UMW Glass Program & Fine Arts Gallery Hosts Artist In Residence Alex Rosenberg

Glass artist Alex Rosenberg, as seen on the Netflix series “Blown Away,” will be an artist in residence at UMW at the end of October and will work with Montana Western students at the glass facilities in the Emerick Art Studio on the UMW campus.

Rosenberg’s residency in the glass program hot shop will give students an opportunity to work with a professional in the field of glass as they assist in creating and installing work for the exhibition.

Alex Rosenberg is an artist, educator and writer based between Philadelphia and New York. He received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT and a BFA in glass from Rhode Island School of Design. 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.

Rosenberg will give a free public presentation and glass blowing demonstration on Saturday, Oct. 30 in the Emerick Art Studio starting at 3:00 p.m.to 5:30 p.m. He will be featured in a gallery exhibition which will include the work created with students while in residence at UMW. The exhibition, titled “Nihil Ad Rem” will open on Nov. 4 in the Fine Arts Gallery in Main Hall with a reception from 6-8 p.m. with a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. The exhibition will be on display from Nov. 4 through Dec. 10. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The reception is free for all to attend and will feature light refreshments and Hors d’oeuvres.

Pursuing his practice with artist residencies, teaching, performances and exhibitions locally and internationally, Rosenberg is the recipient of the 2012 International Glass Prize, an Awesome Foundation Grant (2019), The Sheldon Levin Memorial Residency at the Tacoma Museum of Glass, A Windgate Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, The Esther & Harvey Graitzer Memorial Prize, UArts FADF Grant, and the deFlores Humor Fund Grant (MIT).

Rosenberg has attended artist residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Wheaton Arts, Urban Glass, Vermont Studio Center, StarWorks, Pilchuck Glass School, GlazenHuis in Belgium, Rochester Institute of Technology, Radical Heart (Detroit), and Worcester Craft Center. His writing has been published in Glass Quarterly Magazine, The Glass Art Society Journal, and the Art Blog. Rosenberg was a founding member of Hyperopia Projects (2010 – 2018), headed the glass program at University of the Arts (2010 – 2017), and was an artist member of Vox Populi gallery (2012 – 2015). He was cast as a contestant on the Netflix Series, “Blown Away” first season in 2018, as a challenger and juror in the second season, and he currently teaches at Salem Community College in New Jersey.

For more information about the exhibition, please contact Gallery Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Fine Arts, Nathaniel Freeman at nathaniel.freeman@umwestern.edu or call 406-683-7059. To learn more about the Glass Program at Montana Western, please contact Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Ruth King at ruth.king@umwestern.edu or call 406-683-7344.