Portland, OR – The Bullseye Connection Gallery is proud to present Giles Bettison “Threads 1996-2005,” selected works from a decade of innovation in kilnformed and blown glass, on view January 20 - February 18, 2006.
Giles Bettison, an Australian graduate of the legendary Canberra School of Art, is known for both artistic and technical innovation. While still a student, he adapted an ancient Venetian glass-working technique – the fusing and cutting of bundled glass canes into patterned slices called murrine – to a new material: an American-made colored sheet glass. He has applied this technique to a number of forms, from traditional vessels to sculptural blocks mounted on steel. His signature fused and blown murrine glass works often recall the pattern and texture of fabric. Bettison’s work offers vitreous impressions of landscapes both rural and urban, woven in patterns of color and light that reflect the artist’s responses to his environment, be it South Australia or Manhattan.
“My work is an exploration of my movement through life, expressed in colors, patterns and forms,” says Bettison. “The light and color in rural and outback Australia is part of my experience of connecting to place and people. I use abstract representations of these and other places to explore my feelings; I want to include some essence of what these places mean to me.”
Bettison has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Best New Talent award from UrbanGlass in New York (1999) and the Bavarian State Prize Gold Medal in Germany (2001). Bettison was also the recipient of the Mitchell Giurgola Thorpe prize for design from the Canberra School of Art (1996) and won a scholarship to attend the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington (1996). His works are included in many private, corporate and museum collections worldwide.
Download: Giles Bettison December 28, 2005