Josiah McElheny
Encyclopedia
Josiah McElheny is an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and sculptor, primarily known for his work with glass blowing and assemblage
Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects...

s of glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 and mirror
Mirror
A mirror is an object that reflects light or sound in a way that preserves much of its original quality prior to its contact with the mirror. Some mirrors also filter out some wavelengths, while preserving other wavelengths in the reflection...

ed glassed objects (see glass art
Glass art
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame , glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass...

). He is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

 "genius grant". He currently lives and works in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

He has exhibited his work at national and international venues including the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

, Orchard
Orchard (gallery)
Orchard, also known as Orchard 47, was a cooperatively organized exhibition and event space located in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan from 2005-2008. Orchard was collaboratively run by Rhea Anastas, Moyra Davey, Andrea Fraser, Nicolás Guagnini, Gareth James, Christian Philipp Müller,...

, and Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York, Donald Young Gallery in Chicago, Institut im Glaspavillon in Berlin, the Moderna Museet
Moderna Museet
Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén...

 in Stockholm, White Cube
White Cube
White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...

 in London, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is the official name of Spain's national museum of 20th century art . The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992 and is named for Queen Sofia of Spain...

 in Madrid.

Work

Josiah McElheny's work addresses history, modernism, cosmology, reflection, infinity, purity and utopia, and has clear links to the work of the American abstract artist Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...

. His work also sometimes deals with issues of museological display
Museology
Museology is the diachronic study of museums and how they have established and developed in their role as an educational mechanism under social and political pressures.-Overview:...

s and one's attempts to derive inferences about historical peoples from their household possessions and objects.

The artist has also expressed interest in glassblowing as part of an oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...

 handed down generation to generation.

One of the artist's ongoing projects has been characterized as an "investigation into the origins of the universe." "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, was commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts
Wexner Center for the Arts
The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art...

 at Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

. "The End of the Dark Ages," again inspired by the Metropolitan Opera House
Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)
The Metropolitan Opera House is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the theater opened in 1966. It replaced the former Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th St...

 chandeliers and informed by logarithmic equations devised by the cosmologist David H. Weinberg was shown in New York City in 2008. Later that year, the series culminated in a massive installation titled "Island Universe" at White Cube
White Cube
White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...

 in London and in Madrid.

In earlier works, the artist has played with notions of "history" and "fiction." Examples of this are works that recreate Renaissance glass objects pictured in Renaissance painting
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

s and modern (but lost) glass objects from documentary photographs (such as works by Adolf Loos
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...

). McElheny has mentioned the influence of the writings of Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

in his work.

Education

McElheny received his B.F.A.
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 from the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...

 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
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

) from 1989–1991; and an apprentice to Master Glassblower Lino Tagliapietra
Lino Tagliapietra
Lino Tagliapietra is an Italian glass artist.-Training:Tagliapietra was born on the island of Murano in 1934. Murano, an island whose history of glass dates back to 1291, provided Tagliapietra an ideal educational environment to develop his techniques and glass artistry. At the age of 12 he was...

 (various locations: Seattle, Washington, New York, New York, Switzerland) from 1992-1997.

Teaching and professional experience

  • 2004-2010 - Yale University
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

     School of Art
    Yale School of Art
    The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....

     - Senior Critic
  • 2003 - Dia Center
    Dia Art Foundation
    Dia Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 as the Lone Star Foundation by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration...

     (Chelsea, New York
    New York
    New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

    ) - Artists on Artists Lecture Series featured speaker on Donald Judd.
  • 2001-2003- Yale University
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

     School of Art
    Yale School of Art
    The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....

     - visiting critic
  • 2000 - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...

     - artist-in-residence and visiting faculty
  • 1998 - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
    Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
    The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...

    , Boston, Massachusetts - artist-in-residence

Solo exhibitions

  • 2009 - "Proposal for a Chromatic Modernism," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2009 - "A Space for an Island Universe," Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
  • 2008 - "Island Universe," White Cube, London
  • 2008 - "The End of the Dark Ages," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2008 - "The Light Club of Batavia," Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2008 - "Das Lichtklub von Batavia/The Light Club of Batavia," Institut im Glaspavillon, Berlin
  • 2008 - "The Last Scattering Surface," Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle and Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota
  • 2007 - "The 1st at Moderna: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown," Moderna Museet, Stockholm
  • 2007 - "Projects 84: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown," The Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • 2007 - "Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part II," Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2006 - "Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part I," Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2006 - "Modernity 1929–1965," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2005 - "An End to Modernity," Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2004 - "Total Reflective Abstraction, " Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2003 - “Antipodes: Josiah McElheny,” White Cube
    White Cube
    White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...

    , London
  • 2003 - “Theories About Reflection,” Brent Sikkema Gallery, 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
    Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
    Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...

    , San Francisco
  • 2001 -“Metal Party,” Public Art Fund
    Public Art Fund
    The Public Art Fund is a non-profit organization founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman , a Director of New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs, and the President of the Municipal Art Society. They have organized highly visible artists' projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in...

    , New York
  • 2000 - "Christian Dior, Jorges Luis Borges, Adolf Loos," Donald Young Gallery, Chicago and Brent Sikkema, New York
  • 1999 - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
  • 1999 - The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
  • 1997 - "Three Alter Egos," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
  • 1997 -"Non-Decorative Beautiful Objects," AC Project Room, New York
  • 1996 - Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
  • 1995 - Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
  • 1995 - Installation with Ancient Roman Glass, Ancient Mediterranean and Egypt Gallery, Seattle Art Museum
    Seattle Art Museum
    The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...

    , Seattle,
  • 1995 - Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
  • 1994 -"Authentic History," Robert Lehman Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • 1993 - "originals, fakes, reproductions," William Traver Gallery, Seattle
  • 1990 - "Jägarens Glasmuseet" (The Hunter's Glass Museum), Arnescruv, Sweden,

Group exhibitions

  • 2010 - "Josiah McElheny, Blinky Palermo, Heimo Zobernig," Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
  • 2010 - "Redi-Mix, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York
  • 2009 - "Allan Kaprow YARD," Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York
  • 2009 - "Universal Code," The Power Plant, Toronto
  • 2009 - "Sense and Sentiment," Augarten Contemporary, Vienna
  • 2009 - "Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of our Time," Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut
  • 2008 - "Multi-Part Art," Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
  • 2008 - "Mildred’s Lane," Alexander Gray, New York
  • 2008 - "Spring-Wound," Orchard, New York
  • 2008 - "Beyond Measure: Conversations Across Art and Science," Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
  • 2008 - "Sensory Overload: Light, Motion, Sound, and the Optical in Art Since 1945," Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • 2007 - "Viewfinder," Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
  • 2007 - "Sparkle Then Fade," Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington
  • 2007 - "Cosmologies," James Cohan Gallery, New York
  • 2007 - "Accumulations: More Than the Sum of Their Parts," Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
  • 2007 - "Museo de reproducciones fotograficas," Rutgers University Gallery, Newark
  • 2006 - "The Bong Show (or This is Not a Pipe)," Leslie Tonkonow, New York
  • 2006 - "Transitional Objects: Contemporary Still Life," Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York
  • 2006 - "Dynasty," Gallery MC, New York
  • 2006 - "Super Vision," Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
  • 2006 - "Shiny," Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2005 - "Part Object Part Sculpture," Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2005 - "Faith," Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut
  • 2005 - "Spectrum," Galerie Lelong, New York
  • 2005 - "Bottle: Contemporary Art and Vernacular Tradition," Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
  • 2005 - "View Eight: A Few Domestic Objects Interrogate a Few Works of Art," Mary Boone, New York
  • 2005 - "Extreme Abstraction," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
  • 2004 - "The Cobweb," Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
  • 2004 - "Printemps de septembre á Toulouse: In Extremis," Les Abbatoirs, Toulouse, France
  • 2004 - "Glass," Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
  • 2004 - "Signs of Being," The Foundation To-Life, Inc., Mount Kisco, New York
  • 2003 - "Books and Manuscripts," Volume Gallery, New York
  • 2003 - "Warped Space," CCA
    California College of the Arts
    California College of the Arts , founded in 1907, is known for its broad, interdisciplinary programs in art, design, architecture, and writing. It has two campuses, one in Oakland and one in San Francisco, California, USA...

     Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
    Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
    The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is a contemporary art center in San Francisco, California, United States and part of the California College of the Arts....

    , San Francisco,
  • 2002 - “Family”, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
  • 2002 - “Keep in touch,” Brent Sikkema, New York
  • 2002 - “View Six: Surface to Surface,” Mary Boone Gallery, New York
  • 2001 - "Musings: Contemporary Tradition," Gallery 312, Chicago
  • 2001 - 4th International Biennial “Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism”, SITE Santa Fe
    Site Santa Fe
    SITE Santa Fe is a non-profit contemporary arts organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since its founding, SITE Santa Fe has gained worldwide recognition through a series of biennial exhibitions that have featured numerous famous artists...

    , Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • 2001 - “House Guests: Contemporary Artists in The Grange,” Art Gallery of Ontario
    Art Gallery of Ontario
    Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...

    , Toronto
  • 2001 - Donald Young Gallery, Chicago
  • 2001 - “Body Space,” The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
  • 2000 - Whitney Biennial
    Whitney Biennial
    The Whitney Biennial is a biennale exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973...

    , Whitney Museum of American Art
    Whitney Museum of American Art
    The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...

    , 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
  • 1998 - "At Home in the Museum," The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
  • 1998 - "Usefool," Postmasters Gallery, New York
  • 1998 - "Personal Touch," Art in General, New York
  • 1998 - "Inglenook," Feigen Contemporary, 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
    Saatchi Gallery
    The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi's collection, and...

    , London
  • 1997 - "Paul Bloodgood, Paula Hayes, Josiah McElheny, Sandra Vallejos," AC Project Room, 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
  • 1996 - "The Last Supper," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle
  • 1996 - "Drawings from the MAB Library," AC Project Room, 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 (with Dan Peterman)
  • 1995 - "For Victoria," Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria (with Dan Peterman)
  • 1995 - "Holding the Past," Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
  • 1994 - First Fundraising Exhibition, American Fine Arts Company, New York
  • 1994 - "Wunderkammer," Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
  • 1994 - "Are You Experienced?" Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

Awards and fellowships

  • 2006 - MacArthur Fellows Program
    MacArthur Fellows Program
    The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

  • 2000 - The 15th Rakow Commission, Corning Museum of Glass
    Corning Museum of Glass
    The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design....

    , Corning, New York
    Corning (city), New York
    Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,842 at the 2000 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company that developed the community.- Overview :The city of...

  • 1998 - Bagley Wright
    Bagley Wright
    Bagley Wright , president of Bagley Wright Investments, was a developer of Seattle's landmark Space Needle and chair of Physio Control Corp. from 1968 until its acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company in 1980...

     Fund Award, Seattle, Washington
  • 1996 - Artist Grant, Art Matters, Inc., New York, New York
  • 1995 - Award Winner, 1995 Biennial Competition of The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
    The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
    The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation was founded in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany to operate his estate, Laurelton Hall, in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. It was designed to be a summer retreat for artists and craftspeople...

    , New York, New York
  • 1993 - Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
  • 1989 - Fellowship for study in Sweden, American-Scandinavian Foundation

Books

  • Josiah McElheny: A Prism (Skira Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2010) ISBN 9780847834150
  • The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart's 'The Light Club of Batavia (University of Chicago Press, 2010) ISBN 9780226514574

External links

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