katherine gray
Katherine Gray employs the stealth qualities of glass and the history of glassblowing to comment on larger issues she is passionate about: the environment, society and community. Her practice is focused on the material qualities of glass itself: its ability to be psychologically absent and physically invisible in its quotidian, scientific and technological use, but also to be the substance of the sublime. The Los Angeles Times praised Gray’s works for ‘emphasizing the broad potential of the medium.’
In our current exhibition, Radiant Mirage, Katherine Gray turns her considerable glass-making skills to creating objects that serve two purposes: to bring beauty into a dire moment in the world, and to express her frustration over the loss of our collective sense of security and well-being. The common thread is her use of iridescence, an optical phenomenon seen in nature and inspired by unearthed ancient glass. Like natural phenomena that are caused by the refraction of light, Gray’s Entities and Tubes emphasize the elusiveness and shiftiness of iridized objects - their psychedelic high and deceptive low - and project an ephemeral shape and play of color our eye does not fully grasp.
Katherine Gray was educated at the Ontario College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently appearing as the Resident Evaluator on Season 1 and the upcoming Season 2 of Netflix’s reality TV show Blown Away. Her works are held in the permanent collections of public institutions including the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Museum of American Glass, Wheaton, NJ; the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM, and Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, Toyama, Japan. Gray is a Professor at California State University, San Bernardino.
