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Artist's Statement - Ed Kirshner 
Like Dr. Frankenstein in his lab, I hover over my glass and gas plasma work, spending many hours mixing, balancing and fine-tuning. Still, the plasma light behaves in a way that I can never completely control. I can change or direct its behavior by varying the pressure and mix of gases, or the frequency and the voltage of the power, but I can never fully predict the detailed effects any of my actions will have. Though frustrating at times, this unpredictability is at the very heart of my work. This is the personality, the mystery, the life that I try to create in my sculpture.
I am inspired by the theories of self-organizing chaos as well as the related concept of emergence. Simply put, the term "self-organizing chaos" refers to the ability of certain seemingly random systems to self organize, self replicate, and behave according to rules that are not readily apparent outside of the system. “Emergence” refers to the appearance of a new phenomenon that has a nature beyond its component parts and is generally not predictable from an analysis of those parts. The effects of these processes are often structured and formal, yet natural and organic with one intriguing example being the sensuous dance of form, light and color of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.
Determined to express this mysterious structured chaos of dynamic light in an art form, I quickly realized that to capture an Aurora effect down here on Earth would require the use of clear glass containers. Thus, I returned to school at the age of 55 to study glass, neon and gas plasma. While most of my work utilizes blown glass forms, I have also developed a simple and inexpensive glass solder that allows the use of utilitarian manufactured glass items as well as heavier studio and cast glass work to serve as vessels for the plasma. Fused together, basic forms can be transformed into transcendent glass and light sculptures.
My early piece, "Cone of Chaos," was a Corning Glass Selection for 2000. It represents the structured and abstract form of many of my subsequent plasma sculptures. The piece is a simple blown glass vessel that allows the plasma light to define its own dynamic geometric patterns that are mesmerizing and interactive with the viewer. Others of my sculpture incorporate glass and plasma components that add intrigue, energy and dynamics to the work. I strive for a formal simplicity in most of my art using finely balanced, responsive, self-organizing plasma that seems to take on a life of its own.
STAFF
Ed Kirshner
Nicole Galetta
PUBLICATIONS
& AWARDS
2007
World Art Glass Quarterly, Volume 2, "Between Randomness and Chaos with Ed Kirshner"
2005
25 Years of New Glass Review, The Corning Museum of Glass
2003
Formed of Fire: Contemporary Selections in Lampworked Glass, Bandhu Dunham, Ed.
2003
A Celebration of Glass, Kenneth Von Roenn, Jr. Ed. Butler Books
2001
Neues Glas Magazine, February Issue, “Artists and Objects”
2000
Corning New Glass Review 22, Annual Selection
1999
Gl’Art, Hsinchu International Art Glass Festival Catalog
GALLERY REPRESENTATION AND COLLECTIONS
Luniverre Gallery, Paris, France
Glass Art/ Glaskunst Galerie, Innsbruck, Austria
di Rosa Art Preserve, Napa, CA
Micaela Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1212 Gallery, Burlingame, CA
The Phillips Gallery, Carmel, CA
The Crucible Gallery, Oakland, CA
The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
G Gallery, Napa, CA
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2007
Glass & Gas Plasma Sculpture, The Glass Furnace, Turkey (in the Fall)
2006
Plasma Sculpture (with C. Shiess), The Crucible, Oakland, CA
2005
Individual Artist Workshops, Bernd Weinmayer Studios Tirol, Austria
2005
Plasma Sculpture (with C. Schiess)The Crucible Oakland, CA
2004
Plasma Sculpture (with C. Schiess)The Crucible Oakland, CA
2004
Techniques in Glass and Gas Plasma , Ateliers d’Art de France Vannes le Chatel , France
2004
Individual Artist Workshops, Bernd Weinmayer Studios Tirol, Austria
2004
Techniques in Glass and Gas Plasma, Glass Art Society Conference New Orleans, LA
2003
Plasma Sculpture (with C. Schiess)The Crucible Oakland, CA
2002
Glass and Gas Plasma Workshops, Ropex International Co. Osaka, Japan
EXHIBITIONS
2007
Luminous Glass, Luniverre Gallery, Paris, France
Neon and Plasma Art, California Science Center, Los Angeles, CA
Romeo & Juliet: A Fire Ballet, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
Great Glass Auction, Bay Area Glass Institute, San Francisco, CA
2006
Molten, An exhibition of illuminated glass artwork, Mesa Art Center, Mesa, Arizona (through April 2007) (featured on publications)
Plasma Glass- Light in Motion, Glass Art/ Glaskunst Galerie,
Innsbruck, Austria
Art and Science, Lawrence Hall of Science,
University of California, Berkeley, CA
As We Glow Forward, Museum of Neon Art, Lost Angeles, CA
Illuminated Glass, Glass Art Society, St. Louis, Missouri
Made in California, Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA
Fire Opera and Auction, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
2005
Touch of Glass at Micaela Gallery in San Francisco, California
www.micaela.com
Hot Shop at 1212 Gallery in Burlingame, California
www.1212gallery.com
24 Years with 24 Artists MONA LA, CA
www.neonmona.org
2004
Neon and Kinetic Art, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
Luminous Glass, Venusian Gardens New Orleans, LA
Fire Opera, The Crucible Oakland, CA
2003
Illuminated Glass, Glass Arts Society, Seattle WA
The Glass Vessel, Kentucky Museum of Art & Design Louisville,
KY
Gas and Glass, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
Light Installation, Caretta Shiodome Tokyo, Japan
2002
Taiwan Neon, Plasma and Glass Shows, Travelling Taiwan
2001
GALA Event, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
Auto and Art Show, Peterson Museum Los Angeles, CA
CARnucopia, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
Travelling Light, Sky Harbor Airport Phoenix, AZ
2000
Travelling Light, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
Plasma: The Fourth State of Matter, Museum of Neon Art
Los Angeles, CA
Travelling Light, Let there be Neon Gallery New York,
NY
1999
Hsinchu Int'l Art Glass Festival, Neon Pavilion (featured
on poster) Hsinchu City, Taiwan
Travelling Light, Salt Creek Artworks St. Petersburg,
FL
1998
Travelling Light, Museum of Neon Art Los Angeles, CA
MEMBERSHIPS
1996-
Present
Museum of Neon Art, Los Angeles, Current Trustee and
past Treasurer
1996-
Present
Glass Arts Society (G.A.S.) member
ED
KIRSHNER'S BIO
Ed Kirshner is a long time resident of Oakland, California. He first moved there 45 years ago from New York were he was born in 1940. Both his parents were artists and designers. Because of their influence, Ed's exposure to art started early. He studied art for as long as he can remember, either in public school or in one of his mother's private art classes. What he considers his first formal training was during high school when he attended the Art Students' League of New York. His first job related to art was during the same period when he worked in his father's design and graphics department.
After high school, Ed attended Cornell University in upstate New York where he studied architectural design and sculpture for a few years. In 1961, to escape the cold, he joined the great American migration to California where he worked in architectural and design firms and attended the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated at the top of his class in architecture with Honors and won the American Institute of Architects' Student medal. During this time, he also spent a formative summer in Salzburg, Austria, in Alfred Hrdlicka’s sculpture section of the Oskar Kokoschka School of Vision where he was a top award winner.
Ed then moved back to the East Coast of the United States to join the original architectural and urban design team for the new town of Columbia, Maryland. Later, in order to join the political activities in Berkeley in 1968, Ed returned to the University of California where he received a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Housing Finance. For the past thirty-five years, Ed has made a successful career developing and financing affordable housing for low-income people. He has also taught advanced classes in community-based economic development and affordable housing finance at numerous colleges and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, Davis, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
About ten years ago, Ed discovered glass and neon art as well as the new scientific theories of self-organizing chaos. To further these interests and get back into art, he took many studio classes in glass and neon sculpture at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, the Academy of Arts College in San Francisco and the Crucible Fire Arts School in Oakland. He has spent several summers at the Pilchuck and Corning glass schools as well as at Northlands Creative Glass in Scotland.
His glass and gas plasma sculptures have been exhibited in shows and galleries across the United States and in Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Austria and Paris. He has been included in numerous shows at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Los Angeles where he has been a member of the board of trustees and its treasurer for several years. Ed’s sculpture has also been represented in such public venues as the International Terminal at the San Francisco Airport. His work entitled "Cone of Chaos" was a Corning Glass selection for the year 2000 and was published in the October 2001 issue of "Neues Glas" as well as in the recent book, “25 Years of New Glass Review” by The Corning Museum of Glass. Examples of his work have also been featured in several other glass art publications including Volume 2 of the World Art Glass Quarterly. The DiRosa Preserve in Napa, California, an important regional private fine art collection, recently acquired his glass and plasma sculpture, "Java High."
Ed likes to teach and share his unique glass and plasma art and techniques with others. For example, he has offered intensive workshops in Japan, sponsored by the Ropex glass art company and in France at the European glass school, CERFAV, sponsored by the French national crafts association, Atelier d'Art. In 2004, he was invited to demonstrate his work at the annual Glass Arts Society conference in New Orleans and has been asked to do the same at their 2007 conference scheduled for Pittsburg. Ed has taught glass and plasma sculpture at the University of California in San Diego and is on the faculty of the Crucible in Oakland. He is also scheduled to teach at the Glass Furnace in Turkey later in 2007.
EDUCATION
2003
The Crucible, Oakland CA, Neon Sculpture with Christian Schiess
2002
Northlands Glass School, Scotland, Master Class with
Irene Frolic
2000
Corning Glass School, Corning, NY Summer class in glass
and gas plasma
1996-2001
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Numerous
studio glass classes
1997-1999
Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA Summer classes in
neon, glass and gas plasma
1995
Academy of Arts College, San Francisco, Neon sculpture
class
1968-1971
University of California, Berkeley, Dept. of City and
Regional Planning, Masters of City Planning
1962-1966
University of California, Berkeley, Dept. of Architecture,
Bachelors in Architecture with Honors and the American
Institute of Architects' Medal. Studies in architecture
urban design and sculpture
1963
Oskar Kokoschka School of Vision, Salzburg, Austria,
Summer sculpture program, prize winner
1958-1960
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, School of Architecture,
Studies in architectural design, sculpture, painting and
drawing
1956-1957
Art Students' League of New York, Classes in life drawing
Purchase & Commission
Most of the work on this website is available for purchase.
Similar work is available by commission. Please contact
Aurora Sculpture Studios for more information.
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