ShopWAG celebrates the 50-year career of local glass artist Ione Thorkelsson 

A selection of blown glass works from the artist’s personal collection are available in a series of special releases

Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 9, 2023: ShopWAG at WAG-Qaumajuq is celebrating the 50-year career of local glass artist Ione Thorkelsson with an ongoing selection of blown glass works from the artist’s personal collection. This series will be released over the course of the year, available for purchase in-store only. Shoppers can expect a wide variety of works from one of Canada’s most recognized glass artists, with artworks dating back to the 1970s. 

WAG-Qaumajuq has accompanied Ione on her 50-year discovery of glass. When she first attempted to put a dollar sign on her work and present it to the world back in 1975, it was at the Polo Park Art Fair, which was sponsored by the Women’s Committee of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. That same year, the Gallery Shop began handling her work, a relationship that continued throughout her career as a glassblower. Thorkelsson’s work, both blown and cast, has been included in ten group shows and two solo shows at the Gallery between 1976 and 2021. Her solo 1998 show, The Unwilling Bestiary, was part of the Gallery’s very early and ground-breaking acceptance of craft as material-based sculpture. The Gallery also nominated Thorkelsson for the Saidye Bronfman Award in 2000 and again in 2009. On the strength of this last nomination, she was presented with the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts/Saidye Bronfman Award in 2010.  

Over 150 works will become available for sale over the span of the year. Don’t miss this opportunity to see work from one of the longest-running glass studios in Canada. 

Visit wag.ca/Thorkelsson for updates on upcoming releases.

Quick Facts:  

• Ione Thorkelsson has been creating works in glass for over 50 years. She studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba from 1965-69, followed by a variety of work in the arts from 1969-72. She began working with glass in 1971, which has led her on a self-taught journey of artistic and technical innovation in both blown and kiln cast glass.  
• Ione Thorkelsson has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Selected solo shows include The Unwilling Bestiary (The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1998); Chimerae: fieldnotes for a reconstructed future (Craftspace, Winnipeg, 2001); Fragments and 2 partial reconstructions: everything we know about the Tropocene (Waterloo, 2004); Arboreal Fragments, (The Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), Ossuary 501 (Toronto, 2006); Ossuary (remounted, Ottawa, 2007); Corrections (Ottawa, 2010), Synthia’s Closet (Ottawa, 2015), A Natural History of Utopias  (Waterloo, 2016). 
• The next release of Ione’s work will be on May 25, 2023, from 5-8pm. Check back often at wag.ca/Thorkelsson for updates on upcoming releases!

Quotes: 

“A part of Ione’s story is told through these stunning blown glass works from her personal collection and archive. They are amazing examples of Ione’s early explorations of colour and form—every piece is a remarkable and adventurous inquiry into the medium.” 

— Sherri Van Went, Retail Operations Manager

“When I first established a glass studio in 1974 I had very little training in glass blowing and no experience in building equipment. Studio glass was in its infancy in North America and the standard equipment, although crude, was within the reach of the committed individual glassblower. Working with hot glass was an exciting adventure and every advance had to be worked out through trial and error. My whole approach to glass grew out of that heady atmosphere and still retains some aspects of that era. I realise I had the enormous advantage discovering glass when I did… it was a lucky fluke I suppose… the blind luck of being at the start of something new. It was an open field, there were no theoreticians, no boundaries, anything was possible.” 

— Ione Thorkelsson, Artist
 

Associated Links 

Ione Thorkelsson: Retrospective @ ShopWAG
Ione Thorkelsson
Images

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For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:  

Hanna Waswa
Public Relations Officer
Winnipeg Art Gallery
204.789.1295
hwaswa@wag.ca
 

The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq is a cultural advocate using art to connect, inspire, and inform. Playing a dynamic role in the community, we are a place for learning, dialogue, and enjoyment through art. Opened in March 2021, Qaumajuq connects to the WAG on all levels, celebrating the largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world. The new WAG-Qaumajuq cultural campus is now one of the largest art museums in Canada. To learn more visit wag.ca. 

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