Michael Janis
Michael Janis
Inspired by ways we transform ourselves; I work at creating creates glass pieces that have both visual and spatial depth. By layering and fusing sheets of glass with overlapping elements, I strive for an interactive commentary using simple forms with intricate glass powder drawings. These works are a continuation of my frit powder drawings that I have been working on for some time now. My artwork compositions are often arranged in such a way as to suggest a narrative, yet I employ various means to distort them – from cropping the images to blocking out faces with cast glass elements. This is designed to force us to ask what and how does one define identity. The layering of elements reacts to perceptions of gender, culture and time.
The way I work with glass is very labor intensive, working with crushed glass being manipulated a grain at a time to create images. This processes allows me to focus and concentrate on telling a story.
After a 20 year career as an architect in the United States and Australia, Michael Janis returned to the US with a focus on working with glass. In 2005, Janis became the Co-Director of the Washington Glass School in Washington, DC. Janis has received numerous awards for his artwork including the Florida Art Glass Alliance’s Emerging Artist Award 2009, the Bay Area Glass Institute’s 2010 Saxe Fellowship and he was named a “Rising Star” at Wheaton Arts 2011. His glass artwork was featured in Corning Museum’s ‘New Glass Review’ #30 & #31. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, Janis went to England’s University of Sunderland and taught at the UK’s National Glass Centre where he became an Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for International Research in Glass. Washington, DC’s James Renwick Alliance named him Distinguished Glass Artist for 2014, and he presented and lectured about his work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2014.
In 2016, The (Washington) DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities awarded Michael Janis the 31st Annual Mayors Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts. The Mayors Arts Awards are the most prestigious honors conferred by the city on individual artists, teachers, nonprofit organizations, and patrons of the arts.
His work has been featured and reviewed in American Craft Magazine, American Style Magazine, and Glass Art Magazine, and is held in national and international private collections.
Art Institute of Chicago
Fuller Craft Museum
Permanent Collection, Bucharest Embassy, US Department of State, Romania
Imagine Museum
2019 PULSE Art Miami, Alida Anderson Art Projects, Miami, FL
SOFA Expo Chicago, Habatat Galleries, Chicago, IL
Fort Wayne Museum of Art / 47th International Glass Award Winners
Knoxville Museum of Art / The Lure of the Object, Knoxville, TN
Habatat Galleries / Royal Oak, MI; 47th International Glass Invitational
2018 Alida Anderson Art Project / CONTEXT Miami Art Fairs, Miami, FL
Habatat Galleries / Chicago, IL; ‘S.O.F.A. Chicago’
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; ‘Mindful: Exploring Mental Health through Art’
Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI; 46th International Glass Invitational
Morgan Contemporary Glass, Pittsburgh, PA; ‘Some Like It Hot’
2017 Habatat Galleries / SCOPE Miami Art Fairs, Miami, FL
Maurine Littleton Gallery / Wheaton Arts Center, Millville, NJ; ‘Glass Weekend 2017’
Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI; 45th International Glass Invitational
Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center, Portsmouth, VA; ‘Embracing Narrative’
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; ‘Mindful: Exploring Mental Health through Art’
2016 Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, DC; ‘Solo Show’
Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI; 44th International Glass Invitational
Habatat Galleries, New York, NY; SCOPE Art Fair 2016
2015 Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT; ‘Structure: Space and Light’
Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI; 43rd International Glass Invitational
University Art Gallery, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD; ‘Glass in the 21st Century”
Society For Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA; ‘Mindful: Exploring Mental Health through Art’
Maurine Littleton Gallery / Chicago, IL; ‘S.O.F.A. Chicago’
2014 Maurine Littleton Gallery, Washington, DC; ‘Body / Building’
Gallery 72, Omaha, NE; ‘Greatness of Studio Glass Art’
Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI; 42nd International Glass Invitational
Maurine Littleton Gallery / Chicago, IL; ‘S.O.F.A. Chicago’
2013 Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago, IL; ‘Glass/Ceramics’
Sunderland Museum, Sunderland, UK; ‘International Glass & Clay Exhibition’
Stewart Fine Art, Boca Raton, FL
Morgan Contemporary Glass, Pittsburgh, PA; ‘Common Discourse’
Duncan McClellan Gallery, St. Petersburg, FL; ‘Artists of the Washington Glass School’
Edison Place Gallery, Washington, DC; International Glass & Clay Exhibition,
2012 Maurine Littleton Gallery / Chicago, IL; ‘S.O.F.A. Chicago’
Creative Cohesion Gallery / Edinburgh, UK; ‘Edinburgh Art Fair
Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville, NC; ‘Glass Secessionism’
ZeST Gallery, London, England; ‘Blast! 2012’
Creative Cohesion Gallery, London, England; ‘London Affordable Art Fair’
Bullseye Gallery, Portland, OR & Emeryville, CA; ‘Facture: Artists at the Forefront of Painterly Glass’
Permanent Collection, Bucharest Embassy, US Department of State, Romania
2011 Fuller Museum of Craft, Brockton, MA; Solo Show
Long View Gallery / Washington, DC; ‘Washington Glass School- the First 10 Years’
Maurine Littleton Gallery / Chicago, IL; ‘S.O.F.A. Chicago’
Flemish Center for Contemporary Glass Art, Lommel, Belgium; The Glass Canvas
Mayer Fine Art / Miami, FL; ‘Miami International Art Fair’
