In a way, glass artist John Hogan was born into the craft. Raised in Toledo, Ohio, where scientist and inventor Dominick Labino made some of the first decorative glass in the U.S., Hogan grew up captivated by the process. After observing glasswork at a hot shop next to his childhood home, Hogan formally took up the craft at the age of 15, enrolling in the Toledo museum’s glass program. Since then, his studies have taken him from Bowling Green University to the Czech Republic and Niijima, Japan, to observe both countries’ specific processes. Hogan currently shows his work at Curtis Steiner gallery in Seattle; the city, he says “has become a mecca for glassmaking, second only to the Czech Republic.” Here, Hogan has managed to carve out a unique niche for himself, employing a range of techniques to produce stunning, prismatic objects.
“I draw a lot,” explains the artist. “I really don’t even think about process until I have a drawing and I think ‘I want to make that.’” Currently, he makes about half of his glass in a kiln, a practice learned in the Czech Republic, and half by hot sculpting, which produces a smoother, shinier finish. Inspiration comes from all around – Hogan is constantly snapping photos of captivating forms, textures, and colors in the world around him.
This year Hogan teamed up with lighting company Ladies & Gentlemen Studio on a line of table lights, and in 2016 he’ll debut a collaboration with Lukas Peet of Andlight. But beyond these partnerships, Hogan generally eschews issuing pieces in series. “It’s important to me that people see each of the pieces as unique,” he says. “If I’m creative enough, I should be able to make enough for repetition not to be necessary.”
Some works are showing a very thin line between art and design, and where the notion of materiality is ultimately only an excuse to reveal the unseen… This is the case for the prodigious work of John Hogan, American artist and designer, who by dint of studying glass, discovered a real passion for light. Find out his latest collection of sculpture-objects.
The designer John Hogan has recently presented at the Parisian gallery Triode a selection of new pieces, each more dazzling than the last. Indeed, the designer is working on glass the haute-couture way, studying all the properties of the latter in order to allow the material to give the best. Polished, rounded, pointed or even faceted, the glass has the incredible ability to fade behind the king of natural elements, the one without whom the nothingness would be our
daily: the light.
Thus, through his collection, John Hogan has succeeded the prowess of being the sculptor of light, one that gives to see how complex and powerful it is. The glass refers to both the latter but also its environment and the colors that are there, giving rise to a panel of colors and luminous subtleties that one could have imagined. Take a look at the heart of one of the designer’s sculptures, and depending on whether you look at it from afar, close, or above, the object will not appear to you the same way. You may distinguish all shades of the colorful spectrum, or the only transparency of the glass will seduce you. The effect is astounding. The delicacy and the ultra-poetic universe of John Hogan allow him to stand out in the world of design, by proposing pieces that interact freely with the surrounding environment. Also, his sculptures, vases and other objects have earned him many collaborations, for which a touch of lyricism was indispensable to their purpose. The artist has allied himself with some of the lighting projects of American designers as Bec Brittain but also Ladies & Gentleman and others, to which the glass the John Hogan‘s way allows to bring an evanescent style, almost extraterrestrial.
The designer draws his imagination and inspiration from his own vision of things, and from his obsession with light he is sharing. He also quotes Czech artists Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova, pioneers of sculptural glass from an artistic but also technological point of view. A reference with meaning when one knows the proven know-how of the Czech Republic in glass manufacturing…