GAIL GORLITZZ: SCULPTURE

OCTOBER 29 –DECEMBER 31, 2004 

At the Glass Gallery
Opening: October 29, 2004 5:30-8:30 pm

“Gail Gorlitzz: Sculptures,” on view at the Glass Gallery starting October 29th, will exhibit brilliantly colored, intricately designed contemporary sculptures woven out of glass beads.  These conceptually creative and technically innovative sculptures showcase Gorlitzz’s unusual color sense, making close inspection of her work an extraordinary pleasure.

Gorlitzz is a sculptor who uses her weaving skills to create abstract works out of glass beads.  She has shown her art extensively in the Washington Metropolitan Area, as well as Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and other locations on the East Coast.  She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Sculptors Group since the year 2000.

Like her contemporaries Liza Lou and Joyce Scott, Gorlitzz is drawn to the glass bead as a means of artistic expression because of its gendered associations.  But unlike these artists, who work figuratively, Gorlitzz works with abstract and organic forms that emphasize the inherent physical qualities of these tiny bits of light-filled glass.  “I love how beads reflect light, shifting and changing the visual dynamics of my sculptures in ways not possible with other media,” she explains.  The permutations of bead combinations are incredibly complicated.  Her palette includes beads in almost a thousand colors with different linings, sizes, and surface treatments.  The sculptures take form as she intuitively interweaves and layers these glass beads.

This exhibition features free-standing, suspended, and floor pieces, with and without armatures, and configured into an impressive array of flexible forms, some parts of which can be arranged and rearranged in different manners.  Gorlitzz incorporates domestic and natural “found objects” into her work, such as silicone exercise balls, sewing needles, a lamp base, medical tubes, pieces of coral, and a rock from the C&O Canal.  Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 am to 5 pm.  Meet the artist at the opening reception on October 29.