sabbia gallery

Ceramics, Glass + Fibre

Gallery Two   5 - 27 August 2016

Melinda Willis – Diffuse

Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present this solo exhibition from glass artists Melinda Willis.

Willis holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia. Her work has been recognized through a number of awards, most recently the 2016 National Emerging Glass Art Prize. Willis has also received several significant grants from the Australia Council for the Arts and was selected to participate international residencies at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, New York, USA) in 2013 and North Lands Creative Glass (Lybster, Scotland) in 2012.

Diffuse brings together a series of glass sculptures that pay tribute to the materiality of architectural ‘float’ glass. These works investigate and highlight the qualities of this fascinating and ubiquitous building material in modern architecture and urban spaces. Through its ability to compress, reflect, and reinterpret space, float glass influences the way we observe and respond to our surroundings. These pieces focus on architectural glass exhibiting ‘diffuse reflections’ – a type of reflection that emerges from irregular, or matte surfaces, creating an ethereal, dreamlike quality within the works. By examining different perceptions of glass I aim to compose works that are not only deconstructed and dislocated, but echo a close familiarity of space that we have all encountered.

Melinda Willis, 2016