Past and Future:
Boucher & Huebner/Bernstein: May 2007
Deborah Randall: June 2007
Trinh Nguyen: July 2007
Michael Kessler: August 2007
Glass by Ben Coombs: Sept 2007

August - September 2007

Nancy Callan: Wobble & Bob

Exhibition: August 3 - September 8, 2007

Nancy Callan, 6 Piece Top Sampler, blown glass with steel frame, 51"w x 12"h x 12"d, 2007.

The Daniel Kany Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Wobble & Bob, an exhibition of blown glass sculptures by Nancy Callan. A Massachusetts native, the Seattle artist has developed an international reputation as a glassblower: she has shown her work, taught and demonstrated around the world.

Wobble & Bob is a show of five sculptures and two wall installations. The works all take the sculptural forms of either buoys or tops. Through their symmetrical structures and implied motion, the forms work to support not only each other, but the glassblowing process itself. The playful form of a top as sculpture can read like a dreidel or a pop-inspired grand-scale toy, but it also echoes the work and skill needed to produce a symmetrical form in blown glass: the symmetrical balance points refer to the blowpipe, spinning, motion and time that go into the blowing of a glass vessel. To work, a top needs to pass a certain set of check variables and Callan's tops fit the bill.

Callan’s buoys refer to the glass vessel's hollowness and its inherent ability to float. In the case of the buoys, the sculptural form reaches in a slightly different direction with the marriage of glass technique (incalmo: when multiple bubbles of glass are joined symmetrically) and the traditional striated coloring of buoys. Moreover, lobster buoys are very specific and serve to identify their owners precisely by their colors somewhat akin to the tartans of the Scottish clans.

Nancy Callan, Bling Bling Bee Buoy, blown glass, 18"h x 12"dia, 2006.

Rather than delve into the historic specifics of the identities associated with the buoy colors, Callan plays with references to identity. A green and white striped buoy with an achingly pointed tip is called the Bling Bling Bee Buoy both in honor of the stinger-like tip and the sparkle of the aventurine green glass. This particular sculpture is almost an oddity in the glass world since it is designed to spin on its central axis. With the outward gesture of the extended tip as the piece rolls in place, the effect is one of watching a buoy pitch with the surf.

Notable of Wobble & Bob is a pair of wall pieces by Callan. One features five and the other six buoys bracketed to black steel frames. These pieces exude motion, color and possibility. They are play on display.

Wobble & Bob will be on display through September 8th, 2007. Also of note: Nancy Callan will be teaching at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle Maine in summer 2008.

For more information and publication-quality images, please contact Daniel Kany.