“Over the years, I have tried to understand what photography means to me and how I can use it to help me become a better person. I’ve learned photography is the relationship between the image and the audience. By using what I learned, my photos have evolved into emotions, thought and an assortment of feelings. I try to convey my thoughts into my images anytime I can. I strongly believe understanding and misunderstanding a photo gives the image depth and intrigue. I became a photographer to unleash my creative animal.” 

An emerging photographer, Daniel attended workshops at the New York Institute of Photography in 2006 and has since maintained a practice merging commercial and conceptual approaches. Having worked with the camera for over seven years, Daniel has become versed in a variety of photographic media with a focus on digital shooting and processing. He has produced a number of prints for Model Mayhem agency due to his strong background in figurative photography.