Artists fired up for glass exhibition

by Gerrit Bester


29 August 2022

Fired Up! - Celebrating Southern African Glass Art will bring you glass in a myriad of creative interpretations at the Pretoria Art Museum from 3 September till 30 October 2022. Several staff and alumni from the Faculty of Arts and Design will partake in the exhibition, which coincides with the United Nations International Year of Glass, focusing on the essential role glass has in society.

The exhibition will weave historical aspects from the beginnings of glass and its uses in our region – starting with glass beads used as currency in extensive continental trade routes, examples from the first furnaces producing glass in Woodstock, Cape Town, leading to the origins of torchbearers in our local hand-made glass industry such as Ngwenya Glass from Eswatini and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Department of Fine and Studio Arts, Glass Art & Design programme.

The main focus will be an exhibition of contemporary glass works by current trailblazers who have and still are shaping the Southern African creative glass industry.

They include TUT staff members Caitlin Greenberg and part-time lecturer Martli Jansen van Rensburg, and alumni TUT glass students Nicole Rowe, Lothar Böttcher, Mike Hyam, Marileen van Wyk, Stephen Mofokeng, Kgotso Pati, and former TUT lecturer, Retief van Wyk.

Fired Up! will be complemented with a conference day on 1 October. Several artists, academics, and industry speakers will present thoughts and discussions around the theme Glass and its Future in an African Context.

Please follow the proceedings on Instagram @southern_african_glass or email iyog2022.southafrica@gmail.com for more info.

The main focus will be an exhibition of contemporary glass works by current trailblazers who have and still are shaping the Southern African creative glass industry.

For more information on the Tshwane University of Technology, please contact Phaphama Tshisikhawe, Corporate Affairs and Marketing.
Tel: +27 12 382 4711  Email: tshisikhawerpt@tut.ac.za