Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of GlassCurrent & Coming Exhibits

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 steel and wood, 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.

Lead Sponsorship of this exhibition provided The Boldt Company.

Sharon Fujimoto

August 9, 2024 – February 16, 2025

Based in Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, artist Sharon Fujimoto creates art and functional objects using glass as the basic medium. She believes in the simplicity of form and color and the fact that “…’accidents’ are a beautiful thing.” She says, “I am not the master of my medium, I simply go with the flow as a witness, a participant and a supervisor. The end result is a one-of-a-kind object that will hopefully endure trends and fads – a piece that will make a connection with the artist and the viewer.”

As a result of her selection as the 1st place winner, sponsored by Rosann Baum Milius, of the 2023 GLASS Arts Festival, Fujimoto’s art will be on exhibit in the museum’s Blue Gallery through February.

Sharon Fujimoto. Untitled, 2023.

One-of-a-Kind: unique perthshire paperweights

may 24, 2024 – January 26, 2025

Perhaps no name is more synonymous with contemporary Scottish glass than that of Perthshire Paperweights. Founded in 1968 by Stuart Drysdale,Perthshire Paperweights was borne out of a desire to preserve the classic designs of antique millefiori paperweights produced by the French factories of Baccarat, Clichy and St. Louis. In fact, it was an article and accompanying photographs featuring the collection of the Bergstrom Art Center
in the July, 1965 issue of Woman’s Day magazine that piqued Drysdale’s interest of creating paperweights in the style and artistry of the old masters.

This exhibition features one-of-a-kind examples of Perthshire paperweights and related items. Some of the examples served as prototypes for
later designs, while others were created to commemorate an event or memorialize and individual. On exhibit in the Mabel R. McClanahan Memorial Study Gallery.

Perthshire Paperweights, Inc. Spaced Millefiori, ca.1980

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 currently teaches at Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia.

“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.”