05/11/2026
Beginning Wednesday, May 20 and extending thru June 30, 2026, Palette will display many of its glass sculptures that were produced by Australians over the last twenty years.
Much writing below is sourced thru a then-definitive book by Margot Osborne, " Australian Glass Today" which was published in 2005.
In the mid-1970s, the Australian Studio Glass movement began. Initially, techniques and ideas arrived from Europe and the USA. Eventually, receptive and creative Australians flavored these concepts with their own home cooking....literally, as Margot revealed, " the then latest trend 'leaned' towards using blown and kiln-formed glass as a luminous canvas for further embellishment through a repertoire of carving, cutting, and etching techniques."
The leading practitioners that both Margot detailed in summarized form and Palette inventories are listed below, plus, other more recent artists including:
~ Kirstie Rea ~
Palette's largest inventoried Australian artist. Margot writes, Her elegant, minimalist forms allude to elements of the natural landscape around Canberra as a departure point for sculptural exploration. Simple, everyday objects like gates and fences are refined and abstracted to become vehicles for her interest in the poetic interplay between positive and negative space." To note, of all the artists listed below, Kirstie's artistry generates the greatest amount of colored penumbra if such peripheral color excites you!
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~ Maureen Williams ~
For Maureen, her " blown glass vessel acts as a three-dimensional blank canvas for her abstract paintings. She structures the painting by wheel-cutting and engraving linear demarcations in the lightly sandblasted surface of the blown blank, and then impregnating them with paint. She then applies color in layers, using loose brush marks that create tonal nuances as underlying colors are partially revealed. The painted surface is then encased in layers of clear glass."
In Maureen's world, sky view macro patterns are combined with smaller patterns found in the sun-bleached outback: its salt-encrusted rocks, weathered surfaces, and rugged gorges. These imaginative, abstracted landscapes can be quite colorful and in one case, very reminiscent of "Mid-Century Modern" design which probably wasn't Maureen's intent.
~ Nick Wirdnam ~
Nick has been known for his "Hot-Formed Fish". As Margot reports, "Their exquisite, finely textured skin captures light, creating a luminous glow. Metal stands suspend or support the fish, so that they appear like translucent, floating entities- part matter, part spirit." Another interpretation considers them to be "Caught Fish" either displayed by the proud fisherman or available for purchase from the shopkeeper. Regardless, the beautifully minimal metal stand is a "work of display art" in its own rite.
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Bound Wishes
~ Gerry King ~
Pertaining to his then new "Toledo Blade Series" of which one piece will be in our display, Margot writes, "(Toledo Blade) further extends his interest in the dramatic effects of light and color in cast glass. The sharp, ragged edge of the blade form introduces a new element of danger as a counterpoint to the alluring shifts of color within the glass."
~ Jessica Loughlin ~
Lastly, Margot said the following about Jessica's artistry, "In her serene kiln-formed glass, Jessica encapsulates ' the beauty of emptiness'. Shades of gray transmute to charcoal brown tinged with an almost imperceptible blue as light passes through the upper layer to reveal underlying tones. A fine white horizon line gradually ev***rates to nothingness like a disappearing v***r trail. The endless expanse of the Australian outback, its humming silence, and the distant horizon line that merges with the huge, empty sky in the shimmering heat - these are qualities that, once experienced, are never forgotten. Loughlin's minimalist abstract forms are an embodiment of a state of mind, a cerebral stillness, elicited by this landscape."
Other Australian glass artists whose works will be shown are: Catherine Aldrete-Morris, Tricia Allen, Jane Bruce, Lisa Cahill, Judi Elliott, Wendy Hannam, and Raewyn Roberts.
There will be an approximate forty-day "Door Prize Drawing" for the lucky in-gallery attendee of our Australian glass display.There is no show opening reception.Attend this event between May 20 - June 30, and provide your contact info and you could win a complimentary copy of Margot Osborne's book that was referenced through-out this show announcement.
G' Day,
Kurt + Marina
Palette Contemporary Art and Craft
