Current & Coming Exhibits

2024 fox valley area high school glass exhibition

February 23 – April 14, 2024

 

Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass provides extraordinary glass experiences to ignite creativity, spark fun, and cultivate learning for all. We are pleased to exhibit glass art made by area high school students in the 2024 Fox Valley Area High School Glass Exhibition. After creating glass art in the Museum’s Glass Studio, students from over fourteen area high schools have the opportunity to share their work in this public setting. Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass strives to encourage the creativity of talented young artists in the area with this annual exhibit. The 2024 Fox Valley Area High School Glass Exhibition and Glass Experience Days are supported in part by the Lilian Noble Memorial Fund.

Opening and Awards Presentation:
February 22, 2024, 6–8pm, Admission Free

Fox Valley Area High School Glass Exhibition 2024 - February 23 - April 1, 2024

Language of Light: Stephanie Sara Lifshutz 

April 26 – October 13, 2024

Stephanie Sara Lifshutz is an artist and educator residing in Brooklyn, New York. She began working with glass while studying at the University of Wisconsin – Madison as a graduate student. As an undergraduate, she attended Franklin & Marshall College, where she studied photography and printmaking. Stephanie’s work is currently part of the traveling group exhibition, She Bends. A solo exhibition of her work, no time at all, was exhibited at Var Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2022. Other solo exhibitions include but i don’t mind, UrbanGlass, 2020 and PLEASE GO AWAY, Rare Air, Governor’s Island, New York. She was the recipient of a 2016 professional development grant from the University of Wisconsin. She is currently serving as an adjunct professor of glass at Alfred University in New York. 

“I often think about our private spaces and the different ways we present ourselves depending on who we interact with, including the rawemotion in the everyday routine that often gets overlooked, or hidden purposely. My latest body of work has been about turning the viewership onto myself, and the emotions I now run through with recent experiences of loss and grief. Through the use of sculpture and performance I am addressing universal experiences people share, even though my work is generated out of a very personal place. We are often conditioned to hide our emotions from others unless they are positive – and also to dismiss the ordinary unless it be considered extraordinary. I prefer to meditate on the seemingly insignificant repetitions of everyday routines and to appreciate them for what they are, the truest experiences of our lives without premeditation for presentation. Through the use of neon and text I communicate “suggested commands” playing off the history of signage as a direct instruction to the viewer, inviting those who read my signs to act of their own volition. The work is directly related to my identity as a feminist Jewish woman and the verbiage I have been conditioned and often expected to use as a form of politeness in order to phrase questions and appeals as nonthreatening requests.”
 
 
Neon artwork by Stephanie Lifshutz
"And I Wear them with Pride", Stephanie Sara Lifshutz

Farm to Flame: Gene Koss

September 20, 2024 – February 9, 2025

 

After obtaining his Master of Fine Arts degree at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Gene Koss started the Tulane University glass program and brought the movement of glass art to New Orleans. He uses steel and glass to create monumental works. Working with serial cast glass parts to enlarge scale and combining these elements with iron and neon, he has raised glass sculpture to the realm of public art. Koss’s work has had a profound impact on American artists working in both steel and glass media.

Koss is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Endowment for the Arts; the New Orleans Community Arts Award; and Pace-Willson Art Foundation grants. His work is included in numerous private collections and has been displayed in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including the International Biennale for Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy, and has been featured in International Glass Art, Contemporary Glass-Color, Light & Form and Glass Art from Urban Glass publications. Koss is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans, LA.

In 2019 Gene Koss Sculpture was published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, Germany, and released internationally. The monograph features Koss’ most important artistic achievements created during his 45-year career, and, through insightful essays by well recognized critics and curators, places his sculptures in historic perspective.

 

 

Image of Gene Koss sculpture, "Chapel"
"Chapel", Gene Koss

Staff Picks: Selections from the Museum’s Permanent Collection

August 4, 2023 – April 28, 2024

Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass is home to more than 5,000 works of art in glass. This exhibition features works hand-curated by fourteen members of the museum’s staff. Highlighting works from each of our four major collections, including Victorian Art Glass baskets, Germanic glass, Studio glass, and paperweights, there’s sure to be something to catch your fancy. On exhibit in the museum’s Mabel R. McClanahan Memorial Study Gallery.