3 - 21 May 2007
about the exhibition
The organic forms and subtle tonal variations that occur in nature provide a fertile source of inspiration for glass artist Holly Grace. Growing up in Western Australia, Holly was aware of nature as a beautiful but harsh reality, the line between urban and natural landscapes small and often changing. With a particular interest in the way early European designers assimilated patterns from nature to design and decorate mass-produced objects, Holly draws from both nature and its industrial interpretation to create a variety of stylised forms and abstracted patterns. “Landschap” is the Dutch precursor to “landscape”, a term which in the 16th century became associated with a genre of painting that described a view of nature. Photographs taken on recent travels around Europe, and in particular Scandinavia, inform the colour, shape and texture of Holly’s latest body of work. The surfaces of the leaf, bottle and bonsai forms are sandblasted and etched with landscape imagery, the translucency of the glass allowing light to reveal the subtle tones and shadows within the body of the form.
Holly completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Curtin University in Perth in 1996, then went on to further study in glass at Monash University in Melbourne, completing her Masters in 2004. During this time, she also worked as studio assistant to renowned glassmakers in Australia, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. Her work has been profiled in various publications including Belle, Vogue Living, America Style and Object and is in the collections of the Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery (Australian National Glass Collection), Edith Cowan University, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the City of Waneroo.
