2021 Exhibition Program

2021
Exhibition Program

Image credit: Scott Chaseling, Font (Red & Blue), 2020, glass. Photo by Brenton McGeachie for Canberra Glassworks.

Canberra Glassworks is Australia’s national centre for artists who work with glass, a core cultural
asset at the heart of the Kingston Arts Precinct and a place where we embrace experimentation,
education and engagement.
Our 2021 program reflects our aspirations as a leading Australian cultural institution and the national centre
for glass making and recognises the role we have to play for artists, communities living and working in the
ACT and visitors to our nation’s capital. We recognise the benefits of participation in the arts, the positive
impact this has on health and wellbeing, connectivity and inclusiveness and its role as a conduit to freedom
of expression and the building of bridges between cultures. Our commitment to First Nations Peoples is
embedded into all our work, acknowledgement of their culture is evident in our programming.
Image credit: Megan Cope & Canberra Glassworks, Process of Swedish overlay, 2020, blown glass
3 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

THE
REDEMPTION
OF COLOUR
SCOTT CHASELING
Curated by Aimee Frodsham
14th January to 11th April
From architecture to fashion, has contemporary life
become too monochrome?
Chaseling investigates our complex relationship with
colour and what colour symbolises today. By using
transparent coloured glass in geometric formations, he
creates pieces that shift, change and evolve only through
physically experiencing them in person.
Image credit: Scott CHASELING, Sanctuary (detail), 2020, blown glass.
4 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

UNBROKEN
CONNECTIONS
MEGAN COPE
Curated by Irina Agaronyan
20th May to 18th July
Unbroken Connections is the exhibition resulting from
Cope’s residency at Canberra Glassworks in 2020 and
2021. During her residency, Cope worked with a variety
of techniques to produce a distinct body of work that
includes shield forms made from blown glass on which
the artist used the ‘battuto’ technique to carve away the
layers and 250 dugong bones cast from recycled television
screen glass.
Cope is a Quandamooka woman from Minjerribah
(North Stradbroke Island) in South East Queensland. In
this exhibition the artist explores the ongoing connection
her People have had with the island for thousands of years
and the unbroken connections between country, family
and nature.
Image credit: Megan COPE, The tide waits for no-one, 2020/21, kiln cast TV glass,
yungan (dugong) bones, minjerribah mineral sand, light box.
Photo by Brenton McGeachie for Canberra Glassworks
5 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

LOCAL
CANBERRA
EMMA ELIZABETH ANDEW SIMPSON
TOM FEREDAY ANNA VARENDORFF
TOM SKEEHAN
Curated by Emma Elizabeth
29th July to 5th September
Local Canberra offers an opportunity to explore the
present and future of design through the work of
five designers – Emma Elizabeth, Tom Fereday, Tom
Skeehan, Andrew Simpson and Anna Varendorff. It will
acknowledge the importance of design in today’s culture
and recognise those designers whose talent, vision and
desire to innovate, will set a standard for the future. The
imagination, diversity, and techniques on display will
attest to the crucial role these five designers have in the
ongoing construction of cultural heritage.
Image credit: Tom SKEEHAN, Milan HARU Glass Light (detail), 2019, blown glass
Photo courtesy of the artist.
6 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

NET WORTH
LOUIS GRANT
JESSICA MURTAGH
MADISYN ZABEL
Curated by Aimee Frodsham
16th September to 24th October
Net Worth showcases three emerging artists working
in glass; Louis Grant (ACT), Jessica Murtagh (SA)
and Madisyn Zabel (ACT). Each provide a unique
commentary on today’s expectations of self-worth,
perceived worth and financial worth, and how evolving
values may guide our future.
Image credit: Louis GRANT, Queer (vulnerability), 2019, neon, glass
Photo courtesy of the artist.
7 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

UPENDING
EXPECTATIONS
CONTEMPORARY GLASS
Curated by Frances Lindsay AM
October to January
As the title Upending expectations: contemporary glass
implies, the focus of this exhibition is on artists whose
experimental, innovative and at times cross-disciplinary
practice, utilises glass and its properties of light,
transparency and reflection, through a diverse range of
approaches. The selection of artists has come from this
strong rationale and includes ten Australian artists;
Gabriella Bisetto, Cobi Cockburn, Nadège Desgenétez,
Mel Douglas, Rose-Mary Faulkner, Nicholas Folland,
Jonathan Jones, Kirstie Rea, Harriet Schwarzrock and
Brendan Van Hek along with international artist
Annie Cattrell (UK). The exhibition is scheduled to tour
from 2022 to 2024 supported by the Australia Council for
the Arts through the Contemporary Touring Initiative. Five
regional and metropolitan public galleries from Victoria
through to the Northern Territory have been confirmed.
Image credit: Brendan VAN HEK, Light Elevation, 2020, neon, wood
Photo by Brenton McGeachie 2020.
8 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

ARTIST RESIDENCIES
CANBERRA GLASSWORKS residencies are awarded to emerging and
established artists who have achieved significant recognition for their technical
and artistic work. The residencies on offer provide a range of benefits such as
studio, materials and equipment access, in exchange for their contribution to
the cultural life of the Glassworks.
MEL DOUGLAS (ACT)
Art Group Creative Fellowship
ANNETTE BLAIR (NSW)
Flux Mentorship
New to 2021
KARENA KEYS
Thomas Foundation Mentorship
New to 2021
PATRICIA PICCININI (VIC)
CONSUELO CAVANIGLIA (NSW)
JOHNATHAN JONES (NSW)
NGAIO FITZPATRICK (ACT)
ROBYN CAMPBELL (ACT)
LIAMFLEMMING (SA)
JACQUELINE BREADLEY (ACT)
Artists In Residence
KIRSTIE REA (NSW)
MEL DOUGLAS (ACT)
2021 Intensive Professional
Workshop
CARMAN SKEEHAN (ACT)
JIANZHEN WU (SA)
Graduate In Residence
TBA
Writer in Residence
TBA
Creative Access Residency
TBA
ACT Region School Residency
2021 Residency program is supported by the Australia
Council for the Arts
Image credit: Brenden Scott French (Art Group Creative Fellow 2020), work in progress (detail), 2020, kiln form glass.
Photo courtesy of Canberra Glassworks.
9 | EXHIBITION PROGRAM | 2021

canberraglassworks.com
11 Wentworth Ave, Kingston ACT 2604
T 02 6260 7005
E contactus@canberraglassworks.com
opening hours
Wed to Sun 10am to 4pm
Government Partners
Canberra Glassworks is supported by the ACT Government through artsACT and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Art Group Creative Fellowship
Creative Partner