Alli Hoag

Associate Professor, Glass
Area Head, Glass

MFA, Alfred University, New York State College of Ceramics, 2012
BFA, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Glass, 1997

Teaching Specialization: glass blowing, glass casting

Courses Taught
ARTS 2610 Introduction to Glass
ARTS 3620 Methods of Practice
ARTS 3630 Topics in Glass
ARTS 4630 Glass Research an Practices
ARTS 4640 Advanced Glass
ARTS 4680 Senior Studio in Glass

Areas of Research/Artistic Focus

I am interested in ideas concerning the realm of magic. Not the generalized modern term used in conversation today, but the in the sense of the ancient human desire to understand and control the natural world. Originating as incantations, divinations, and the understanding of the world through myth, magic was a way for us to strengthen our relationship with nature, simultaneously delineating our realm as outside that of the natural world. Once this line was drawn,this schism created, this sense of longing has perpetuated into our human consciousness even today.

Wound up inside of the perfectly choreographed string of DNA, nestling in each glowing follicle of a laboratory rabbit, residing within every perfectly labeled and named peak and valley in the map of the moon, this same longing is alive and strong in the realm of the modern world today. In each circumstance, these artifacts become a mirror of our selves, our desires manifest; but as a mirror creates a perfect reflection, one loses sight of the glass and silver that elicit the intriguing apparition, the crude mechanics that effectuate the semblance of the real.

The material qualities and historical context of glass embodies this sense of longing, and has been a vehicle of magic, through which we attempt to bridge that distance. The crystal ball, the mirror, yes, but what of the humble window pane? It created a visual connection of the outside world within the comfortable shelter of the home. It rendered nature as a two dimensional field, an outside, a screen.

I see this use of glass as invisible delineation from the elements, a re-creation of the “real”. A pristine world inside of a petri dish, an uncanny stare of the glass eyes of a taxidermic mount, the one way mirror of the interrogation room, the relationship I have with my iPhone screen as a means of communication. Our coexistence with glass as a material has allowed us to evolve in a divergent manner. We feel connection through mediated experience. We can create new realities through the delineated, hermetically sealed realm inside of a glass form.

Whether we could even daydream before our coevolution with this material is a large question for me.

My body of work thus far has been investigation of this idea of magic, the simultaneous lightness and heaviness that is created when the imagined is labored into the physical realm. I am a collector of stories, using indiscretion toward whether fact or fiction; I seam narratives together, manipulating the realness of objects through the malleability of wax reproductions. I endeavor to recreate those moments experienced, or imagined into a physical semblance to be witnessed with others in a mutual reality. I see my process as that of the taxidermist, dissecting and reconstructing found forms into an alternate reality. It is within the connections, or the new skins that I reanimate, that the hand is evident, that hand that endeavors to manifest creations that can fly on their own, yet to afraid to let a hold of them.

Recent Accomplishments
AWARDS:
2015  Glass Art Society, Seattle, WA, Selected for The Emerging Artist Presentations at the San Jose G.A.S. Conference
2014  Urbanglass MFA Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, solo exhibition
2012  Alfred University, Alfred NY, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris Fellowship
2011  International Student Exhibition, G.A.S. Conference, Seattle, WA., Honorable Mention
2011  The Studio at Corning Museum of Glass, Corning NY, Full Scholarship
2007  Bethel Street Gallery Juried Exhibition, Honolulu, HI, Second Place  
2004  University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI, Geraldine Clark Memorial Scholarship in Glass, Steinhauser and Greenberg Pilchuck Scholarship, Outstanding Student Award

DEMONSTRATIONS/LECTURES:
2015  Bullseye Glass Convention, Bay Area, CA, Lecture on the “Residency Experience”
2015  Glass Art Society Conference, San Jose,CA, Emerging Artist Lecture
2015  Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Artist Lecture and Demonstration-Glass Taxidermy
2014  Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, Artist Lecture
2012  Glass Art Society, Toledo, OH, Demonstration Assistant for Hiromi Takizawa and Angus Powers
2012  Lawrence Technological University, Lawrence, MI, Artist Lecture
2009  University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, Artist Lecture

RESIDENCIES:
2014  S12 Galleri og Verksted, Bergen, Norway
2012  Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France

PERFORMANCES:
2015  2300 Performance with Tinna Thorsteindottir and BGSU Students, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY.
2014  Cry Piano, Prepared Piano Collaboration with Tinna Thorsteinsdóttir, S12 Galleri og Verksted, Bergen, Norway

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2014  The Distance of the Moon, Agnes Varis Art Center at UrbanGlass, Brooklyn, NY
2012  A Form more Familiar, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY
2007  A Wild Beast, TOWN, Honolulu, HI

JURIED EXHIBITIONS:
2015  Gathering: Glass from the Heartland, Indianapolis Art Center, Indianapolis, IA
2014  Michigan Regional Glass Exhibition, Janice Charach Gallery, West Bloomfield, MI
2014  HotGlass, Toledo Arts Commission, Toledo, OH
2013  Art in Craft Media, Burchfield Penny Art Center at Buffalo State, Buffalo,NY
2013  Glass Invitational, ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes, Corning, NY
2012  Urbanglass MFA Exhibition, 111 Front St., Brooklyn, NY
2012  Young and Loving, S12 Gallery, Bergen, Norway
2007  Bethel Street Gallery Juried Exhibition, Bethel Street Gallery, Honolulu, HI
2006  Hawaii Craftsmen Juried Exhibition, Academy Art Center, Honolulu, HI

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2014  Faculty Exhibition, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
2013  35th Annual Outdoor Light Exhibition, Museum of Illuminated Phenomenon, Alfred NY.
2013  Exploding Boundaries: Faculty and Staff Explorations in Drawing, Fosdick Nelson Gallery
2011  Light up the Night, Glassfest, Corning, NY.
2011  International Student Exhibition, G.A.S. Conference, Seattle, WA.
2010  Six, Gallery 1608, West Palm Beach, FL.
2006  Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI.

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Faculty member at BGSU since 2014