8 - 25 September 2006
about the exhibition
Maureen Williams is widely respected as a glass artist and is at the forefront of Australian glass practice. She uses the blown glass vessel as a three-dimensional canvas for her abstract paintings. Her work has involved imaginary terrains and images which are focussed through cutting the inner surface of the glass, entrapping paint and subsequently layering the painted surfaces to give a visual texture within the glass. The paint is covered with successive layers of clear glass, achieving a great depth of colour and tone beneath the smooth surface. Maureen has walked the rugged gorges and ranges of the Northern Territory and these experiences inspire the patterns and linear trails around her glass forms that lead the eye on an abstract journey with no obvious point of departure. “The imagery has been concerned with the narrative and most recently with the juxtaposition of nature and man’s imposition upon it. I use aerial views and the linear aspects of the land.” This is Maureen’s second solo exhibition with Beaver Galleries.
Maureen Williams studied at the Chisholm Institute of Technology majoring in hot glass. She has travelled extensively in Europe and America where she has attended international glass conferences, the Venezia Aperto Vetro and the Pilchuck glass school in the USA. Maureen has established her own hot glass studio and has been awarded artist residencies at the Wanganui Polytechnic in New Zealand and the Canberra School of Art. She has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Australia and overseas with work collected by many institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank and Die Neue Sammlung Museum (Munich, Germany). Most recently Maureen has been awarded a major grant from the Visual Arts/Crafts Board of the Australia Council.
