Flash/Light a Tribute to Mark Ferguson and His Glass Art Exhibition opens at Windsor Art Center
July 11 – August 8
Opening reception July 11th  5-7 PM

Windsor Art Center will host the work of 17 New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC artists in this tribute to Mark Ferguson who passed away on November 11, 2008, from cancer, shortly after his 49th birthday. He was a glass artist whose primary focus was cast glass sculpture. Mark’s artwork is bold and at the same time incredibly sensitive, just as his personality was. This exhibition is tribute to his life and art.

The sixteen artists invited to participate in this exhibition come from different fields but what they all have in common is that their paths crossed Ferguson’s and they shared parts of their lives with him. Interaction with Ferguson was not only a source of pleasure for these artists, but also inspiration. This exhibition is the result of the friendship and exchanges between Ferguson and his friends and colleagues.

Glass doesn’t emit light by itself; instead it makes a transition for light and ever since the discovery of the making of glass, human beings have been fascinated by the quality of this transition. Ferguson elaborated on this principle in his series of works in this exhibition, in which a mundane object, such as a flashlight or a pushpin, invites you to look at this quality of light in a different manner. In Torch, a beam of light shining from a classic flashlight body, the beam is made out of hot cast glass and supports the body of the flashlight—as if light is holding the flashlight rather than the flashlight holding a light beam. It is an absurd but playful exchange.

Mark Ferguson studied glass at Massachusetts College of Art and then at Rhode Island School of Design, where he received an MFA in 1990. He then assisted sculptor Howard Ben Tré for one year before moving his own studio to Brooklyn in 1991. His first job in New York City was in stained glass (something Ferguson appreciated as it was his early interest in stained glass that had initially led him to the glass world). Ferguson started teaching cast glass at UrbanGlass in New York City, and became part of the board of directors. He taught glass courses at University of Hartford for three years. He also taught numerous workshops at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass as well as in England and Sweden. He actively exhibited works nationally and internationally. Ferguson’s artwork can be found in the permanent collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, and the Ebeltoft Glasmuseum in Denmark.

This exhibition is the first step in an official survey of Ferguson’s work. The seventeen exhibition participants including Mark Fergusons’s work are: John Brekke, Tracy Silva Barbosa, David D’Orio, Jim Ferguson, Mark Ferguson, Justin Gaynor, Arlan Huang, Joey Huang, Jan Hoogenboom, Geoffrey Isles, P. M. Laura, Michiko Miyake, Greg Nangle, Trinh Nguyen, Damaso Reyes, Eric Rubinstein, and Carol York. The show has been curated by artist and associate professor at University of Hartford, Hirokazu Fukawa.