November Issue 2000
Glass Exhibit by Littleton/Vogel at Western Carolina University
The Chelsea Gallery
at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, is presenting
the exhibition, Littleton/Vogel: Twenty Years of Collaboration,
which will be on view through Nov. 21, 2000.
John Littleton and Kate Vogel met as art students at the University of Wisconsin, where more than a decade earlier Harvey K. Littleton, John's father, had taken the now legendary step of introducing glassblowing into the curriculum. However, it was not until Kate persuaded him to assist her at the glass furnace that John became seriously involved in the medium. Mastering processes which demand the utmost coordination, the two soon developed a close artistic partnership. Twenty years later this collaboration is so complete that it is virtually impossible to distinguish the contributions each makes to their work.
Littleton and Vogel are among the very few artists to work simultaneously in the widely divergent areas of glassblowing and casting. Although the imagery they choose in each instance contrasts as emphatically as the techniques involved, the subject matter cuts across these distinctions to draw on the artists' thoughts and dreams, the give-and-take of their marriage, and life with there three children. The blown pieces express the bouyancy of forms shaped by the human breath. Gentle reference is made to seed-pod and womb. The glass glows with the soft sheen of fabric and the warmth of color, the work is playful and seemingly effortless. The cast sculptures, on the other hand, bear the weight of profound adult concerns. Primarily colorless or monochromatic, these pieces are monumental in aspect. While the imagery is highly specific, tracing each line in the faces and hands of the artists themselves, or of close friends, the cryptic titles leave the work open to wide interpretation.
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Balancing intimacy with formal concerns, the sculpture of Littleton and Vogel addresses life in all its variety. Their collaboration is both source and subject of their complex and richly nuanced work.
Kate Vogel was born in Cambridgeshire, England. She studied at Santa Reperata Graphic Center in Florence, Italy and received a BSA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, WI.
John Littleton was born in Madison, WI. He studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI, and received a BSA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, WI.
Works by the artists are included in private and public collections in Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; New Orleans Museum of Art; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC; and at The White House, Washington, DC.
The couple maintains a studio in Bakersville, NC.
For more info check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call 828/227-7206.
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