Albuquerque, NM

Glass breaks too easily,
complain many
gallery owners. It’s
true, fragility is one of glass’
most well-known physical
qualities and it’s a big reason
why more galleries don’t show
art glass. But it’s also true that
glass’ other physical qualities
give it an advantage over all
other artistic materials. Glass
can be transparent or opaque
and everything in between.
Glass aff ects light like nothing
else. It can make shadows and
refl ect colors. “With glass, the
possibilities are endless. It’s
a spectacular medium,” says
Delinda VanneBrightyn, a
glass artist who lives in Taos.
Joy Franklin, a glass artist
from Corrales, used to try to
capture the subtlety of light by
painting on canvas, but switched to
glass when she discovered it could be the light,
the paint and the canvas all at once. “It is profoundly
satisfying,” says Franklin.
Still, art glass gets far less attention than it deserves.
Less than two years ago, you could count on one
hand the number of galleries in Santa Fe that
showed art glass. But things are getting better,
both on a national and state level. Here in New
Mexico, much of the credit for glass art’s growing
attention can be attributed to one woman, Betsy
Ehrenberg. In May 2006, Ehrenberg started
Glass Alliance New Mexico to bring glass artists,
collectors and galleries together.
Ehrenberg convinced Santa Fe galleries that
if they would represent glass artists, she would
bring in the collectors. She started by bringing
in a few collectors at a time, and they never left
without buying something. Th en in March 2007,
Ehrenberg brought the country’s top 50 art glass
collectors to Santa Fe. In three days they spent
$746,000 at 15 galleries.
Th e alliance has a surprisingly large number of
artist members throughout the state. Taos is home
to over a dozen full-time glass artists, which is why
VanneBrightyn organized the First Annual Taos Art
Glass Invitational, which runs at Henningsen Fine Art
gallery from March 23rd to April 6th.
Ehrenberg and the alliance are
bringing a sizeable number of art
glass collectors from Santa Fe and
beyond to see works by Taos glass
artists William C. Davis, Liam
Denevan, Tupper and Richard
Hawley, Ira Lujan, Michael Miro,
Susanne Pinkham, Margo Rael-
Nimon, Carol Savid, Robin
Stanaway and VanneBrightyn. Also
showing will be Texas artist Bill
Meek, metal and glass artist Maria
Romano and Bruce Sherman, a new
arrival in Taos.
According to VanneBrightyn,
the forward-thinking Henningsen
gallery is a perfect fi t for the show.
It already represents artists working
in glass, it’s one of the best facilities
to show glass works of all sizes and
it has great light to capture all of glass’
wonderful physical qualities.
glassnm.org
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