Inspired by KCJ Szwedzinski’s original piece, “Saccharin(e) Shrines” became an open-call for creative uses of glass art. The exhibition has now expanded to encapsulate works of translucent and delicate materials, as well as new takes on traditional stained glass and mosaics. We are proud to present work from artists KCJ Szwedzinski, Carrie Grey, Kevin Hallagan and Matthew Lazure.

KCJ SZWEDZINSKI

“Saccharin(e) Shrines” imitates the aesthetics of glass, in truth, this reinterpretation of leaded light remains highly subjective to its environment and will begin to distort as humidity levels rise. Stained glass windows, historically serving as a means of education for the illiterate, made from sugar implicate a culture that preaches from an early age that consumption will bring a kind of deliverance. ”Saccharin(e) Shrines” sits at the intersection of belief and consumption, with implications towards systemic power structures.

KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)“Juif | Juden | Jew” Neon36" X 30" 2017$7500 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)**
**“Juif | Juden | Jew”**
***Neon***
**36" X 30"**
**2017**
**$7500 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Juif means Jewish in French. It is written that during WWII all of the Jews living in Paris voluntarily signed Jewish registries and had Juif stamped on their ID cards. This enabled the Germans to lawfully select Jews for transportation to concentration camps and execution. This piece illustrates the strong notion that many Parisians had that their national identity came before their religious identity.

KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)“An Excerpt From ‘A Year in Treblinka’ “ Screen printed and fused sheet glass, Arches Cover, davey board7" X 5"2017$4,000 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)**
***“An Excerpt From ‘A Year in Treblinka’ “***
**Screen printed and fused sheet glass, Arches Cover, davey board**
**7" X 5"**
**2017**
**$4,000 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)“An Excerpt From ‘A Year in Treblinka’ “ (detail)Screen printed and fused sheet glass, Arches Cover, davey board7" X 5"2017$4,000 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)**
***“An Excerpt From ‘A Year in Treblinka’ “ (detail)***
**Screen printed and fused sheet glass, Arches Cover, davey board**
**7" X 5"**
**2017**
**$4,000 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

The pages of this book are fused together, making it nearly impossible to read the story. However, it is possible to see the different pages through the layered sheets of glass. This book presents the idea of the difficulties of emotionally accessing history.

KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)“Secret Seder”Wood, ceramic, glass 51" x 48" x 34" 2017NFS — **KCJ Szwedzinski (She/her)**
**“Secret Seder”**
***Wood, ceramic, glass***
**51" x 48" x 34"**
**2017**
**NFS**

The Seder Service is hidden on the underside of the dinner table commenting on the history of hiding religious and cultural traditions in times of persecution.

Artist Statement:

My practice questions the authenticity of history and perception. I am interested in not only what we remember, but how we remember and how we pass information to successive generations. I probe personal familial narratives and established power structures to consider methods of indoctrination. I am interested in how we choose to embrace or deny our inherited legacies and how these choices manifest intergenerationally to shape belief and identity.

This investigation began by learning about my personal inherited legacies. I investigated the intersection of Jewish legacy and lived experience by questioning, imagining, and reinterpreting Jewish law and traditions. Judaism interests me due to its unique attributes of debate and argumentation as mechanisms for expounding on ambiguous passages and laws. Secondly, Judaism manifests very differently across history and the globe while still maintaining a distinct essence. As a result of its multicultural and geographic differences, Judaism is difficult to categorize. It probes categorical markers and feels to me like the progenitor of identity politics. There is a tradition of debate and interpretation in Judaism called midrash. I consider my work to be visual exegesis that continues this practice and a methodology for synthesizing seemingly disparate bodies of knowledge- historic Jewish tradition and my own lived experience.

Recent projects have included “The Ordeal of the Bitter Water,” and “Saccharin(e) Shrines.”

“The Ordeal of the Bitter Water” rebinds the eight books of the Talmudic tractate, Sotah, with glass pages that are screen printed and fused together. The narrative becomes only partially readable, with the layered pages obscuring one another. This work considers sexism in rabbinical literature and the difficulty of accessing these ancient texts from a modernist or feminist perspective.

“Saccharin(e) Shrines” imitates the aesthetics of glass, in truth, this reinterpretation of leaded light remains highly subjective to its environment and will begin to distort as humidity levels rise. Stained glass windows, historically serving as a means of education for the illiterate, made from sugar implicate a culture that preaches from an early age that consumption will bring a kind of deliverance. ”Saccharin(e) Shrines” is at the intersection of belief and consumption, with implications towards systemic power structures.

By reinterpreting common objects in unexpected materials, compositions, or relationships, I create a new context that subverts expectation and elicits the need for further investigation. In the end, the effort of looking is amply rewarded and the work reveals to the critical observer its nuances. I believe arts most powerful function is its ability to create spaces for dialogue, introspection, and connection. My goal is to create work which demands active participation in the construction of "reality," and which requires an attempt to reconcile expectation with what is seen.

Bio:

KCJ Szwedzinski was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but moved frequently up and down the Eastern seaboard growing up. As an interdisciplinary artist, Szwedzinski’s work addresses social and cultural indoctrination and edification and the nature of belief and perception. Her recent work investigates the intersection of Jewish legacy and lived experience- asking questions about what we choose to embody, embrace, or deny from our inherited legacies.

She was the 2018 recipient of the Mary Alice Hadley Prize for Visual Art and spent part of the year traveling to do research at the Holocaust Center and The Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco.

Szwedzinski exhibits her work nationally and recently received merit and juror awards for the 10 x 10 x 10 show in Tieton, Washington and The Blue Grass Biennial in Morehead, Kentucky. Recent exhibitions include In the Hot Seat at KMAC Museum in Louisville, KY and the Glass Art Society + Refract NW Member Showcase at Gallery Mack in Seattle. KCJ is cofounder and executive director of Project Chance, a non-profit that raises and trains service dogs for children with autism and other disabilities. She has studied and assisted at Penland School of Craft and Pilchuck Glass School and has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center. Upcoming, she will be an artist in residence at the Chulitna Research Institute in Alaska. KCJ received a BA from the University of North Florida and an MFA from the University of Louisville.

KCJ lives in Seattle, Washington with her partner, dog, and guinea pig. She sometimes moonlights as a dog trainer.

www.kcjszwedzinski.com

MATTHEW LAZURE

My mosaic work explores themes of rescue, caretaking, despair, intimacy, and fragility. I combine vintage photographic images from water safety and first aid manuals with materials including broken shards of glass from holiday ornaments and miniature pieces of colored eggshell in order to inspire and invoke an emotional and empathetic response. Applying metaphor to the vintage imagery, an instructional image depicting steps to treading water tells a story of perseverance, an image of drowning expresses a sense of hopelessness, and an image of medical assistance reveals a deeper level of intimacy through connection and touch.

Matthew Lazure (He/him)“Fig. 121. The human chain employed in surf”Broken glass, eggshell, ink, acrylic, and oxidized iron paint on found image 2.75" x 4.75" 2020$275 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **Matthew Lazure (He/him)**
**“Fig. 121. The human chain employed in surf”**
***Broken glass, eggshell, ink, acrylic, and oxidized iron paint on found image***
**2.75" x 4.75"**
**2020**
**$275 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Matthew Lazure (He/him)“Fig. 60. The swan dive”Broken glass, eggshell, ink, acrylic, and oxidized iron paint on found image2020 $425 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **Matthew Lazure (He/him)**
**“Fig. 60. The swan dive”**
***Broken glass, eggshell, ink, acrylic, and oxidized iron paint on found image***
**2020**
**$425 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Artist Bio:

Matthew Lazure is a skilled mosaic artist and as an award winning scenic designer. A graduate from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Matthew has spent most of his career in the Boston area designing, fabricating, and painting scenery and properties for theater and is a multiple recipient of the Boston Theatre Critics Association Elliot Norton Award for outstanding design.

Additionally, Matthew has been an active member of the Brickbottom Artists Association and Gallery, one of the country’s first and largest artist-developed live-work buildings, dedicated to preserving and expanding the arts in the greater Boston area. Since 2007, he has contributed as guest juror, gallery assistant, and participating artist.

A recent relocation to Washington finds Matthew seeking new opportunities and developing new relationships with Seattle area galleries, theaters, and other arts organizations.

www.matthewlazure.wixsite.com/artist

www.instagram.com/mtlazureart/

CARRIE GREY

Carrie Grey (She/her)“Delicate”Glass, Metal, Wood24’’ x 30’’2019$800 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **Carrie Grey (She/her)**
**“Delicate”**
***Glass, Metal, Wood***
**24’’ x 30’’**
**2019**
**$800 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Carrie Grey (She/her)“Irises”Glass, Metal, Wood40’’ x 26’’2018$700 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **Carrie Grey (She/her)**
**“Irises”**
***Glass, Metal, Wood***
**40’’ x 26’’**
**2018**
**$700 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Carrie Grey (She/her)“Debonair”Glass, Metal, Wood46’’ x 28’’2019$800 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) — **Carrie Grey (She/her)**
**“Debonair”**
***Glass, Metal, Wood***
**46’’ x 28’’**
**2019**
**$800 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

Artist Bio:

A work of art is a corner of nature seen through a temperament.

- Emile Zola

It's been exactly two years since I sold my home and moved into the Old Rainier Brewery in Seattle, Washington. Two years since I decided to let light in through two huge windows and to make art a priority in my life. In the past two years, I have produced no less than 100 windows of various size, shape, and color. I have pushed the boundaries of glass. I have honed my skill as a master craftsman. I have refined my sense of design down to its core elements. I have succeeded. I have failed. And I have persevered.

Color and flowers are what inspire me. They can't be bold or bright enough. I am also a minimalist. To deconstruct a scene down to its barest of essentials is my goal. A still life, a field of poppies, Monet's garden... this is what I set out to realize every time I pick up my glass cutter.

I hope you enjoy my particular facet of nature.

Artist Statement:

There is something about the arts that resonates in our collective soul.

From the first cave paintings, a period when only our most basic needs were met, art has been used to unify a community of individuals. It is through the arts that we realize we all have something in common. That although we may interpret the visual experience differently, it still causes a reaction that impacts us. A reaction that we can then share, compare, and contrast to help us find our place among our people.

Currently we are experiencing great injustice and intolerance in our society. We need the arts more than ever to help bring our hearts together so that we can start having difficult conversations about gender and race.

In a time where we are now one step removed from one another, a space where tensions are amplified because we are physically contained, we need to continue to discover new ways to foster a sense of belonging. It is through this sense of shared connection that we both find our similarities and celebrate our differences.

www.coolgreyglass.com

www.instagram.com/coolgreyglass

KEVIN HALLAGAN

‘Forest Spirit’ is an expression of the peaceful and curious spirituality of the North American White Tail Deer. This sculpture consists of steel, moss, wood, bone, and glass. ‘Forest Spirit has been exhibited in Santa Clarita California and Los Angeles California.

Kevin Hallagan (He/him) “Unknown Galaxy”Glass, Resin, Alcohol Ink. [Bases are dyed concrete]Size: Varied [Galaxies with bases average 16” wide - Freestanding Galaxies are 6’x18”]2019 - 2020Price: Smaller Galaxies with bases - $1,600, Large freestand… — **Kevin Hallagan (He/him)**
**“Unknown Galaxy”**
***Glass, Resin, Alcohol Ink. [Bases are dyed concrete]***
**Size: Varied [Galaxies with bases average 16” wide - Freestanding Galaxies are 6’x18”]**
**2019 - 2020**
**Price: Smaller Galaxies with bases - $1,600, Large freestanding Galaxies - $5,600 (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**

My ‘Galaxy Series’ is a collection of sculptures made with glass, resin, and alcohol ink, many of which have bases made from dyed and stained concrete. This series began as a chance evolution from pieces of previous projects and experiments coming together to become something new. It expanded from there into what is currently my largest series of work.

Kevin Hallagan (He/him)“Nonbinary”Mirrored Acrylic, Monofilament, Video ProjectionsPrice: Site-Specific, needs to be adapted to each new exhibition space. (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com) 2017, 2019 — **Kevin Hallagan (He/him)**
**“Nonbinary”**
***Mirrored Acrylic, Monofilament, Video Projections***
**Price: Site-Specific, needs to be adapted to each new exhibition space. (Contact: Gallery@Makeshiftproject.com)**
**2017, 2019**

‘Nonbinary’ is an interactive video installation which explores the spectrum and concept of gender. In the center of the installation is a large cluster of suspended mirror shards. Each shard can rotate independently and will be affected by the movement of air in the room as viewers move around. On opposite ends of the exhibition space are two projectors, facing each other, and projecting stereotyped imagery of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ respectively. As the images collide with the mirrors, they are shattered and sent mixing around the space as the mirrors rotate.

This installation is site-specific and needs to be adapted to each new exhibition space. ‘Nonbinary’ has been featured in Camarillo California and in Seattle Washington.

Artist Statement:

As an artist who works in multiple artistic disciplines, I am constantly adapting and developing new skills as I explore each new idea. I hope to foster a sense of discovery and imagination, and to enable others to tap into their own creativity. With each project I try to relinquish an element of control, whether to the materials, the process, or the viewers. In this way I am always creating in conversation with something, and each of my projects takes on their own life beyond my direct input.

Earlier in life I was always comparing myself to other artists, and because my art didn’t look like theirs I felt as though becoming an artist was simply not in my cards. It is through the joy of exploration that I found my creative voice, which has been incredibly empowering. I want people to know that being an artist means something different for everyone, that creation can be as much about the process as it is about the product, and I hope to empower people to find their unique voice.

Artist Bio:

Kevin Hallagan is a multidisciplinary artist whose goal is to empower others to tap into their own creativity and imagination. With his foundations in experimental cinema and installation art at SUNY Binghamton, Kevin’s art is heavily rooted in a process of exploration and experimentation. Each piece in his portfolio influences the next in a rapidly evolving body of work which has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and has been featured in a number of art publications.

https://www.kevinhallagan.com/

https://www.instagram.com/kevin_hallagan_art/