FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Eastern Shore Art Center announces the opening of COLOR & LIGHT: Visions in Glass on Friday, March 6, during its First Friday ArtWalk, from 6 to 8 p.m.

This exhibition presents exciting visions in glass by 11 nationally and internationally known artists: Richard Jolley and Tommie Rush of Knoxville, Tenn.; Joe Hobbs of Pensacola; Ed Pennebaker of Osage, Ark.; Emilio Santini of Williamsburg, Va.; Sam Cornman and Joseph Thompson from Birmingham; Bertice McPherson, Rick Schneider and Nikki Vahle of Mobile; and Nall of Fairhope and Vence, France.

Curators for this exhibit are local sculptor Barbara Casey and Nancy Fleming, local artist and owner of Patina Gallery in Fairhope.

COLOR & LIGHT exhibits the fluid forms and luminous beauty of glass. Whether it is the pure sculptural forms of Jolley, Hobbs and McPherson; the glowing vessels of Rush; or the graceful functional art of Thompson and Pennebaker.

Art historian LaVada Raouf states in the accompanying exhibit catalogue, “The artists of COLOR & LIGHT explore the multiplicity of forms with works encompassing geometric formalism, organic lushness, attenuated modernism and whimsical abstraction.”

Among the exhibit’s highlights are Jolley’s four sculptures. He is one of this country’s foremost figurative sculptors of glass. His portrayals of figures in nature include Elemental No. 10 and Tableau. These new works illustrate his use of charcoal-colored glass.

The third piece, Featherhead No. 5 (pictured above), explores the human figure — its timeless beauty and expressive potential.

“It's always a matter of pushing the boundaries, of stretching the limits,” explains Jolley. “The ideal is to transcend technology with the statement, to move beyond the materials and the process. What I am trying to do is to achieve humanistic art.”

Hobbs’ powerful sculptures incorporate glass with other common materials — ceramic, paint and metal. Hobbs’ pieces are “a commentary on the human condition in reference to our surroundings … (His) work is a dialogue with the viewer about … what it is to be human.”

Broken Promise is an eloquent reminder of the struggles of his Native American ancestors.

Torri Gemelle (Twin Towers) by Santini, a world-renowned glass artist, are breathtaking artistic interpretations of September 11th.

The elongated figures in his work reflect the influence of prehistoric cave paintings and Etruscan pottery.

His current sculptures incorporate cast, blown and lamp-worked elements, along with metal and stone.

Santini was born in Murano, Italy into a family with a 600-year glassblowing tradition. His father, a glassblower and lampworker, was his first teacher.

Santini’s light-hearted goblets, Venus and Adonis are testaments to his skill and his sense of humor.

International artist Nall is well known for his talent in drawings and paintings of nature, combined with the lyrical quality of his mosaics. His three whimsical goblets Lemon, Passion Fruit and Fig are the “fruits” of a brief period he spent at the Murano glassworks in Italy.

Schneider and Vahle are a husband and wife team who collaborate on glass pieces. Their work is also influenced by Greek narrative pottery, as well as from cartoons and everyday life. As with Hobbs’ work, their striking cameo sandblasted blown glass sculptures are a social commentary, but more obviously satirical.

Both are currently teaching in the Visual Arts Department at the University of South Alabama.

McPherson’s fused glass Dreamin’ of Home beautifully depicts the softly rounded forms of the female body and at the same time gives an impression of the breastplate armor of the Middle Ages.

The lovely botanical vessels by Rush are reminiscent of the Art Nouveau period. Her translucent sandblasted surfaces make the work appear to be illuminated from within.

“I want my work to convey the human touch and a link with nature.”

Working in blown and flame-worked glass, Cornman creates an intricate play of light and form in his “cage” sculptures and objects for the home. Inside Reflections evokes a starlit night sky.

The elegant Leaf chandelier in the entrance gallery to the Eastern Shore Art Center is the creation of Thompson. A former engineer, he studied glassmaking at the Pilchuk School.

According to the artist, despite environmental recycling programs, almost 70 percent of the glass produced ends up in a landfill. Glass recycled at his Bear Creek Glass company becomes beautiful, functional, organic forms: one-of-a-kind chandeliers, sinks and decorative objects.

The chandelier hanging in the Courtyard Gallery is by Pennebaker, the Arkansas artist who sees his work “belonging to a contemporary line of the ‘decorative arts’ that developed from the Arts and Crafts movement … The most important aspects of glassmaking are light, color and form … Light coming through the glass reveals texture and pattern and casts colors and shadows so the glass work interacts with its environment and becomes a pure visual feast.”

Curators Casey and Fleming hope the exhibit prompts visitors to pause and take a fresh look at the beauty around them, in art and in nature, and to appreciate the beauty of differing views, styles and interpretations.

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibit, Jolley will discuss his work in a public presentation at 2 p.m. on Saturday, in ESAC’s Whiting Gallery.

Jolley’s work is represented in many public collections, including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in New York, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan.

The Eastern Shore Art Center is located at 401 Oak St. in Fairhope.

Hours of operation: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, call (251) 928-2228 or visit www.esartcenter.com.