Portals and Passages
Cumberland
Musuem of American Glass at Wheaton Arts
Five artists investigate the optical depth of a sheet of glass, manipulating light, surface, and refraction.
Romina Gonzales, New York Hall of Science, Finding the Window (Detail), 2021
Curator Jocelyne Prince has brought together five artists: Justin Ginsberg, Romina Gonzales, Ashley Raye Harris, Matthew Day Perez, and Alexander Wenstrup, who have an acute understanding of how just a few millimeters of glass can shift our perception of the world. Each work in this exhibition catalyzes the optical and sculptural space that exists within a sheet of glass. In some cases, the surface of the glass has been disrupted, or bears the marks of the action of its making, or the glass composition has been specially concocted to refract light, or the tiniest amount of air is trapped and visually manifested. A fascination with surface, the space just beyond the surface, what we see through the glass, the space within the glass, and what we see reflected in the glass preoccupies these artists.
The works in this exhibition have been selected in conjunction with, and as a complement to the research and activities that are part of the November 2026 WheatonArts symposium on window glass production methods, “Transparent Thresholds.”