New Toledo Museum of Artwork exhibition opens Saturday | Native Information

TOLEDO – This spring, the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) opens a comprehensive look at glass art and experimentation over the centuries. Chameleon effects: Glass (Un) Defined brings together historical and contemporary works from TMA’s extraordinary glass collection to explore the spectrum of technical and formal possibilities of the medium. Chameleon Effects examines the relationship between glass, gemstones, metalwork, ceramics, photography and performance, and shows the long history of the interaction of glass with other materials.

The exhibition, which will be installed on the mezzanine floor of the Wolfe Gallery, challenges traditional art-historical categories and shows more than 30 works of art, including several new acquisitions by renowned glass artists Shari Mendelson, Kim Harty and Sharyn O’Mara. This ongoing exhibition is free and open to the public on Saturday.

“Chameleon Effects celebrates the history of glass and the legacy of glassmaking in Toledo and the Toledo Museum of Art,” said Adam M. Levine, Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey, director and CEO of the museum. “We look forward to sharing this select group of TMA’s premier glassworks for an extended period of time, highlighting the various stories the objects convey.”

A press release from TMA pointed out that glass, one of the oldest man-made substances, is neither a true solid nor a liquid and challenges conventional understanding of how materials work. For more than 4,000 years, artists have exploited the inherent mutability of glass, transforming the molten material into an impressive array of shapes, colors, and textures, and often blurring the lines between one medium and another. More recently, artists have turned to newer materials and techniques such as plastics and photography as a way of exploring historical glass and making connections to the past.

“Glass is omnipresent in everyday life and a material that we know and believe we understand. This exhibition shows centuries of artistic experimentation and technical ingenuity in glass and demonstrates the complexity and versatility of the medium, ”said Sophie Ong, Hirsch curator of TMA who organized the exhibition. “The installation sets works of art in glass in relation to other materials and techniques and underlines the efforts of the museum to present works from the collection in a new way and across media and time.”

TMA has one of the most comprehensive and historically significant collections of glass art in the world. The museum’s glass holdings were continuously acquired, examined, preserved, published and exhibited. TMA is known as the incubator of the Studio Glass Movement. In 2006, TMA opened its glass pavilion, which was designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA.

The ultra-modern facility houses, maintains, studies and continues to display the museum’s renowned glass collection. The glass pavilion studio also offers the opportunity to experience and participate in the art of making glass objects through demonstrations, courses and workshops, and artist residencies.