Galleries Visual Arts

Penland Gallery: Alchemy

Girl with a Hat. Dean Allsion, artist

Through Sunday, September 16, Penland Gallery continues Alchemy, its exhibition of complex work by 12 glass artists. Included among the displayed pieces are cast forms made from glass that separates light into different colors, clear vessels with visible patterns, an intricate assembly of glass leaves and flowers sculpted from recycled commercial glass waste and a flexible snake made from hundreds of linked glass rings.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison’s detailed three-dimensional portraits are cast from colored glass. Allison was a figurative painter before beginning his work in glass in 1998. “I was drawn to the industrial, trade nature of the craft,” he says. “When I became good enough to make functional wares and production-type objects, I started to work on figurative things that eventually became the portraits I’m doing now.”

His process involves making a “mask” of a model, creating a wax that is sculpted and invested in mold material, steaming out the wax and filling the mold with glass that he makes. The piece must cool in the mold for about a month before it is cleaned and finished. Allison is finishing a three-year residency at Penland School of Crafts and will have two pieces in the show: depictions of local residents, a boy and girl. “The pieces show my glass that was made from scratch, juxtaposed with oil paint,” he says. “The work shows a joining of portraiture in glass and my love for painting.”

Other artists in the show are Giles Bettison, Daniel Clayman, Nate Cotterman, Amber Cowan, Nickolaus Fruin, Katherine Gray, Jiyong Lee, Kit Paulson, Mark Peiser, Marc Petrovic and Tim Tate.

The Penland Gallery and Visitors Center is located at Penland School of Crafts on Conley Ridge Road in Mitchell County near Spruce Pine. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit penland.org/gallery or call 828.765.6211.

1 Comment

  • Enjoyed your local coverage. Thought I would see something on Chihuly at the Biltmore. What a gift to your city and state!!

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