Tina Oldknow

Gene Koss creates majestic works in glass and steel that require demanding techniques to realise their monumental scale. These massive volumes of glass are married with elaborately engineered steel elements. Koss casts molten glass directly from the hot furnace, working with teams of highly-skilled assistants and rigging together intricate systems for transporting his finished abstract works for display in museums, galleries and public spaces. The artistic works deal with the self-sacrificing work of the American farmers in whose milieu the artist grew up. The first monograph published on the work of this groundbreaking glass artist features Koss's most important achievements and, through insightful essays by curators and critics, places them in historic perspective.

This book celebrates the generous promised gift of over three hundred works from the collection of Rebecca and Jack Benaroya to the Tacoma Art Museum. Rebecca and Jack built their collection over the course of thirty-five years, starting in 1980 with Dale Chihuly’s blown glass Tomato Red Basket Set. The couple followed their passions and acquired seminal works from some of the Northwest artists and international artists who transformed the Pilchuck Glass School into a world-renowned center for innovation and experimentation. These artists include Olga de Amaral, Howard Ben Tré, Sonja Blomdahl, Kenneth Callahan, Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace, Kyohei Fujita, Morris Graves, Paul Horiuchi, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, William Morris, Ginny Ruffner, Bertil Vallien, and more. Their works are generously reproduced in full color and accompanied by scholarly essays by Stefano Catalani, Aruna D’Souza, Rock Hushka, and Tina Oldknow. This promised gift of 353 works and funds for a new wing and endowment honors Rebecca and Jack by ensuring their collection will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Complementary Contrasts: The Glass and Steel Sculptures of Albert Paley highlights the significance of glass in the work of the celebrated sculptor Albert Paley. Though best known for his large-scale metal sculptures, Paley has incorporated glass in many works for over a decade.After beginning his career as a jewelry maker, Paley soon transitioned to furniture and freestanding sculpture. In the 1970s, Paley delved into large, site-specific works that blurred the line between sculpture and architecture. Despite disparity in size, Paley's collective artworks display a synergy of forms and philosophy, favoring natural curves and lines that defy their rigid materials.In 1999 Paley was invited to Pilchuck Glass School to collaborate with artist Dante Marioni. His experience utilizing fire to manipulate metal translated naturally into his glass design and allowed him to embrace the new material with ease. Since this initial introduction, Paley has collaborated with a number of glass artists and created over a hundred sculptures incorporating glass.The first book to focus on Paley's glass and steel sculpture, Complementary Contrasts includes approximately forty new sculptures created at the Museum of Glass in collaboration with Seattle-based glass sculptor Martin Blank. These sculptures will be supported by earlier works from Paley's personal collection. Thirty works on paper that illuminate Paley's process of incorporating glass in his sculpture are also illustrated. Collectively, the objects in this publication demonstrate a culmination of Paley's talents as a sculptor.