From TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART
The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has named Alli Hoag as the 55th Guest Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP) Artist in Residence. The 2015 Glass Art Society Emerging Artist will create new work and share her process at TMA Aug. 23-Sept. 1. Her residency will include a free artist’s lecture on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. and free public demonstrations.
Hoag is an associate professor at Bowling Green State University where she serves as the glass area head.
GAPP brings in glass and contemporary artists who are willing to explore the use of glass in their work to be inspired, without restriction, by the TMA collection, studio facilities and staff. The program aligns with the Museum’s educational aim to promote dialogue in contemporary glass and contemporary art communities. A committee of TMA staff members, including the deputy director, curator of glass, director of collections and the glass studio manager, select the GAPP Artist in Residence.
Hoag uses glass, installation, video, performance and digital technology to explore ideas of magic as humans’ desire to understand the natural world. “I see magic as the desire to connect with the world outside of our perceptual and cognitive abilities,” said Hoag. “In my work, I attempt to create moments where one can believe that distance is overcome. I investigate this uniquely human desire to reveal the simultaneous lightness and heaviness that is created when the imagined or invisible is labored into the physical realm.”
Hoag compares her artistic practice to taxidermy. She dissects and reconstructs found objects to recreate real and imagined narratives that audiences can share. For her work, she has received awards, fellowships and scholarships from the Glass Art Society, The Studio at Corning Museum of Glass, Niche Magazine, UrbanGlass, the Janice Charach Gallery and more. She has been published in Glass Quarterly, UrbanGlass and Glass Network Magazine.
“TMA could not be more thrilled to welcome Alli Hoag to the Studio for the GAPP residency,” said Diane Wright, TMA’s senior curator of glass and contemporary craft. “Alli’s contribution to our artistic community in Toledo, Bowling Green and the Ohio region is expressed in her creative approach to glass as well as her commitment to teaching.”
Hoag also works across sound, sculpture and performance with Icelandic performance artist and pianist Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir in a collaborative known as Bylta. Their first collaboration was the performance “Cry Piano” in 2013 at S12 Galleri og Verksted (Bergen, Norway). Most recently, Bylta performed their work, “Sending,” at UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, New York) and the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Virginia) during the 2017 Glass Art Society Conference.
Hoag’s solo exhibitions include “Alterative Beginnings,” presented in 2017 at Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi) and in 2018 at River House Arts (Toledo); “Umwelt” (2017) at the Roy C. Moore Art Gallery at University of North Georgia (Gainesville, Georgia); “The Distance of the Moon” (2014) at The Agnes Varis Art Center at UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, New York); “A Form more Familiar” (2012) at Fosdick-Nelson Gallery (Alfred, New York); and “A Wild Beast” (2007) at TOWN (Honolulu, Hawai’i.).
Through residencies abroad, Hoag has developed her work internationally at Cité internationale des arts (Paris) and S12 Galleri og Verksted (Bergen, Norway). She served as executive exhibition chair and co-curator for the national juried glass exhibition “Momentum” in 2017 (Toledo) and currently serves on the steering committee for the Arts Commission Momentum Arts/Industry Intersection.
Hoag holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in glass from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (Honolulu, Hawai‘i) and graduated from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, New York).
