50 | MAY 9 • 2024 

J

amie Harris of Brooklyn 
exhibited colorful glass 
pieces in last year’s annual 
show at the Habatat Galleries 
Complex in Royal Oak, and he 
has new abstract work to be 
presented in this year’s display.
Glass52 is exhibiting 
some 400 art glass works 
by international artists and 
marking 52 years of special 
displays as the largest modern 
glass art gallery. Various forms, 
some utilitarian, are being 
featured by new and returning 
artists. 
Harris’ works involve mixing 
glass with colors for sculptural 
designs to be displayed in 
settings where they can be 
readily observed without 
viewers expecting functional 
properties. He also designs 
some chandeliers.
The artist has three of his 
cast glass sculptures in this 
year’s show. His abstract 
sculptures will be on view with 
the free exhibit through Aug. 
30.
“I’ve been working on this 

infusion series for a number of 
years,
” Harris said. “They’re cast 
blocks of glass with painterly 
layers of color. I consider them 
to kind of be abstract paintings 
in glass. 
“It’s a process that I’ve created 
that merges glass blowing 
and kiln casting techniques, 
two traditional techniques of 

making glass, and I’ve found a 
way to incorporate one into the 
other.
“I blow many layers of color 
as bubbles of blown glass and 
turn these bubbles of colored 
glass into solid colored glass 
elements. Each colored glass 
element is worked on by a 
blowpipe managed by someone 

on my team. I sink one layer of 
color into another, and I create 
these images.
”
Harris’ interest in glass began 
when he was at a summer 
arts camp. He was fascinated 
with the work people were 
doing with the material. When 
he returned to the camp the 
following year, he took a class 
in working with glass.
While majoring in literature 
at Brown University in Rhode 
Island, Harris also did glass 
work at the Rhode Island 
School of Design. 
“I apprenticed while I 
was at school in Providence, 
a city with a great glass 
community,
” he said. “By the 
time I graduated college with 

Glass52 is exhibiting some 400 art glass works by international artists.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
ART

Abstract Paintings in Glass

Details
Glass52 – the 52nd Annual 
International Glass Exhibition 
at Habatat Galleries Complex, 
4400 Fernlee, Royal Oak, runs 
through Aug. 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 
Tuesday-Saturday. habitat.com. 
(248) 554-0590.

The 52nd Annual 
International 
Glass Exhibition 
at Habatat 
Galleries runs 
through Aug. 30.

“Infusion Block in Opaline, Ruby, 
Amber, Brown and Blue”

