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Gayle Matthias displays innovative work at National Museum of Scotland exhibition
Monday, 9 April, 2018 — BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts Programme Leader and practising artist Gayle Matthias has been selected as one of fifteen artists chosen to exhibit work at this years Art of Glass exhibition in Scotland.
<h5>The Art of Glass exhibition, presented in partnership with The National Centre for Craft & Design, looks to highlighting artists from emerging to established names who are challenging the perception of glass as merely a vehicle for functional objects and are creating outstanding works of art and craft.</h5>
<p>Featuring a selection of fifteen works, <a href="https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/whats-on/art-of-glass/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Art of Glass</a> reveals an inspirational snapshot of glass art today, made by fifteen innovative artists; including Emma Woffenden, Helen Maurer, Erin Dickson and Harry Morgan.</p>
<p>The exhibition takes places in the <a href="https://www.nms.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">National Museum of Scotland</a>, from 6 April to 16 September 2018, coinciding with the Edinburgh Arts and International Festival, and is supported by a Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Research Grant from Art Fund.</p>
"I am drawn to the enigmatic quality of glass. It represents both fragility and danger and I enjoy exploring both these qualities in my work. I like to create a tension, combining glass with other materials of varying value, as this helps to exaggerate glass' vulnerable yet threatening nature."
– Gayle Matthias, Programme Leader
<p>Gayle is Programme Leader for our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-craft-material-practices" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BA (Hons) 3D Design Crafts</a>, including ceramics and glass work. She’s a practising artist, educator and researcher and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been shown in the permanent collections of the V&A, Musee de Vianne, Glazenhuis and Ebeltoft Museum of Glass amongst others.</p>
<p>Land Mark II, the piece of work exhibited at Art of Glass, is created through various model and mould making techniques to reflect the rawness of discarded pieces of industrial manufacture and anatomical structures.</p>
<p>Gayle challenges the perceptions of glass and embraces industrial processes. She mixes various kiln forming techniques that she has developed over the last 30 years, with discarded materials and found objects. Her compositions reference the deterioration of the human body via inherited conditions, and exposure to industrial environments.</p>
<p>She is also the co-author of papers presented at the GAS conference in Chicago 2014, ‘Making Futures’ conference in Plymouth, UK (2013), ‘Crafting the Future’, the 10th European Academy of Design (EAD), Gothenberg, Sweden (2013) and ‘Towards a New Ceramic Future’, research presentation at V&A, UK (2012).</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-craft-material-practices" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Explore our BA (Hons) Craft and Material Practices programme</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nms.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Head to the official National Museum of Scotland website for more information on the Art of Glass exhibition</a></li></ul>