2023 & Beyond
A year-long competition and exhibition
what is NGG?
Habatat Fine Art is honored to continue the innovative Not Grandma’s Glass (NGG) presentation into its third year. NGG was featured in multiple publications and even featured on television. Last year we celebrated the work of 12 incredible innovative and talented artists from around the world. Congratulations to each of the participants and you are invited to view both the 2021 and 2022 presentations on the NGG archive button above.
Four winners have been selected to participate once again in 2023. These winners are artists Pearl Dick, Morag Reekie, John Moran, and Krista Israel.
In 2023 Habatat Fine Art will once again promote a year-long glass competition featuring 8 new artists and the 4 past winners who have pushed beyond the norm of the contemporary art world. All 12 have impressive talent and creative vision and are expected to be driving forces in the future. Each artist has chosen a single month of the year during 2023 to create an online presence. Habatat has asked each of them to create on such a level that the body of work could be displayed at their dream museum. They will create and share their presentations that will offer unique experiences into that artists’ worlds. This will be done completely at the artist’s discretion and offer both a glimpse into each artist’s message and work for purchase as well.
This is where the fun really starts. Habatat plans to continue this exhibition in 2023 and to do that the NGG presentation will be a competition. Of the 12 artists in the competition, only 4 will be selected to participate the following year.
With a title like this, Habatat plans to create awareness in those who hear about it. This exhibition and competition drive focus to the work of these 12 important artists and, more importantly, visitors will expect to see work that grandma does not have in her glass collection. A bit of shock and awe that the contemporary glass art world needs. The art world is ever-changing and Habatat is personally responsible to represent and promote artists who are pushing glass beyond traditional craft.
The story goes when I (Aaron Schey) started my career at Habatat Galleries the topic of a client’s collection would often arise. When the topic of “family” was brought up the collectors would mention that the artwork in their home was referred to by the next generation as “Oh that’s just grandma’s glass.” The historic collections that many of our collectors are not understood by the children of collectors. The article posted here even helps define how future art collectors will collect. The title of this exhibition plays on the phrase above. The artists participating in this innovative exhibition/competition create in such a new manner focused on the younger generation and what the next generation is likely to collect. These works are probably not in grandma’s art collection…yet.The work in this online competition and exhibition will be glass celebrated for all generations that push far beyond the norm. #NGG artists are extremely innovative and I propose that they will all be important in the future of the glass medium.
Starting in January 2023, the first presentation will be hosted on www.NotGrandmasGlass.com and continue monthly through the year. Winners will be chosen in December of 2023 and receive the NGG Award to celebrate their victory before going back to the studio for their 2024 presentations.
Habatat would like to congratulate and welcome the artists invited for 2023. Each artist selected their own month and we are excited to announce the new roster for the NGG exhibition and competition: Kimberly Thomas, Mike Da Ponte, Any Koupal, Jeanne Letourneau, Sahbh Mowlds, Geoffrey Bowton, Lacey Walton AKA Laceface Glass, Slate Grove, Pearl Dick, Alli Hoag, Krista Israel, and John Moran. Artist Morag Reekie was unable to participate this year and we invited artist Alli Hoag to take her slot in September of this year.
Near the first of every month in 2023, a link will be posted under the artist’s name below sharing their NGG presentation as well as their artist talk.
November November
John Moran
NGG SPECIAL EDITION - ARMED FOR KNOWLEDGE - MIRRORED
Edition of 25. 2023. Free-hand sculpted and mirrorized glass. Each on is signed, numbered, and dated and comes with a certificate of authenticity. 5in H x 4in W x 4in D (10cm x 8cm x 8cm).
Through their salaries, teachers are expected to supply resource materials for their students and classrooms. Will they now be responsible for arming themselves and risking their lives in order to protect their students? Though many would risk their lives for their students, they should not be forced into this situation. 50€ from every piece sold is donated directly to a classroom from donorschoose.org.
October October
Join me this Saturday, October 7th at 1:00 p.m. ET for a visit with artist Allison Hoag who is new to our Habatat and NGG family. Hoag is a mixed-media artist who invites you to explore the mystery that is her thought-provoking sculpture. She creates in an attempt to mix the recognizable with the unrecognizable. As the viewer you are invited to question what you are experiencing and open a dialogue of what her work means to you. How did you first interpret the work? Of what does it remind you? Of what does it not remind you? I look forward to you joining me this weekend to answer these questions.
Hoag recently completed a residency at the Toledo Museum of Art called the Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP) which was started in 2006 and offers a glass-blowing studio for artists to create without restriction. GAPP is designed to enhance and educate the museum's art community. Hoag, who was invited to participate for the first year of #NGG, has taken over the October slot originally planned for artist Morag Reekie who was unable to participate.
September September
Pearl Dick has been very busy over the last year working in her community promoting the arts while continuing Project Fire. Dick developed this glassblowing program to help with the trauma of youth injured by gun violence in Chicago. Join me this weekend to learn more about how this artist gives back to her community and her efforts to create real change.
August August
This talk will be rescheduled soon.
Slate Grove is an artist, fabricator, educator, and studio manager with experience across the USA and currently lives and works in Finland’s capital region. Slate has experience teaching everything from dedicated workshops to both Bachelor and Masters level instruction in University programs. For 6 years, Slate was an independent artist and project fabricator in New York City where he facilitated individual projects for artists and design teams that ranged from unique handmade projects through serial production.
July July
This talk will be recorded and posted here on Saturday, July 1st in the afternoon.
Lacey (LaceFace) Walton was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. She was exposed to the blossoming art form of glass blowing and pipe making from an early age. Determined from the beginning to create beauty, Lacey fell in love with the color, fluidity, and form of glass the moment she began working on the torch in 2004.
Lacey spent the next several years concentrating on her growing skills as a glass artist while simultaneously putting herself through school. After graduating with an associate degree in the Arts, she became heavily involved in the expanding glass pipe art movement. In 2010, Lacey began attending several trade shows and flame off competitions around the country, her dedication was rewarded by her receiving several of the pipe industry's highest honors and awards of achievements. Wishing to evolve her artistry even further, Lacey found that collaborations with her friends and peers helped her to accomplish creative and innovative artworks and also enable her to think and work outside of her comfort zone. Now Lacey works out of her home studio in Austin Texas and creates with many of the industries most renowned artists, motivated as a community leader to push the limitations of glass art.
“The medium of glass is my doctrine, teaching me the ways of patience, discipline, and determination. Daily I praise the fluid like forms while dancing with the flames, willing them to speak, and to show me the light.” - LaceFace Glass
June June
I am excited to invite you to this Saturday's Habatat-Zoom featuring June's #NGG presenter artist Geoffrey Bowton. Bowton's artworks have been exploding all over social media and he is a recipient of the 2023 Glass Art Society Saxe Emerging Artist Award.
A military veteran, Bowton explores and shares the narrative of the cost of war in his sculptures. Each of his works is directly related to what he and his brothers at arms have and continue to experience after leaving the service. The topic is both difficult and important. Bowton's sculptures have been considered a controversial source of discussion as well as healing for those very close to the topics.
RSVP below as this Habatat-Zoom is not to be missed and I expect Bowton to be an important part of the future of the medium. I have been receiving multiple accolades as of late from museum directors and curators who have been enjoying the #NGG presentations. Make sure that you check out the past #NGG participants by clicking the ARCHIVE button above.
May May
Join me for a very special Habatat-Zoom featuring May's #NGG presenter Sadhbh Mowlds. Mowlds is an innovative multi-media artist who creates questionably life-like sculptures, often with a subtle, humorous edge, that initiate difficult but critical conversations. She is inspired by the multiple facets of anthropology and philosophy and explores the varying levels of beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions of society.
RSVP today and tune in to this enlighting and important artist talk. I am so honored to include artist Sadhbh Mowlds in this year's #NGG virtual exhibition.
April April
#NGG April features Canadian artist Jeanne Letourneau.
"My artistic practice is a collection of everything I like and hate, what gives me emotions and makes me vibrate. My influences are everywhere: the corner of a street, the shape of a building, human interactions. The main subject of my creations is the city and its environment, I am fascinated by its evolution over time. I see beauty and ugliness in everything and that's what inspires me, the people, the passion, the raw. My tastes are largely influenced by architecture and the brutalism movement of the 1950s and 60s. I love materials like concrete and steel that scream, that are cold and direct, that attack and fascinate the eye time. Brutalism does not care to seduce, it is and that's all. A part of me identifies with this movement: my creations are simple and refined, they are marked by me, by you, by what we create, and what we let die.
My medium of choice is glass. I chose it because of its transparency, its ability to absorb light and diffuse it, change it, as a way of putting a filter on the world and therefore to see things differently. And that's what I want to do, to get people to question themselves and their perceptions of the beautiful and the ugly that surround us."
Jeanne Letourneau is an artist born in Quebec who currently resides in Montreal. Before finding her way into glass art, Jeanne began several training courses revolving around arts such as presentation design and woodworking. She learns in a self-taught way painting and aerosol paint which will greatly influence her in her future projects. She started her glass formation at Espace Verre in 2018 and graduated in the spring of 2021.
March March
This weekend we have an important Habatat-Zoom planned with an upcoming Detroit-based artist: Andy Koupal. I had the opportunity to meet Koupal during a glass art exhibition at the Janice Charach Gallery in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He received an award from us during this event as his work was impressive and shared a commentary on the pollution of nature. I am eager to learn more about his life, artwork, processes, and career this weekend.
February February
join us for February's NGG as I have a special planned. We here at Habatat last exhibited artist Mike Da Ponte's work at the Pop and Lock Exhbiotin in 2019 during the Glass International. I am honored to have him join us to speak about his life, work, and career.
January January
Flamework artist Kim Thomas has just moved from the Detroit area to Colorado and has invited us into her new studio. Thomas, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, discovered flameworking in 2009. Her work is often autobiographical and explores her unique perception of the world. She is an exciting upcoming artist demanding the attention of the contemporary art world.
Thomas was selected as an award winner during the 50th Glass International by Jane Buckman, the Director of the Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida.
Coming soon
Want to see more NGG artists? Check out the artists from previous years