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The State of Matter (press release)

parProjects presents: The State of Matter


October 23rd – October 30th

(the three-venue exhibition and week of events)


October 23rd – November 23rd

(the month-long showcase at Prairie)


On Saturday, October 23rd, 2010, parProjects will kick off a week of events revolving around the medium of glass. The three-venue exhibition will be presented in Cincinnati's Northside community and will feature live glass blowing, flame working demos, artist talks and open studios. All of the programming is intended to highlight glass-media as a true art form.


The initial exhibition will be explored in three venues — Prairie (gallery), our BEI Container Gallery Space and Hoffner Lodge — which are all located in the Northside Business District surrounding Hoffner Park.


The sculptures of Cincinnati and regional artists will examine and explore the variety of ways glass is used in contemporary art. Their work ranges from traditional to unconventional use of media and their level of experience ranges from emerging to established. Several artists involved are featured from Neusole Glassworks (Cincinnati), while the others operate out of a number of other Midwestern glass facilities.


Internationally recognized artist and Cincinnati native Margot Gotoff leads the exhibition with her unique techniques in glass casting. In addition, the other featured artists — John Capps (Louisville, KY), Zach Compton (Cincinnati, OH), Mike Davis (Cincinnati, OH), Brian Engel (Pittsburgh, PA), Jason Forck (Pittsburgh, PA), Michael Goodman (Cincinnati, OH), Doni Hatz (Cincinnati, OH), Zachary Herrmann (Cincinnati, OH), Jamie Payne (Cincinnati, OH), Scott Percival (Chicago, IL), and Jared Rosenacker (Cincinnati, OH) — help to represent glass art as a whole. The twelve artists will show a cross-section of various ways glass can be manipulated, including traditional glass blowing, sculptural glass blowing, flame working, mixed media and casting.


Our title, The State of Matter, is derived from the literal description of glass itself as a substance. In scientific terms, glass is suspended between a liquid and solid state. And from this standpoint, the week strives to illustrate both the beauty of the making-process as well as the magic of the substance …which is actually frozen in space.


Essentially, we are pulling a community and city together for an array of good times which will officially start with four hours of glass blowing in Hoffner Park on Saturday, October 23rd. During the week, we will take viewers on an artistic journey into the seductive media of glass and processes that have gone unchanged for several thousand years.


This is the new beginning for parProjects. We are a professional group of artists & educators operating at a curatorial capacity in conjunction with galleries, local businesses and organizations in order to bridge communities together through creative projects.


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