6 - 25 May 2010
about the exhibition
The recent work of glass artist Holly Grace has been inspired by the alpine forests of the Snowy Mountains and focuses on the sublime and often subtle tonal details of nature. Finding inspiration in her digital photographs of cold-stunted trees, Holly transfers the images onto glass to create both a pictorial and sculptural landscape. Translating the intricate, interwoven patterns of tree branches onto her simple and elegant glass forms, Holly renders “an abstracted interpretation of nature’s architecture”. The sandblasted and etched surfaces of the bowls, cylinders, bottles, spheres and cones perfectly evoke an icy and frost-covered landscape, while the translucency of the glass allows the light to reveal subtle palette definitions. The inherent qualities of glass are essential elements for Holly, allowing her to direct one’s gaze to the sublime details of her real and imagined landscapes, as they are narrated upon a three-dimensional canvas.
Holly Grace completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Curtin University in Perth in 1996, then continued to further her study in glass at Monash University in Melbourne, completing her Masters in 2004. During this time, she also worked as a studio assistant to renowned glassmakers in Australia, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. Over the years, Holly has been a lecturer at the Edith Cowan University in Perth, as well as Director of FORM in WA. Her work has been profiled in various publications including Belle, Vogue Living, American Style and Insite magazine and feature in the collections of the Australian National Glass Collection; Wagga Wagga, NSW; Parliament House, Canberra; Artbank; Edith Cowan University, Perth and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
