“enticement”
fused glass
6" x 10"

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Michael Gnad is a kinetic sculptor and glass maker. He is from Alaska originally, and has lived in New Orleans periodically - 7 of the last 10 years. Mike evacuated to Reading, Pennsylvania after Hurricane Katrina flooded his apartment, and continues to produce work there. He attended Tulane University in the mid-nineties, receiving his BFA degree in studio art. Mike received his MFA in glass from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 2003. He attended the Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle and studied at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.  This, his second solo exhibition at the gallery, is entitled “The Proverbial.”

IN HIS OWN WORDS

These glass placards illustrate my interpretation of the proverbial; bits of popular statements that I’ve heard here or there. This show illustrates some of my conceptions about the practical experience of mankind as shared by the people I know and the people before us from whom these expressions were passed down.

Fortune presents us with a variety of motivations for action. Adversity can be met with a surplus of reactions - whether positive, negative, or indifferent. Most of them can be pretty amusing from a particular vantage point. And for each one of these reactions to hardship there seems to be an over-used expression or a pithy phrase that wraps all the problems up in a tidy little package, ready to open on a brighter day.

If these expressions can be simplified and symbolized, I hope that I achieved that with a few of them here.