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September Issue |
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 |  Spirit Voices, 1997. Glass, 14 x 19 x 14 in.
on Kuhn's remarkable art glass stands out, even in galleries showing other great works in this incredibly demanding genre. His finely cut, fused, and polished pieces not only reflect light uniquely but send an undeniable message. Beneath the highly polished surfaces, the artist has created an entire world of bright colors and symbolic forms.
"Throughout my artistic career, my work has been reflective of my own evolving philosophy, influenced substantially by Eastern mysticism. The mystics tell us that through meditation we find the universe within," says Kuhn. "The ability of glass to visually contain pertinent or critical information beneath the surface makes it the ideal medium to express this concept. By looking inside, we get a different view or understanding of the exterior," he reflects.
The artist finds a
 | Gyro, 1998, stainless steel, 16 x 16 x 16 in.
correlation between his life and his art. "As my life became more structured, the work became clearer and more refined," he says. Indeed, since his first glass sculpture in 1978, Kuhn has been pushing the medium's limits by fashioning transparent layers of glass, sometimes brightly colored, into molten, opaque settings. Just as with human nature, things are not always what they seem on the surface.
"My philosophical concerns have been a reflection of my studies in meditation and internal development," says the artist, who works out of a studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "My forms are simple: Using cubes, columns, triangles, cones, and polygons, I focus on the interiors," he explains, adding: "As in meditation, we go within seeking our soul; in the sculpture, the cube at the center becomes a symbol of the soul or essence of the piece.
"The compositional elements surrounding the cube draw their inspiration from the colors
 | Irish Wake, 1996. Glass, 26 x 6 x 6 in.
of the cube," Kuhn says, noting the cube's similarity to a musical composition with a theme and variations. The artist finds that "references to architecture, mathematics, and textiles" also strongly influence his work, while the "rhythm, patterns, and sequences that are inspired by these influences" are evident in each piece.
Kuhn concludes that the "ideal of spiritual studies is perfection. Striving for perfection is, hopefully, in every piece. Ultimately, my sculpture could be seen as an architectural model of a vision for a better world, a more perfect world."
Selected works by Jon Kuhn can be seen at the Heller Gallery in New York on March 18, 2001. The following galleries represent the artist: Habatat, Pontiac, Michigan, and Boca Raton, Florida; Compositions, San Francisco; Marx-Saunders, Chicago; Pismo, Denver and Beaver Creek, Colorado; Highline, Aspen, Colorado; Heller, New York; Riley-Hawk, Cleveland, Columbus, and Seattle.
----The Editor
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