Portland, OR – Bullseye is pleased to present “Trace,” the works of Cobi Cockburn, Sylvie Vandenhoucke, and Janice Vitkovsky at the Bullseye Gallery, November 28, 2006 – January 13, 2007. The exhibition is a glimpse of three women artists whose spare sculptural glass forms reveal intricate textures, recalling the delicate marks, patterns, and replication more commonly found in textiles. Although focused on different thematic aspects, the works share a meticulous intimacy.
“This body of work reflects my long-term interest in the matérial and the making of hand-woven forms,” says Cockburn, an Australia native. “In developing these pieces, I have carefully considered and blended my interests in fibres, my love for the natural Australian landscape and my growth as a young mother and artist.” Cockburn is a recent graduate of the Australian National University (ANU), in Canberra, Australia, where she worked with Blanche Tilden and Scott Chaseling. She won First Place Nonfunctional as well as the Popular Prize at Bullseye Glass Company’s recent “e-merge” exhibition, and is the 2006 recipient of the Ranamok Glass Prize in Australia.
Originally from Belgium, Sylvie Vandenhoucke received a Master of Philosophy and a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland, UK, and has also taught in Israel, Scotland, Canada, and Belgium. “[I question] how to make the invisible visible, [and] how to dematerialise matter,” explains Vandenhoucke. “The work reveals a non-physical or inner space, trapped between the layers of the miniature landscape.”
Janice Vitkovsky is more interested in examining emotional space. “By working with pattern and layer-ing, I wish to expose rhythmic and intricate patterns that relate to the mysteries existing beneath the surface of our reality,” says Vitkovsky. Also a recent ANU graduate, the artist has studied extensively with Giles Bettison, a fact reflected in her delicate murrine textures, a Venetian glass technique reinvented by Bettison. Vitkovsky has also studied with Dante Marioni and Janusz Pozniak and was recently awarded a scholarship to study at North Lands Creative Glass in Lybster, Scotland.
Download: Trace November 28, 2006