Transparency, Opacity, and Iridescence in Glass

Date: Friday, April 25, 2025

Time: 5:15 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

• Appetizer Reception- 5:15 p.m.-5:50 p.m
• Katherine Gray Presents- 6:00 p.m.
• Meet and Greet & Dessert Reception- 7:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Ticket Price:

$7

Tickets are refundable up to 24 hours before event, with the exception of eventbrite fees.

Location:

Building B, Luecht Auditorium

Katherine Gray, world-renowned glass artist, brings her expertise to the LISI Speaker Series in an illuminating presentation on the creative technologies behind art glass. Gray will explore this compelling medium and how the interplay of light, structure, and perception transforms ordinary glass into an extraordinary artistic statement. And did you know that metal oxides developed by NASA for spacecraft windows create dazzling iridescent effects? From historical glass artifacts to cutting-edge innovations, Gray’s talk will reveal the hidden science behind this ancient yet futuristic material

“I use a material that we don’t generally ‘see’: glass. It is often flawlessly clear and colourless, hence invisible in that regard, but also it can be so ubiquitous and banal that it does not register in our psyches either. It is a material that allows us unparalleled connectivity (via smart phones and fibre optics) yet also serves to separate us. To my mind, these two polarities are what set this material apart from so many others, and one of the reasons that I feel compelled to keep working with it as an artistic medium. It is both present and absent, known and unknown, and vacillating between a state of mundane familiarity and otherworldly perfection."

-Katherine Gray

Join us for an evening of insight, innovation, and artistry as Katherine Gray uncovers the mesmerizing science behind blown glass and its limitless creative potential.

About Katherine Gray

Katherine Gray is an acclaimed glass artist whose work bridges the realms of science and art. She received her undergraduate degree from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions, including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Gray is a recipient of the Libenský/Brychtová Award from the Pilchuck Glass School and has been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Craft Council. In addition to her artistic career, she is a Professor of Art at California State University, San Bernardino, and a frequent juror and curator in the glass art world.

Host or Publisher McHenry County College