KIRSTIE REA : NEW WORK IN GLASS

Kirstie Rea, Corral, 2004, kil

24/Sep/2004 - 31/Oct/2004

VENUE: Craft A.C.T. Craft And Design Centre

2004 artsACT Creative Arts Fellowship recipient, Kirstie Rea, presents new work using projected light in conjunction with her chosen medium of glass in order to explore the interaction of object and architecture.

Gallery walls aglow with new glass by Kirstie Rea
Kirstie Rea’s new installation of glass work combining colour and light will see the walls of Craft ACT’s Gallery 2 literally glowing! The word break is not usually welcomed in a glass studio, but receiving a Creative Arts Fellowship from artsACT at the end of 2003 was just the break that Kirstie Rea needed to create a new and challenging body of work. The exhibition, simply titled New Work, will be opened at 6pm on Thursday 23 September by Bill Wood MLA, ACT Minister for the Arts and Heritage. The exhibition continues until October 31 in Craft ACT’s Gallery 2, Level 1, North Building, London Circuit, Canberra City. Gallery hours are Tues to Fri 10am to 4pm, and weekends 12 noon to 4pm.

Rea has approached her new work with the intent of exploring the combination of glass and the gallery’s architecture. A major component of this exhibition is the interaction of the works with light, and how the light spills from the edges of the work to the wall and floor of the gallery. Kirstie Rea’s exhibition New Work is a series of objects and wall works that interact beautifully with light. They have a sculptural quality that captures and conveys ideas relating to both nature and manufactured materials. Rea builds up the layer of glass achieving varying thickness and tonal range across her forms. The forms utilise this thickness range in the way they sit as structures and in how they absorb and reflect light from their dense interiors to their feathered edges.
Rea’s work is currently much in demand in Australia and overseas. This year has seen Rea not only developing new work in her studio, but travelling overseas to attend her exhibitions and to give lectures and workshops. She also published a catalogue, the Colour of Air, the Scent of Light , earlier in the year. This exhibition of New Work at Craft ACT highlights the standing of Rea in the glass community and her important role in producing work which is at the forefront of glass practice.