Katherine Gray reprises tree installation for UrbanGlass exhibition

Katherine Gray, Forest Glass, 2009. Glass and mixed media. H 120 (tallest), W 63, D 30 in. Installation at the Chrysler Museum of Art in 2009.

To celebrate the October 2013 reopening of its facility in Brooklyn, UrbanGlass invited sculptor Katherine Gray to commemorate the event with an installation artwork. (Disclosure: The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet is published by UrbanGlass.)  In a nod to her 2009 installation Forest Glass that debuted at Los Angeles’ Acuna-Hansen Gallery to positive reviews from the Los Angeles Times, Gray is modifying the original concept for her latest project. The new work, A Tree Grows (referencing the Betty Smith classic novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) seeks to capture the spirit of UrbanGlass, an organization that has served the glass art community for over 40 years.

For this project, Gray is inviting public participation, soliciting donated glasses out of which the piece will be constructed. “Overcoming dire circumstances and obstacles in life to become something greater: that’s what UrbanGlass is doing,” Gray told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview. To her, the resilience of a tree was the most accurate representation of the significance of the organization’s move.