About crisschaney

Criss Chaney was born in Seattle, Washington, where she first learned to work with stained glass. After high school she moved to San Francisco to study at California College of the Arts, where she discovered the magic of molten glass. There, she won a scholarship to go to Pilchuck Glass School, where she continues to spend her summers. In 2004 she made the leap across the Atlantic and moved to England to finish her degree at the University of Sunderland. Criss' work is about the human experience, spirituality and the subconscious. Throughout time and across cultures humans have felt the need to create religions, spiritual practices, and art to express their subjective and intuitive experiences. Criss is an internationally recognized glass artist, who has exhibited extensively in the UK, Europe, and the United States. Including a solo exhibition at the Museum Humanum in Austria. For years she has been developing techniques for combining glass and metals, exploiting methods for working with both materials. Her pieces make people question their views on glass and push the boundaries between glass and other media. She has completed commissions for Sunderland City Council and HSBC Bank and now makes her work at Creative Cohesion Creative Cohesion in Sunderland, where she has been the Treasurer and on the Board of Directors.

Places of Contemplation

Posted on July 22, 2013 by crisschaney

The work showing at the Museum Humanum this August as part of the 2013 Kulturbrücke is about the human experience, spirituality and the subconscious. Throughout time and across cultures humans have felt the need to create religions, spiritual practices, and art to express their subjective and intuitive experiences. For the Musuem Humanum I am exhibiting work that incorporates the archetypal female form with artifact and cave imagery.

Artifacts have a life of their own that span many human lifetimes. They can often be the only windows we have into another person’s life and how they understood the world. Can we really identify with a prehistoric person? They may have the very same basic desires for food, shelter, and clothing, and perhaps even self-expression, but their worldview would be so different. Can we ever view their possessions with the same understanding they did? They who may have made it and viewed it as a vital part of their life and survival, and us who hold it up high and revere it as valuable art?

Moving from the objects that people leave behind, to their stories and myths, we find caves playing a mythical role in society. Caves are closely tied with female sexuality and its life giving powers, they were considered to be the ‘wombs’ of ‘Mother Earth’. Mayans believed caves to be sacred, a place where the gods could move between worlds. In my work I use caves as a metaphor for the subconscious, and spiritual dimensions of human existence. With the shift to a secular society, science has replaced mysticism and has renamed the realm of the gods ‘the subconscious’. Spirituality, psychoanalysis, and art are all human endeavors to explore this hidden aspect of our nature.

Using the archetypal female form and its close associations with caves this exhibition explores a common and deep-seated intuitive attraction to these forms and the mysteries they present.

“The Year of the Woman” opens on August 24th, 2013 at 3pm, at the Museum Humanum, Fratres, Austria. Please email criss@crisschaney.com for more information if you would like to attend.

Museum Humanum, Fratres welcomes international Artist Criss Chaney for Solo Show

Posted on July 15, 2013 by crisschaney

As part of the 2013 Kulturbrücke, hosted by the Museum Humanun, Fratres, Austria, I have been invited to fill the gallery with as much artwork as I can. This years theme its ‘The Year of the Woman’, so I have created a dozen new pieces specifically for this show revolving around the theme of women, goddesses and caves, using my unique blend of glass and mixed media. The exhibition opens August 24th, and is free to all, but bring your wallets as this is a unique opportunity to buy some original artwork and support the Museum in its cultural activities and events.

Hope Winch Society Prize

Posted on January 7, 2012 by crisschaney

This is the second year running that I have been commissioned to make the annual award for the Hope Winch Society. This award goes out to a third year student who has been voted the most proficient in their year. This years lucky winner was Xin Ning Tan a student from Malaysia. The design of the award is based on a gelcap and is solid sculpted glass weighing 1.5kg.

The Hope Winch Society is for all University of Sunderland Pharmacy Graduates. Named after Hope Constance Monica Winch, who was appointed as the first head of the University’s pharmacy department and was instrumental in its development. After Hope Winch’s death in 1944, the Hope Winch Memorial Committee was set up, and formed the Hope Winch Memorial Scholarship, a prize awarded to the most proficient 2nd year pharmacy student. The presentation of this is at an award ceremony which includes a lecture from an invited high-ranking individual. This is known as the Hope Winch Lecture. Now, the committee gives give the prize to the most proficient third year student, and there are also prizes for most proficient first and second year students.

If you have an award or prize that you would like made in glass, please contact me to discuss your needs.