Click here for information about Nancy Callan's August 2008 exhibition at the Daniel Kany Gallery:
Callan's sculptural glass forms stretch from the playful to the sculptural. Even within a mode that reaches with all its might to be abstract, the Seattle-based artist's works insist on a physical and witty presence. A "winkle" in the Massachusetts native's mind follows its physical strengths to be a talon, a fang, a wing or possibly something as animated as the silhouette of an emperor penguin. Even when trying to pass incredibly complicated rhythms of glassblowing off as a single pattern (even a plaid!), Callan never loses a biological respect for the gestalt; and in so doing, never steps away from her sculptural authority. She walks on a razor-thin ribbon to a place few American glass sculptors have ever trod. And yet she does so with grace, wit and an appealing welcome to her audience to follow and indeed celebrate our own options and possibilities.
A child's toy top in Callan's hands becomes a spun toy (of masterfully handled glass): a traveling vessel of wit that spins from shiny and playful to deeply philosophical and effortlessly back again. Callan's ability to address the viewer on many levels at once is both the most impressive quality of her work as well as the most subtle. Callan's technical mastery is so complete that the skill and effort are virtually erased from the viewer's sight - not unlike a painter whose technique is so perfect that it hides itself. But Callan has no desire to fool or talk down to the audience. Much of her content may be subtle and deep but her work is eminently approachable. Her skill is perceived by us - the viewing audience - as a gesture of respect towards us: that she would work so hard and so well for our aesthetic pleasure is indeed an enjoyable kindness on the part of the artist.
Click here for information about Nancy Callan's: Wobble & Bob
Exhibition: August 3 - September 8, 2007
