Josiah McElheny
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Josiah McElheny (1966, Boston) is an
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
and
sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, primarily known for his work with glass blowing and assemblages of
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
and
mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...
ed glassed objects (see
Glass art Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including gl ...
). He is a 2006 recipient of the
MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...
. He lives and works in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.


Early life and education

McElheny grew up in
Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...
. McElheny went on to receive his BFA from the
Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...
in 1988. As part of that program, he trained under master glassblower Ronald Wilkins. After graduating, he was an apprentice to master glassblowers Jan-Erik Ritzman, Sven-Ake Caarlson and
Lino Tagliapietra Lino Tagliapietra (born 1934) is an Italian glass artist originally from Venice, who has also worked extensively in the United States. As a teacher and mentor, he has played a key role in the international exchange of glassblowing processes and te ...
.


Career

In earlier works McElheny played with notions of history and fiction. Examples of this are works that recreate Renaissance glass objects pictured in
Renaissance painting Renaissance art (1350 – 1620) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occurr ...
s and modern (but lost) glass objects from documentary photographs (such as works by
Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...
). He draws from a range of disciplines like architecture, physics, and literature, among others, and he works in a variety of media. McElheny has mentioned the influence of the writings of
Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...
in his work. His work has also been influenced by the work of the American abstract artist
Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...
. McElheny has also expressed interest in glassblowing as part of an
oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
handed down generation to generation. He has used the
infinity mirror The infinity mirror (also sometimes called an infinite mirror) is a configuration of two or more Parallel (geometry), parallel or angled mirrors, which are arranged to create a series of further and further reflections that appear to recede to inf ...
visual effect in his explorations of apparently infinite space. His work also sometimes deals with issues of museological displays. One of the artist's ongoing projects is "An End to Modernity" (2005), commissioned by the
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." The Wexner Center is a lab and public gallery, but not an art museum, as it doe ...
at
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
. The piece is 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
, and evoking as well the
Big Bang theory The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including the ...
. "The End of the Dark Ages," again inspired by the Metropolitan Opera House 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 is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...
in London and in Madrid. In 2019 the installation was exhibited at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
's Cantor Center for the Arts.


Exhibitions


Solo exhibitions

* 1990 – ''Jägarens Glasmuseet'' (The Hunter's Glass Museum), Arnescruv, Sweden, * 1993 – ''originals, fakes, reproductions,'' William Traver Gallery, Seattle * 1994 – ''Authentic History,'' Robert Lehman Gallery, Brooklyn, New York * 1995 – Stephen Friedman Gallery, London * 1995 – Installation with Ancient Roman Glass, Ancient Mediterranean and Egypt Gallery,
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...
, Seattle, * 1995 – Donald Young Gallery, Seattle * 1996 – Barbara Kraków Gallery, Boston * 1997 -''Non-Decorative Beautiful Objects,'' AC Project Room, New York * 1997 – ''Three Alter Egos,'' Donald Young Gallery, Seattle * 1999 – The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle * 1999 – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston * 2000 – ''Christian Dior, Jorges Luis Borges, Adolf Loos,'' Donald Young Gallery, Chicago and Brent Sikkema, New York * 2001 – ''Metal Party,''
Public Art Fund Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, new commissions ...
, New York * 2001 – ''Metal Party,''
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary Contemporary art, contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that cel ...
, San Francisco * 2001 – Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas * 2002 – Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain * 2003 – ''Theories About Reflection,'' Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York * 2003 – ''Antipodes: Josiah McElheny,'' White Cube, London * 2004 – ''Total Reflective Abstraction, '' Donald Young Gallery, Chicago * 2005 – ''An End to Modernity,'' Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio * 2006 – ''Modernity 1929–1965,'' Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York * 2006 – ''Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part I,'' Donald Young Gallery, Chicago * 2007 – ''Cosmology, Design, and Landscape, Part II,'' Donald Young Gallery, Chicago * 2007 – ''Projects 84: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown,'' The Museum of Modern Art, New York * 2007 – ''The 1st at Moderna: The Alpine Cathedral and the City-Crown,'' Moderna Museet, Stockholm * 2008 – ''The Last Scattering Surface,'' Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle and Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota * 2008 – ''Das Lichtklub von Batavia/The Light Club of Batavia,'' Institut im Glaspavillon, Berlin * 2008 – ''The Light Club of Batavia,'' Donald Young Gallery, Chicago * 2008 – ''The End of the Dark Ages,'' Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York * 2008 – ''Island Universe,''
White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...
, London * 2009 – ''A Space for an Island Universe,'' Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid * 2009 – ''Proposal for a Chromatic Modernism,'' Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York * 2012 – ''Some Pictures of the Infinite,'' Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston * 2016 – ''The Ornament Museum'',
Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna The MAK – Museum of Applied Arts (German: ''Museum für angewandte Kunst'') is an arts and crafts museum located at Stubenring 5 in Vienna's 1st district Innere Stadt. Besides its traditional orientation towards arts and crafts and design, the ...
* 2017 – ''The Crystal Land,''
White Cube White Cube is a contemporary art gallery founded by Jay Jopling in London in 1993. The gallery has two branches in London: White Cube Mason's Yard in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London; White Cube Hong Kong, in Centra ...
, London * 2017 – ''Prismatic Park,'' Madison Square Park Conservancy, New York * 2018 – ''Island Universe,''
Moody Center Moody Center is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in Austin, Texas. The arena, which replaced the Frank Erwin Center, stands on a former parking lot located immediately south of UT's soccer/track and ...
for the Arts, Houston * 2018 – ''Cosmic Love,'' Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago * 2019 – ''Island Universe,''
Cantor Arts Center Cantor Arts Center (officially Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, previously the Stanford University Museum of Art) is an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, United State ...
, Stanford * 2019 – ''Observations at Night,'' James Cohan Gallery, New York * 2021 – ''Libraries,'' James Cohan Gallery, New York


Awards

* 1993 – Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award,
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...
, Seattle, Washington * 1995 – Award Winner, 1995 Biennial Competition of
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. In 1946 the estate ...
, New York, New York * 1998 – Bagley Wright Fund Award, Seattle, Washington * 2000 – The 15th Rakow Commission,
Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning (city), New York, Corning, New York, United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Incorporated, Corning Glass Works and currently has a ...
,
Corning, New York Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,551 at the 2020 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company th ...
* 2005 – Artist-in-Residence Award,
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." The Wexner Center is a lab and public gallery, but not an art museum, as it doe ...
, Columbus, Ohio * 2006 –
MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...


Permanent collections

*
Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...
, Buffalo *
Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...
, Pittsburgh * Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson *Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago di Compostela *
Chrysler Museum of Art The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum on the border between downtown and the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler Jr ...
, Norfolk *
Columbus Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collec ...
, Columbus *
Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning (city), New York, Corning, New York, United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Incorporated, Corning Glass Works and currently has a ...
, Corning *
Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the A ...
, Dallas *
Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...
, Detroit *
Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, the Garden at Newfields and more. It is located at the corner of No ...
, Indianapolis *
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple name chang ...
*
Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...
, Los Angeles *
Memorial Art Gallery The Memorial Art Gallery is a civic art museum in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus. It is a focal point of fine arts ac ...
, Rochester *
Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (also referred to as MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection of over 34,000 works of art and gallery spaces totaling 150,000 sq. ft. (13,900 m²) make it the largest art museum in the state of Wis ...
, Milwaukee *
Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...
, Stockholm *
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Munson (Formally Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute) is a regional fine arts center founded in 1919 and located in Utica, New York. The institute has three program divisions, museum of art, performing arts and school of art. Museum of art The ...
, Utica *
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...
, Madrid *
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
*
Museum of Modern Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...
*
Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...
, Phoenix *
Rhode Island School of Design Museum The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD Museum) is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877. It is the 20th-largest art m ...
, Providence *
Santa Barbara Museum of Art The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is an art museum located in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Founded in 1941, it is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which includes Asian art, Asian, Visual arts of the United ...
, Santa Barbara *
Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...
, Seattle *
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...
, London *
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
, New York


Books

* ''Josiah McElheny: A Prism.'' Skira Rizzoli International, 2010. . * ''The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart's 'The Light Club of Batavia'.''
University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...
, 2010. .


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McElheny, Josiah American sculptors Minimalist artists 1966 births Living people MacArthur Fellows American glass artists Rhode Island School of Design alumni Recipients of the Rakow Commission Artists from Brookline, Massachusetts