Hastings College is hosting two respected and well known glass artists, Dante Marioni and Janusz Pozniak, on Tuesday through Thursday, April 25-27, with a lecture on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Wilson Center on campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
During their visit to campus, the artists will work with Hastings College Department of Visual Arts students to show different methods of blowing glass, while creating pieces that will be donated for a Hastings College art auction in the fall.
Marioni’s work includes impossibly elongated, sinuous shapes that are made with bright and saturated contrasting colors. For him, making objects is about the art of glassblowing rather than the creation of glass art, the process rather than the result.
Pozniak’s recent work shows a different, more introspective side of the artist. He said he hopes that his work will drive people to react, feel and think by conveying a specific emotion, sense or feeling. He uses the netted effect to explore the idea of boundaries or barriers in personal relationships, whether positive, as in the case of an aura or sanctuary, or negative, as in the case of confinement.
Public viewing times in the glass studio of the Jackson Dinsdale Art Center are Tuesday, April 25 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.; Wednesday, April 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.; and Thursday, April 27 from 9:00 a.m. to noon and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Pazniak and Marioni are sponsored by the Windgate Charitable Foundation of Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
Bio for Janusz Pazniak
Janusz Pozniak was born in Swindon, England. He received a Bachelor of Arts in glass from the West Surrey College of Art & Design and received a D.A.T.E.C. diploma from Southport College of Art. 
Since 1992, Pozniak has worked professionally in association with numerous renowned glass artists including Dante Marioni, Benjamin Moore, Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Sonja Blomdahl and Dick Marquis. Pozniak has been a visiting artist/lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, and Alfred University, and has been the recipient of numerous awards from institutions such as Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Artist Trust.
Pozniak’s recent work shows a different, more introspective side of the artist. Though he continues to showcase his impossibly tight command of the challenging Italian reticello technique, he uses the netted effect to explore the idea of boundaries or barriers in personal relationships, whether positive, as in the case of an aura or sanctuary, or negative, as in the case of confinement.
Bio for Dante Marioni
Dante Marioni burst onto the international glass scene at the age of 19 with a signature style that has been described as the purest of classical forms executed in glass by an American glassblower. His amphoras, vases and ewers are derived from Greek and Etruscan prototypes, yet they are imaginatively and sometimes whimsically reinterpreted. His impossibly elongated, sinuous shapes are made with bright and saturated contrasting colors.
Marioni’s sophisticated glass objects evoke the rich tradition of classical Mediterranean pottery and bronzes, and of Marioni’s training in centuries-old Venetian glassblowing techniques with some of the greatest masters in contemporary glass.
For Marioni, making objects is about the art of glassblowing rather than the creation of glass art, the process rather than the result. Marioni’s elegant works are the brilliant record of his on-going relationship with and exploration of this material.
Hastings College is a private, four-year institution located in Hastings, Nebraska, that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement. With 64 majors and 15 pre-professional programs, Hastings College has been named among “Great Schools, Great Prices” by U.S. News & World Report and a “Best in the Midwest” by The Princeton Review. For more, go to hastings.edu.
