Josiah McElheny (1966, Boston) is an artist and sculptor, primarily known for his work with glass blowing and assemblages of glass and mirrored glassed objects (see Glass art). He is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program. He lives and works in New York City.

Josiah McElheny
Born1966 (1966)[1]
EducationRhode Island School of Design
Known forSculpture, Assemblage
AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program

Early life and education

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McElheny grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.[citation needed] McElheny went on to receive his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1988.[2] As part of that program, he trained under master glassblower Ronald Wilkins.[3] After graduating, he was an apprentice to master glassblowers Jan-Erik Ritzman, Sven-Ake Caarlson and Lino Tagliapietra.[1]

Career

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In earlier works McElheny played with notions of history and fiction.[4] Examples of this are works that recreate Renaissance glass objects pictured in Renaissance paintings[5] and modern (but lost) glass objects from documentary photographs (such as works by Adolf Loos).[6] He draws from a range of disciplines like architecture, physics, and literature, among others, and he works in a variety of media.[7]

McElheny has mentioned the influence of the writings of Jorge Luis Borges in his work.[8] His work has also been influenced by the work of the American abstract artist Donald Judd.[9]

McElheny has also expressed interest in glassblowing as part of an oral tradition handed down generation to generation.[citation needed] He has used the infinity mirror visual effect in his explorations of apparently infinite space. His work also sometimes deals with issues of museological displays.[10]

One of the artist's ongoing projects is "An End to Modernity" (2005), commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University. The piece is a twelve-foot-wide by ten-foot-high chandelier of chrome and transparent glass modeled on the 1960s Lobmeyr design for the chandeliers found in Lincoln Center, and evoking as well the Big Bang theory.[11] "The End of the Dark Ages," again inspired by the Metropolitan Opera House chandeliers and informed by logarithmic equations devised by the cosmologist David H. Weinberg[12] was shown in New York City in 2008. Later that year, the series culminated in a massive installation titled "Island Universe" at White Cube in London[13] and in Madrid.[14] In 2019 the installation was exhibited at Stanford University's Cantor Center for the Arts.[15]

Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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  • 1990 – Jägarens Glasmuseet (The Hunter's Glass Museum), Arnescruv, Sweden,
  • 1993 – originals, fakes, reproductions, William Traver Gallery, Seattle
  • 1994 – Authentic History, Robert Lehman Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • 1995 – Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
  • 1995 – Installation with Ancient Roman Glass, Ancient Mediterranean and Egypt Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle,
  • 1995 – Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
  • 1996 – Barbara Kraków Gallery, Boston
  • 1997 -Non-Decorative Beautiful Objects, AC Project Room, New York
  • 1997 – Three Alter Egos, Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
  • 1999 – The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle[16]
  • 1999 – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
  • 2000 – Christian Dior, Jorges Luis Borges, Adolf Loos, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago and Brent Sikkema, New York
  • 2001 – Metal Party, Public Art Fund, New York
  • 2001 – Metal Party, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
  • 2001 – Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas
  • 2002 – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  • 2003 – Theories About Reflection, Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York
  • 2003 – Antipodes: Josiah McElheny, White Cube, London[17]
  • 2004 – Total Reflective Abstraction, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago[18]
  • 2005 – An End to Modernity, Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio[12]
  • 2006 – Modernity 1929–1965, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2006 – Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part I, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2007 – Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part II, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2007 – Projects 84: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown, The Museum of Modern Art, New York[19]
  • 2007 – The 1st at Moderna: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown, Moderna Museet, Stockholm[20]
  • 2008 – The Last Scattering Surface, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle and Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota
  • 2008 – Das Lichtklub von Batavia/The Light Club of Batavia, Institut im Glaspavillon, Berlin
  • 2008 – The Light Club of Batavia, Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2008 – The End of the Dark Ages, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2008 – Island Universe, White Cube, London
  • 2009 – A Space for an Island Universe, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid[21]
  • 2009 – Proposal for a Chromatic Modernism, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2012 – Some Pictures of the Infinite, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston[11][22]
  • 2016 – The Ornament Museum, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
  • 2017 – The Crystal Land, White Cube, London
  • 2017 – Prismatic Park, Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York
  • 2018 – Island Universe, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston
  • 2018 – Cosmic Love, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago
  • 2019 – Island Universe, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford
  • 2019 – Observations at Night, James Cohan Gallery, New York
  • 2021 – Libraries, James Cohan Gallery, New York

Awards

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Permanent collections

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Books

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  • Josiah McElheny: A Prism. Skira Rizzoli International, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8478-3415-0.
  • The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart's 'The Light Club of Batavia'. University of Chicago Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-226-51457-4.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Josiah McElheny · Works 1994-2000". www.jccc.edu.
  2. ^ Magazine, Wallpaper* (19 November 2012). "'Interactions of the Abstract Body' by Josiah McElheny, London". Wallpaper*.
  3. ^ "Josiah McElheny". Art21.
  4. ^ "Josiah McElheny (2000) - Corning Museum of Glass". www.cmog.org.
  5. ^ "Objects and Ideas". Art21.
  6. ^ "Josiah McElheny at Donald Young Gallery". www.artforum.com. 29 December 2010.
  7. ^ Oldknow, Tina (2014). collecting contemporary glass. Corning, New York: Corning Museum of Glass. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-87290-201-5.
  8. ^ A. D. Linde (2008). Josiah McElheny: Island Universe. Jay Jopling/White Cube. ISBN 9781906072216.
  9. ^ Jutta-Annette Page; Peter Morrin; Robert Bell (12 December 2012). Color Ignited: Glass 1962–2012. BookBaby. pp. 38–. ISBN 978-0-935172-49-2.
  10. ^ John Stuart Gordon (9 November 2017). American Glass: The Collections at Yale. Yale University Press. pp. 285–. ISBN 978-0-300-22669-0.
  11. ^ a b c Dobrzynski, Judith H. (14 June 2012). "Josiah McElheny, Glass Artist, in Busy Times". The New York Times.
  12. ^ a b Spears, Dorothy (7 May 2006). "The Entire Universe on a Dimmer Switch". The New York Times.
  13. ^ "The Big Picture" by Alex Browne, The New York Times, September 26, 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  14. ^ "Josiah McElheny and David Weinberg: From the Big Bang to Island Universe" Wexler Center press release on a joint conversation May 6, 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  15. ^ Kane, Karla (March 11, 2019). "Cantor installation explores the multiverse". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  16. ^ Hackett, Regina; Critic, P.-I. Art (13 June 2008). "The fussy and fashionable acquire weight in glass artist Josiah McElheny's hands". seattlepi.com.
  17. ^ Louise Neri (2003). Antipodes: inside the white cube. White Cube. ISBN 978-0-9542363-8-0.
  18. ^ ""Total Reflective Abstraction"". Art21.
  19. ^ Schwendener, Martha. "Art in Review; Josiah McElheny". query.nytimes.com.
  20. ^ "The 1st at Moderna: Josiah McElheny". Moderna Museet i Stockholm.
  21. ^ "Josiah McElheny - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía". www.museoreinasofia.es.
  22. ^ Reporter, James H. Burnett III-. "Josiah McElheny's expanding universe - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com.
  23. ^ "Josiah McElheny - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org.
  24. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Buckminster Fuller's Proposal to Isamu Noguchi for the New Abstraction of Total Reflection. 2003 - Albright-Knox Art Gallery". www.albrightknox.org.
  25. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Historical Renaissance, Mirrored and Reflected (Undecorated). 2003 - Carnegie Museum of Art". www.cmoa.org.
  26. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Charlotte Perriand (and Carlo Scarpa), Blue. 2011 - CCS Bard". www.ccs.bard.edu/.
  27. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Italy vs. Sweden (White). 2002 - CGAC". www.cgac.xunta.gal/EN/contido/cgac/.
  28. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Rearrangeable Domestic Roman Collection. 2008 - Chrysler Museum of Art". www.chrysler.org/.
  29. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Three Screens for Looking at Abstraction. 2013 - Columbus Museum of Art". www.columbusmuseum.org.
  30. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Glass Crown with Pillow and Booklet. 2006 - Corning Museum of Glass". www.home.cmog.org/.
  31. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction (I). 2004 - DMA". www.dma.org.
  32. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime. 2003 - DIA". www.dia.org.
  33. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Chromatic Modernism (Blue, Red, Yellow). 2010 - IMA". www.discovernewfields.org/do-and-see/places-to-go/indianapolis-museum-art.
  34. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Halo after Botticelli. 2019 - ICA Boston". www.icaboston.org/. 1997.
  35. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Ornament and Crime. 2003 - LACMA". www.lacma.org.
  36. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Blue Prism Painting I. 2014 - Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester". www.mag.rochester.edu/.
  37. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely. 2004 - Milwaukee Art Museum". www.mam.org/.
  38. ^ "Josiah McElheny. The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown. 2007 - Moderna Museet". www.modernamuseet.se.
  39. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Chromatic Modernism (Yellow, Blue, Red). 2009 - MWPAI". www.mwpai.org/.
  40. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Model for a Film Set (The Light Spa at the Bottom of a Mine). 2009 - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia". www.museoreinasofia.es/en.
  41. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism. 2007 - MFA Boston". www.mfa.org.
  42. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Modernity, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely. 2003 - MoMA". www.moma.org.
  43. ^ "Josiah McElheny. THE LAST SCATTERING SURFACE. 2008 - Phoenix Art Museum". www.phxart.org/.
  44. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Studies in the Search for Infinity, 1997-1998. 2001 - Rhode Island School of Design Museum". www.risdmuseum.org/.
  45. ^ "Josiah McElheny. Crystalline Landscape After Hablik and Luckhardt III. 2013 - Santa Barbara Museum of Art". www.sbma.net/.
  46. ^ "Josiah McElheny. THE ONLY KNOWN GRAVE OF A GLASSBLOWER. 1995 - Seattle Art Museum". www.seattleartmuseum.org/.
  47. ^ "Josiah McElheny. An End to Modernity. 2005 - Tate Modern". www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mcelheny-an-end-to-modernity-l02749.
  48. ^ "Josiah McElheny. From An Historical Anecdote About Fashion. 2000 - Whitney Museum of American Art". www.whitney.org.