It’s safe to say that a potter doesn’t embark on a four decade-plus career for the notoriety.
Steven Glass has been the resident potter at VMFA since 1982. Those decades of passion, work and growth are on full display at the Branch Museum’s latest exhibition, “Steven Glass, a Retrospective: Turning Points in Clay/A Life in Art,” curated by Howard Risatti, Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art and Critical Theory and former Chair of Craft and Material Studies at VCU.
Undoubtedly the most notorious piece in the exhibition is the Election Bowl from 2018. That was the year that the election for the 94th district of Virginia House of Representatives, coincidentally also the Newport News district where Glass grew up, was tied. To break that tie, the law required a drawing to decide the winner. Election officials decided that a Virginia-made bowl be procured and naturally, turned to Resident Potter Glass.
The striking bowl has a rust-colored interior and a blue and white exterior, created with a technique called wax resisting which involves dipping the bowl in a series of glazes before painting the glass with wax. The Election Bowl created such a stir that it got media coverage in The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. As part of the exhibition, it’s for sale, allowing a fan of beauty and history to own a piece of both.
Artistic since childhood, Glass painted watercolors, played guitar and sang with his brother as far back as he can remember. The Glass Brothers have released a CD of compositions they wrote, which is available through CD Baby and Spotify. It was while at VCU majoring in social work that a musical partner and friend who was taking a pottery class suggested that Glass try pottery. “It was completely different than any academic class I had taken thus far in college,” Glass recalls. “The pottery studio was electric with creative energy, and I was hooked.”
With a bachelor’s degree in social work in 1974, he decided against a position at Westbrook Hospital and instead accepted an apprenticeship at Eckels’ Pottery in Bayfield, Wisconsin. Seeing that Robert Eckels could sustain himself as a potter and teacher convinced Glass that he too could have a career as a potter. Several pieces from this period, including Lidded Bowl and Pitchers Nos. 1 and 2 are part of the exhibition, presenting a compelling glimpse into the artist’s mid-‘70s style.
Clay, Glass insists, is unlike any other creative material because you’re creating something out of nothing. “The emptiness of a blank canvas is not as empty as a ball of clay,” he says. “I do know what I’m going to make when I sit down at the wheel, but its final quality and colors evolve throughout the process of making the piece.”
After a stint as resident potter at the Craftsmen of Chelsea Court Gallery in the infamous Watergate Hotel, Glass and his new wife returned to Richmond. He found a studio on Main Street, was a substitute French teacher for Richmond Public Schools and, along with his French wife, taught cooking classes, to which he’d bring his ceramic pots.
One of the students worked in the education department at VMFA and really liked his work. “She told others at the museum of my skill and work,” he says. “I later auditioned for the job by doing a pottery demonstration in the Renaissance court to accompany an ancient pottery show at the museum.”
Soon after, Glass got a call asking him to a meeting at the Studio School, where he was eventually offered the position as resident potter. At the time, VMFA was the first museum in the country to ever hire one, which they’d done several years earlier. Glass was the second.
As resident potter, he maintains the studio at the museum and teaches all of the ceramic classes, a total of 50 students a semester. He also fires all the work, mixes all the glazes, maintains the equipment, and curates a yearly student exhibition in conjunction with the Printmaking class.
Glass’ work has an ideal setting in the Branch’s main gallery, where natural light floods in through leaded windows and most pieces sit atop pedestals that allow the visitor to admire it from all sides. From the pastel and brightly colored pieces of the ‘80s and ‘90s through the new ideas and exploration of his 21st century work, the visitor can see how his style has evolved over time. “My work owes more to abstract expressionism then to the Anglo Japanese approach to pottery making,” he says. “I would say my work has evolved from a spontaneous exuberance to a more reflective, thoughtful approach.”
After 42 years at VMFA, Glass still thrives on student interactions and the professional relationships he’s developed with museum curators. When part of his original career goal was to become a social worker, it was because he wanted to make the world a better place. This retrospective makes it perfectly clear that he has.
“Steven Glass, a Retrospective: Turning Points in Clay/A Life in Art” through March 31 at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, 2501 Monument Ave., branchmuseum.org