Enjoy these images of contemporary glass art

So much to see at Mesa Contemporary Arts in its current celebration of contemporary glass, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement.

My review in Visual Art Source this week could only cover so much. Here are a few highlights to add:

— In addition to the main exhibit — “Fire & Sand” — an adjoining gallery is exhibiting “Flow: 10 Years of Glass at Mesa Arts Center,” to show off the number of fine works produced by students, faculty and resident artists at MAC’s glass studio over the years. I especially liked an abstract piece called “Migrate” by S.A. Hawkins of Riverside, CA. Hollow, translucent, globular shapes rest on a large slab of rusted steel. I liked the precarious juxtaposition of the materials.

— In “Glass Secessionism,” works by Tim Tate and Marc Petrovic that think outside the box when it comes to mixing other media with glass, there is a lovely work by Petrovic, who hails from Essex, Conn. In “Find & Seek: Simple Wish” he uses hot-worked and blown glass and air to create a kind of delicate, three-dimensional word search puzzle, in which you are meant to find “love,” “honor,” “patience,” etc.

— Fans of “The Simpsons” will enjoy a work by Joseph Cavalieri of New York, N.Y., that plays off medieval stained glass windows. It’s called “Rainier Wolfcastle from The Crucifixion of Moe Triptych.” Evidently, in the TV series, Wolfcastle parodies Arnold Schwarzenegger (I had to look this up; sorry, Homer.)

— With a gallery all to themselves are Jamex and Einar de la Torre, brothers from California who shape glass into highly colorful statements on politics, immigrant life, food and sex. Don’t take the kids into this gallery, unless you are OK with their seeing all manner of body organs rendered in glass.

All in all, these multifaceted works in contemporary glass certainly show how far the art form has come. Check Mesa Arts Center for details on the exhibitions. The main one, “Fire & Sand,” runs through January 6, 2013.