ARTIST
Josiah McElheny
Josiah McElheny, born in 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts, explored art at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1989. His diverse artistic practice spans sculpture, installation, and glasswork. McElheny is acclaimed for his skill in glassblowing, often combining glass or mirror with other materials to explore the act of looking as a subject itself. His work challenges fixed definitions, presenting evocative assemblages that provoke contemplation on alternative histories and futures through glass's reflective, transparent, and mutable qualities.
Biography
Born: 1966, Boston, Massachusetts
Josiah McElheny is a contemporary artist born in 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts, He pursued his artistic education at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1989.
McElheny's artistic practice encompasses a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, and glasswork. He often combines glass or mirror with other materials, to emphasize the importance of the act of looking “as a subject in and of itself.” He is particularly celebrated for his mastery of glassblowing techniques and incorporates it within evocative assemblages, whose mode of presentation creates a sense of unsettled ideals, and a challenge to fixed definitions. For McElheny, glass—with its qualities of reflectivity, transparency, and enigmatic mutability—highlights the interactive potential between the object and viewer. The material serves as a productive agent, inciting chance encounters between forms and ideas that point toward alternative histories and futures.
Artwork
