Janice Vitkovsky was born in South Australian and began her career in glass by attaining a Bachelor of Applied Arts at the South Australian School of Art. Since graduating, she participated in a two-year traineeship at JamFactory Centre for Contemporary Craft and Design, in the glass workshop. Having continued her making in various studios in Adelaide, she undertook an Australia Council Mentorship with Artist Giles Bettison in New York. She graduated with Honours in Visual Art from the Australian National University, Canberra. Her awards include the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society award, and Object Gallery award for Studio based practice.
Her work has been acquired for many important public and private collections worldwide, and has been included in exhibitions in Australia, Asia, Germany and the USA.
Janice is a dedicated and passionate artist, who loves her material and continues to experiment with her work. She is highly skilled in the murrini technique, which is paramount in the execution of her glass sculptures and wall panels, resulting in a brilliant visual play of light and colour. The murrini construction within her glass allows her to achieve intricate flowing patterns that depict motion.
My work is concerned with perceptual experience and how we internalise and re-interpret our experiences. I am interested in how we process our movement within our physical surrounds and our emotional responses that make up our view of reality outside ourselves.
Within my work I aim to create abstract landscapes that reference a mapping of sorts, employing rhythmic and flowing patterns layered with colour that convey a sense of motion and fluidity. I like to work within the realm of the abstract as it relates to the intangible aspects of our experiences, the unseen but felt, describing the ephemeral quality of a thought or an emotion.
By working with the Murrine technique, I am able to achieve intricate flowing patterns that reference frequencies and depict motion. This is a process where a pattern can be built through the cross-section of the glass, and then by stretching it numerous times, the pattern is effectively miniaturised, travelling all the way through the glass. I combine this with fusing processes and cold finishing techniques to realise the finished piece.
Janice Vitkovsky
