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Indepth Arts News:
" Master Makers: Stephen Rolfe Powell, A Retrospective"
2007-10-20 until 2008-02-02
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
Louisville, KY,
USA United States of America
The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft is honored to be hosting largest showing of Kentucky glassblower Stephen Powell’s work in Master Makers: Stephen Rolfe Powell, A Retrospective Exhibition. The show, sponsored by PNC, will be on display at the Museum from October 20, 2007 through February 2, 2008, and is being held in conjunction with the launch of the critically acclaimed book Stephen Rolfe Powell: Glassmaker. This exhibition will display over 30 pieces of Powell’s work, tracing the evolution from his early days in the ceramic studio to the present day. “In addition to being my most extensive exhibition, this show will feature some of, what I feel, are the best examples of my work that I have held for my personal collection,” says Powell. “Many of these pieces have never been exhibited before.”
Stephen began working with KMAC when he first arrived in Kentucky to teach at Centre College in 1983. “I will always remember the Museum’s support in the early days when I was feeling my way around the art world and trying to understand what it might take to make it as an artist,” explains Stephen. “It seemed the appropriate time and place to debut my first, and probably last, major book.”
“Stephen is the seminal figure in contemporary glass in Kentucky, and we have had a working relationship with him that spans more than 22 years,” says Brion Clinkingbeard, Deputy Director and Curator of the Museum. “We look back with astonishment at the direction that Stephen’s career has taken, and look forward with enthusiasm to the next step in the evolution of this most fascinating artist."
Flame Run Gallery is also hosting an exhibition in Stephen’s honor titled Johnson, Smith & Jones: A Tribute to Stephen Rolfe Powell’s Legacy to Glass Art: His Assistants. This show will be on display from September 29 – November 19, 2007 and will display works created by Stephen’s former students.
IMAGE
Stephen Rolfe Powell
Brainy Voracious Thrust
26.5 x 30.5 x 18.5
This exhibition was made possible by the generous support of PNC Bank, Tomas Aguilera, Centre College, George and Mary Lee Fischer, J. David Grissom, Marlene Grissom, David and Dale Hyman, Leonard and Adele Leight, Frank and JoAnn Luecke, Rick Heath and Merrily Orsini, Don and Libby Parkinson, Steve Poe, John and Eugenia Potter, John and Bonnie Roth, Bill and Mary Stone, Bill and Lindy Street, and Henry and Donna Wagner.
About Stephen Powell
Stephen Powell was born in 1951 in Birmingham, Alabama. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Ceramics at Centre College, Powell went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Louisiana State University. It was at LSU, between 1980 and 1983, that Powell had his first experience in glass blowing. Since then, glass has been a full time obsession for him, whether he is teaching it or producing his own work. He is not only a successful artist and master technician, but has been a teacher at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky since 1983. He was named 1999 and 2000 Kentucky Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Counsel for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). In 2004 he was awarded the Acorn Award, presented by the Kentucky Council on Post Secondary Education, for outstanding professor at a Kentucky college or university.
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