4 - 23 March 2010
about the exhibition
Maureen Williams’ glass vessels are three-dimensional canvases for her abstracted landscape images. Using blown glass, enamel painting and wheel cutting, Maureen achieves great depth of colour and tone. Her imagery draws on multiple visual perspectives, including ground and aerial views, and focuses on linear aspects of the landscape.This exhibition ‘Altered Views’ is concerned with Maureen’s personal narratives and views and reflects her ‘abstract notion of reality as imagery’. The imagery also relates to the fragile relationship between man and the land, both in the way man creates altered views of the landscape and how man is depicted within the natural environment. Maureen’s vessels are formed by making white egg-shaped glass blanks or parisons which are then cooled and painted with enamel paint. Each piece is then reheated and covered with successive gathers of clear glass, trapping the paint beneath the outer surface of the glass. In some works, the blank vessel is wheel cut to create deep lines into which more paint is applied, enhancing the visual texture and depth of each piece.
Maureen Williams completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Ceramic Design, majoring in hot glass, at the Chrisholm Institute of Technology in 1986. She has travelled extensively in Europe and America, where Maureen had the opportunity to attend international glass conferences, the Venezia Aperto Vetro and the Pilchuck glass school in the USA. Since her return to Australia, 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. Maureen Williams has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Australia and overseas and her work is represented in many collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank and Die Neue Sammlung Munich (Germany).
