Ethan Stern: Inscribing Surfaces

Inscribing Surfaces is the newest temporary exhibition to be shown at the Central Avenue location. Ethan Stern, the featured artist, has been growing in notoriety steadily over the past decade, regularly showing and teaching around the globe. Like many artists working in glass, his sculptures are hand blown, but that's only the beginning. Once cooled, Stern spends hours in his studio carefully carving patterns onto the surface of his glass pieces. This time-consuming process, known as cold working, requires careful precision.

Inspired heavily by the heritage of cut crystal, this body of work explores an array of patterns beveled into the surface whose angles refract light into and through the form. Stern describes his work, "Unlike the cut glass vessels of the past, these sculptures are not vessels designed to hold things but containers to hold light." Stern's mark making is a deliberate manipulation of light affecting his artwork.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website