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Garry Nash was born in Sydney, Australia.
He moved to New Zealand in 1973 and became a NZ citizen in 1998. Garry has been working with hot glass for more than a quarter century. In 2001, he was made an Officer of The New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his services to Glass Art. He is the father to two children: Daniel (born 1991) and Rebecca (born 1988). He lives in Ponsonby (Auckland). |
| BIOGRAPHY PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Garry began working with glass in 1978. He joined Sunbeam Glassworks in Auckland 1981 as a full-time glass artist and acquired ownership of Sunbeam seven years later. Today he continues to operate the studio (Garry Nash Studio), pursuing his own personal exploration of the glass medium. Garry has developed an international reputation through the strength and quality of his work in the Art-Glass realm. He is an honorary life member and past President of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass. Garry also served as a local body politician as deputy chairman of Western Bays Community Board, Auckland 1989-92. In 2001 Garry was made an Officer of The New Zealand Order of merit for services to Glass Art. ARTIST STATEMENT My current work is a result of nearly two decades of fervent exploration within the medium of molten glass. The skills acquired during this uninterrupted period have allowed me to have at my fingertips techniques that were inconceivable when I started working with glass. Working in the relative isolation of New Zealand, unemcumbered by rigid parochial European traditions of glass style and technique, gave me the freedom to develop a unique style reflecting the New Zealand environment. I have an strong interest in the rich history of glass making and have drawn impartially from its long, rich and varied past. Being able to combine a technique from sixteenth-century Venice and blow it in an eighteenth century English style is one of the great joys of being involved in the studio glass movement. I continually try to push the boundaries of hot glass in terms of scale to achieve an architectural presence with my work. This is one area of hot glass traditionally ignored, and one that modern technology has made possible. Colour is the corner stone of the studio glass movement. I combine colour and form in my work to evoke an emotional response. Garry Nash, 2006 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS SOLO SHOWS 2005 - Koru. Page One. Taipei, Taiwan GROUP SHOWS 2004 - 'Southern Exposure', Glasmuseet, Ebeltoft, Denmark 2004 - 'NZ Garden Sculpture and Outdoor Art' Auckland NZ. 2004 - 'Shape Shifter' Wellington, NZ 2003 - Bark Modern Art Gallery, Hong Kong "Art Out There" Outdoor Sculpture exhibition, Ellerslie Auckland The Touch House of Art & Design, Singapore "Seaview" Singapore 2002 - Glass Invitational NZ, touring Milford House Galleries, NZ 'NZ Garden Sculpture and Outdoor Art', Auckland, NZ 2002 - 'Five Sydney Years' Australian Art Resources, Sydney Australia 2000 - 'NZ Garden Sculpture and Outdoor Art', Auckland, NZ 1999 - Axia Modern Art "3 Perspectives in Glass", Melbourne, Australia 1999 - Axia Modern Art "Best of NZ glass", Melbourne , Australia 1999 - Ausglass, Members Exhibition, Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, Australia 1999 - Ausglass, "Quoting Others", Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery, Australia, 1999 - Opening Exhibition, National Art Glass Gallery, Australia 1998 - "NZ Garden Sculpture and Outdoor Art", Auckland, NZ 1998 - "The International Exhibition of Glass", Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan 1997 - "Art in Glass 97" Editions Gallery, Melbourne, Australia 1996 - "Art in Glass 96" Editions Gallery, Melbourne, Australia 1995 - "Glass Now 95", Japan, touring 1994 - "The Cutting Edge", Glass Triennial, Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery, Australia 1994 - "Glass Now 94", Japan, touring 1993 - "Glass Now 93", Japan, touring 1992 - Despard Street Gallery Booth, Chicago New Art Forms Exposition, USA 1990 - "Glass Now 90", Japan, touring 1989 - "Glass Now 89", Japan, touring 1988 - "World Glass Now", Museum of Modern Art, Hokaido, Japan 1988 - Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, USA 1987 - "International Glass Invitational", Habitat Galleries, Michigan, USA 1987 - "Glass Now 87", Japan, touring 1986 - Glass Artists Gallery, Sydney, Australia 1986 - "Glass Now 86", Japan, touring 1985 - Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ 1985 - Phillips Studio Glass Exhibition, Auckland, NZ 1984 - Phillips Studio Glass Exhibition, Auckland, NZ 1983 - "Pacific Glass International", NZ 1983 - "Studio Glass", Auckland Museum, NZ 1982 - "Fragile Arts", Northern Regional Arts Council, touring, NZ 1981 - "Glass 81", Auckland Society of Arts, Auckland, NZ 1980 - "Glass 80", Auckland Society of Arts, Auckland, NZ SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 1986 - 1995 "Glass Now", Japan, catalogues 1988 "World Glass Now 88", Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan, catalogue. 1989 Dan Klein, "Glass, a contemporary Art", Collins. 1992 Tsuneo Yoshimizu, "The Survey of Glass in the World", Kyuryudo Art Publishing, Japan. Helen Schamroth, "Glass Art in New Zealand", Neues Glass 1/92. 1995 Noris Ioannou, "Australian Studio Glass", Craftsman House. Craft Arts International No. 33, p48-51. 1997 Terence Measham, "Discovering the Powerhouse Museum". Publication mid 1997. Photography of "Stone Vessel" by Garry Nash, New Zealand, 1996. 1998 Helen Shamroth, "100 New Zealand Craft Artists", Godwit, page 59. Front cover illustration; "Flotsam", 1998 by Garry Nash. "The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 98", Japan, catalogue. 2009 Douglas Lloyd Jenkins "The Last Bubble" (PDF); "The Listener", New Zealand (article online) PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Te Papa, Museum of New Zealand Auckland Museum Dowse Museum, NZ Hawkes Bay Art Gallery, NZ Manly Art Gallery, Australia Smithsonian Institute, Washington, USA Glass Museum, Ebeltof, Denmark Manawatu Art Gallery, NZ Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia Robert McDougal Art Gallery, Christchurch, NZ Whangarei City Art Gallery, NZ Ishikawa, Design Collection, Ishikawa, Japan PRIVATE COLLECTIONS PriceWaterhouseCoopers Collection, NZ BNZ Bank Collection, NZ ANZ Bank Collection, NZ New Zealand Insurance, NZ Connections, Borowsky Collection, USA Glaxo Collection, NZ Kensington Swan Collection, NZ David and Barbara Thomas, Australia Leaders Gifts APEC, Auckland, NZ AWARDS 2001 - Officer of The New Zealand Order of Merit WORKSHOPS 2001 - Guest Artist, CollaboratioNZ, Whangarei,
NZ BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY Prior to the 1980's, New Zealand had very little by way of studio "art" glass - and it was the influence of the American Glass Art movement that triggered our local studios. Various commercial glass facilities did come about part way through the 20th century, but studio glass was not born in New Zealand until around 1980, with the construction of glassworks like Nash's Sunbeam. Garry's initial work in the blowing of glass started with a mobile furnace at a time when no market of any kind existed in New Zealand for glass art. His move into Sunbeam, with it's fixed facilities and concomittent possibilities in terms of sizeable works, led to major forays into international exhibitions by the mid-to-late 1980's. In 1988, Garry undertook the first major series of international exhibitions throughout the United States ever undertaken by a New Zealand Glass Artist. Over 100 large pieces were blown at Sunbeam by Garry over a one year period, and each piece was then individually boxed for a series of nine American exhibitions, from Los Angeles and San Francisco over to Washington DC, down to Florida and finishing after some weeks in Chicago, at the New Art Forms Exposition. These exhibitions moved Garry from the somewhat more traditional "vessel" creation, to the considerably less defined "sculptural" idiom. What evolved were the remrkable "poster series" sculptural forms - free-blown glass obelisks with attached shards engraved with sketches portraying Garry's universe. These creations garnered a remarkable reception in the U.S. from both collectors and contemporary glass artists. Pieces were purchased in quantity, and Garry is now collected by some of the major U.S. Museums, including the prestigious Smithsonian Institute. In 1986 Garry wrote these words about his 'bill poster' series: "Each generation wishes to leave behind some artifacts as a record of the fact of their existence. There appears to be a subconscious urge to record the essence of experience in a personal, idiosyncratic manner. People look to artists, writers and craftspersons of a generation to sum up and record the achievements of their era. In this way, I see my images, and forms, as being a reflection of my time, like the school photo, the family portrait, the sports team photograph. Because of the non-specific nature of these messages, I have elected to use the concept of the 'bill poster' as a means of expressing my observations. I see these 'peeling' messages on construction site barriers, bus stands, and trees. They represent to me a kind of soap box platform of the visual world; a communication of the to-whom-it-may-concern type." Each of the 'poster series' creations mirrored a part of Garry's life at the time of it's creation. They were always evocative - and seldom did less than portray his view of social emotion. The "bill poster" series ran from 1986 to 1995. And where he undertook the creation of these major pieces solo at the serie's inception, the increasing size has meant a move to working with a team on more current pieces. Seldom capable of standing still with his creations, Garry has often worked new concepts side by side. The Poster Series evolved alongside the "diamond-carved vessel" series. Like this piece, each vessel was blown with the future carving in mind. Very few of the individually carved vessels were created during this period, and there is little doubt that Garry is unlikely to find the incredible periods of time necessary for this type of creation in future. Garry is well known in New Zealand for his series of large sand-blasted and engraved platters and bowls, which are often described as "Vessels of Coloured Light". These are made from two to three layers of different coloured blown glass, with an engraved pattern cut through to reveal the underlying colour. Garry's most recent series is the "Reef Series" - an outstanding lipped vessel series of immense size and remarkable colour. Each is entirely free-blown. All of Garry's work is handblown without moulds. Working with such large pieces requires considerable strength and stamina, as well as skill and ingenuity. |
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