Josiah McElheny

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Josiah G. McElheny (born in 1966 in Boston) is a contemporary artist and sculptor, primarily known for his work with glass blowing and assemblages of glass and mirrored glassed objects (see glass art). He is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program "genius grant". He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

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[edit] Work

Josiah McElheny's work is frequently concerned with issues of reflection, infinity, purity and utopia, and has clear links to the work of the American abstract artist Donald Judd. His work also sometimes deals with issues of museological displays and one's attempts to derive inferences about historical peoples from their household possessions and objects.

In some works, he has recreated Renaissance glass objects pictured in Renaissance paintings and modern (but lost) glass objects from documentary photographs (such as works by Adolf Loos), and, in this context, the artist has played with notions of "history" and "fiction" and mentioned the influence of the writings of Jorge Luis Borges.

The artist has also expressed interest in glassblowing as part of an oral tradition handed down generation to generation.

The artist's recent work includes "An End to Modernity" (2005), a twelve-foot-wide by ten-foot-high chandelier of chrome and transparent glass modeled on the 1960s Lobmeyr design for the chandeliers found in Lincoln Center, and evoking as well the Big Bang theory.

[edit] Education

McElheny received his B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1988. As part of that program, in 1987 he trained under Master Glassblower Ronald Wilkins in London, England, and also studied at Rome, Italy in the Rhode Island School of Design European Honors Program.

After graduating, he was an apprentice to Master Glassblower Jan-Erik Ritzman and Sven-Ake Caarlson (in Transjö, Sweden) from 1989-1991; and an apprentice to Master Glassblower Lino Tagliapietra (various locations: Seattle, Washington, New York, New York, Switzerland) from 1992-1997.

[edit] Teaching and Professional experience

[edit] Solo Exhibitions

  • 2004 - "Total Reflective Abstraction, " Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  • 2003 - “Antipodes: Josiah McElheny,” White Cube, London, Great Britain
  • 2003 - “Theories About Reflection,” Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York, New York
  • 2002 - Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  • 2001 - Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas
  • 2001 -“Metal Party,” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California
  • 2001 -“Metal Party,” Public Art Fund, New York
  • 2000 - "Christian Dior, Jorges Luis Borges, Adolf Loos," Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois and Brent Sikkema, New York, New York
  • 1999 - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1999 - The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  • 1997 - "Three Alter Egos," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  • 1997 -"Non-Decorative Beautiful Objects," AC Project Room, New York, New York
  • 1996 - Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1995 - Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  • 1995 - Installation with Ancient Roman Glass, Ancient Mediterranean and Egypt Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
  • 1995 - Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
  • 1994 -"Authentic History," Robert Lehman Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • 1993 - "originals, fakes, reproductions," William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  • 1990 - Arnescruv, Sweden, permanent installation of the "Jägarens Glasmuseet" (The Hunter's Glass Museum)

[edit] Group Exhibitions

  • 2003 - "Warped Space," CCA Watts Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California
  • 2002 - “Family”, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
  • 2002 - “Keep in touch,” Brent Sikkema, New York, New York
  • 2002 - “View Six: Surface to Surface,” Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2001 - "Musings: Contemporary Tradition," Gallery 312, Chicago, IL
  • 2001 - 4th International Biennial “Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism”, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • 2001 - “House Guests: Contemporary Artists in The Grange,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • 2001 - Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  • 2001 - “Body Space,” The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
  • 2000 - Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
  • 2000 - "Three Summer Shows: Francis Cape, Josiah McElheny, and Yinka Shonibare," Real Art Ways, Hartford Connecticut
  • 1999 - "Patentia," Nordic Institute of Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1998 - "At Home in the Museum," The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1998 - "Usefool," Postmasters Gallery, New York, New York
  • 1998 - "Personal Touch," Art in General, New York, New York
  • 1998 - "Inglenook," Feigen Contemporary, New York, New York travelled to Illinois State University Galleries, Normal, Illinois
  • 1998 - "Interlacings," Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Stamford, Connecticut
  • 1998 - "Young Americans: Part II," Saatchi Gallery, London, England
  • 1997 - "Paul Bloodgood, Paula Hayes, Josiah McElheny, Sandra Vallejos," AC Project Room, New York, New York
  • 1997 - "Living Room," Barbara Westerman Gallery, Newport, Rhode Island
  • 1996 - "A Labor of Love," The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
  • 1996 - "What’s Love Got to Do With It?" Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1996 - "The Last Supper," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  • 1996 - "Drawings from the MAB Library," AC Project Room, New York, New York
  • 1995 - "VER-RÜCKT," Kulturstiftung Schloss Agathenburg, Agathenburg, Germany; traveled to: Art Museum of Arolsen, Arolsen, Germany
  • 1995 - "For Victoria," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, New York (with Dan Peterman)
  • 1995 - "For Victoria," Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (with Dan Peterman)
  • 1995 - "Holding the Past," Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
  • 1994 - First Fundraising Exhibition, American Fine Arts Company, New York
  • 1994 - "Wunderkammer," Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California
  • 1994 - "Are You Experienced?" Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, New York

[edit] Awards and Fellowships

[edit] See also

[edit] External links