hyperopia Projects

 Hyperopia Projects is an occasional group of practicing artists and educators whose efforts support an expansive definition of glass. We are invested in a longer view of the inter-relationship craft, art and culture, and act to support exploration, innovation, and critical rigor.

CURRENT MEMBERS

c. matthew szösz

Matthew Szösz is a practicing artist and educator known primarily for his innovative use of glass to explore the relationship between experimentation, process and aesthetic product. He received his BFA, BID, and MFA(Glass) from Rhode Island School of Design.

He has been recognized internationally with awards such as the Irvine Borowsky Prize, the Jutta-Cuny Franz Prize, and a Tiffany Foundation Grant, and has completed residencies at the Corning Museum of Glass, Het Glazenhuis, the Danish Royal Academy, Toyama Institute for Glass Arts, Canberra Glassworks, Australia National University, Virginia Commonwealth University and others. He has been exhibited internationally as well, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Toyama Glass Art Museum. He is a founding member of the curatorial group Hyperopia Projects, and was Executive Director of Public Glass in San Francisco.

He has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Washington, University of Hawaii, Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, and Bildwerk Frauenau among others.

He currently lives in Seattle with his wife, Anna Mlasowsky.

Sean Salstrom

Sean Salstrom is an artist and educator. In his work he approaches sculpture through action, object, and performance, and often seeks out the poetic through absurdity, temporality, instantaneity, and perceptual phenomena. He has held full time academic posts at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (Japan), the Akita University of Art (Japan), the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Glass Department at the Rhode Island School of Design.  His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums and galleries, and artists spaces such as the Stevens Point Sculpture Park in Stevens Point, WI, the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, WA, the Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY, the Nizayama Forest Museum of Contemporary Art in Nyuzen, Japan, Cocolaboratory Gallery in Akita City Japan, and Nami IslandGlass Gallery in Nami Island, South Korea.  His work is in the collection of the city of Toyama, Japan, The Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, Japan, the Akita University of Art, and numerous private collections.  

kim harty

Kim Harty is an artist, writer, and educator. Her work investigates the connection between craft and technology through sculpture, installation, video, and performance. She is heavily informed by her training as a glass blower, and draws on her personal history as a craftsperson to explore how kinetic knowledge can be tracked, embodied, and performed. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums across internationally including the Toledo Museum of Art, the Design museum Gent, the Chrysler Museum of Art, and the Corning Museum of Glass. She is currently an assistant professor of glass at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. 

alex rosenberg

Alexander Rosenberg is a Philadelphia-based artist, educator and writer. He received a BFA in glass from Rhode Island School of Design and Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT. His artistic practice is rooted in the study of glass as a material, in conjunction with broad interdisciplinary investigation crossing over into many other media and research areas.
Alexander pursues his practice with artist residencies, teaching, performances and exhibitions locally and internationally. He is a founding member of Hyperopia Projects (2010 - present) and was an artist member of Vox Populi Gallery (2011 - 2015) in Philadelphia where he also heads the glass program at University of the Arts.
He is the recipient of the 2012 International Glass Prize, UArts FADF Grant, and the deFlores Humor Fund Grant (MIT). He has attended artist residencies at The MacDowell Colony, STARworks, GlazenHuis in Belgium, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Worcester Craft Center. He has taught workshops at The Studio at The Corning Museum of Glass, RIT, Ohio State University, San Jose State University, and Salem Community College.

Former members

Helen lee

Helen Lee is an artist, designer, educator, and glassblower. She holds an MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BSAD in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her honors include the inaugural Irwin Borowsky Prize in Glass Art in 2013 and the Edna Wiechers Arts in Wisconsin Award in 2014. She was nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2015 and a USA Fellowship in 2016. Most recently, Lee received the Gold Award in the 2016 Bullseye Emerge exhibition. Her work is in the collections of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio, and Toyama City Insitute of Glass Art. Lee has worked as a freelance graphic designer for Chronicle Books and Celery Design Collaborative, and was an Affiliate Artist at Headlands Center for the Arts from 2009-2011. She has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, California College of Art, Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio, and the MIT Glass Lab. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Head of Glass in the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.