Upcoming: Kilnforming in the Upper Midwest
On View: May 22-July 22, 2026
Kilnforming in the Upper Midwest is a juried exhibition celebrating contemporary kilnformed glass by artists living and working in Minnesota, Wisconsin, & Iowa. The exhibition highlights the creative breadth and technical innovation of kiln-based glass practices across the region. Juried by Minnesota-based glass casting artist, Donna Rice.
Selected Artists includeAbegael Uffelman, Elizabeth Coleman, Gretchen Askew, John S. Hallett, Kagen Dunn, Kristin Thielking, Lucie Cherel & Oliver Gerber, The Milligan Studio, Mitchell Kile, Patricia Punykova, Randi Shandroski, and Skye Xollo.
About the artists
Abegael Uffelman is a glass and mixed media artist, who connects optical illusions to societal disparities within identity, politics, and social interaction. Uffelman earned her BFA with a minor in art history from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2019. She presented at the 2024 Glass Art Society's International Conference in Berlin, Germany, as a Saxe Emerging Artist Award Recipient, has been awarded first place in the Emerging Artist category for Bullseye Glass' Tg: Transitions in Kiln Glass Traveling Exhibition, and completed the Better Together Residency at Pilchuck Glass School. She has a passion for bridging communities with the arts and recently worked at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Arts as their Program Manager before pursuing her MFA in Glass at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall 2025.
Gretchen Askew is a Minneapolis, Minnesota based artist that has been working with glass since 2012. She first fell in love with fused glass but quickly was drawn to all forms of glass working. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a BFA in Glass and Ceramics in 2018. Since then, she has been working at a local architectural and art glass fabrication company where she creates custom kilnformed glass for customers around the country. She spends much of her free time teaching fused glass classes, creating art, gardening, or playing with her dogs.
John Hallett is a Wisconsin veterinarian and sculptor who discovered glass casting at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Arts while working on his MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He is known for creating trophies for events like the American Birkebeiner Ski Race and Lumberjack World Championships as well as large public sculptures at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and parks in Wisconsin.
Kagen Dunn is an artist and interdisciplinary creator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work examines the preservation of everyday ephemera and the traces left by human interaction. She earned her BFA from the University of Texas at Arlington and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Her recent exhibitions include Intersection of Art and Industry (Toledo, OH), The Sixth Decade of UW Glass (Madison, WI), the 2023 TMA Contemporary at the Trout Museum of Art (Appleton, WI), and Telling Tales at the Wharton Esherick Museum (Malvern, PA). During her time at UW–Madison, Dunn played an integral role in glass programming and education, collaborating with Helen Lee to curate nine exhibitions, organize an academic symposium, and coordinate community outreach through Glass Madison.
Known for her thoughtful material practice and commitment to education, Dunn continues to contribute to the field as the Glass Arts Education and Partnerships Manager at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Arts.
Elizabeth Coleman is a sculptor who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her narrative work explores how fragments of fairytales, myth, and popular culture, specifically advertising, allow her to tell coded stories of gender and sexuality. Elizabeth received an MFA from Ohio State University and a BFA in ceramics and glass from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has also studied at Penland School of Craft, Pilchuck Glass School, and Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts. Elizabeth has been a resident artist at the Vermont Studio Center and the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary. She has received a 2010 Jerome Foundation Ceramic Artist Project Grant and a fiscal year 2017 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB). In 2021 and 2022, she received Creative Support for Individuals Grants from the MSAB. In 2025, she received a Flexible Support grant as well as an Arts Impact for Individuals grant from the Metro Regional Arts Council of Minnesota. Elizabeth is a 2025 McKnight Fellow in Ceramic Art.
Kristin Thielking lives and operates her glass and sculpture studio practice in Amherst Junction, WI. She is originally from Long Island, NY and received a BA in Fine Art and Comparative Literature from Brown University, RI and an MFA in Sculpture from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Thielking is Professor Emeritus at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and continues to teach workshops out of her studio and as a visiting artist at universities and organizations like Penland School of Crafts. She has exhibited and presented on her work internationally. In addition to her own work she designs and fabricates large-scale public art projects with partner Keven Brunett.
Lucie Cherel’s art encompasses all aspects of stained glass with a focus on abstract organic shapes. Using glass to investigate temporal change and materiality, Cherel incorporates historical elements, found objects, and painting. Since 2020, Cherel has experimented with fused glass, bead making, copper foil glass, and leaded glass, culminating in a stained glass apprenticeship completed in 2025. Cherel’s daily practice includes repair and restoration work for both ecclesiastical and residential clients. Collaborator Oliver Gerber is a multimedia artist living and working in the Twin Cities, completing work in the music, film, and advertising industries. Gerber’s art takes shape in illustrations, animations, sculptures, and audio, drawing inspiration from childhood cartoons and comics. Gerber’s aims infuse everyday life with humor and whimsy, blurring the line between fantasy and reality.
The Milligan Studio has created Public Art in glass and metal in collaboration with communities in the United States, United Kingdom, and EU, specifically Ireland and Paris. Samples of their work in glass can be found in the Corning Museum of Glass archive collection in Corning, NY. Sculptor Alan Milligan and Historian and visual artist Nicole Mary Milligan have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, Bush Foundation, PEN America, Jerome Foundation, and, respectively, the Florida, Minnesota, and N. Ireland Arts Boards. They are currently making one of the largest glass and steel sculptures in the world for the state of North Dakota.
Mitchell Kile first found glass as an artform when he was a teenager at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Arts. He went on to pursue a Bachelors Degree of Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He has since worked at numerous public and private glass studios including the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Hollywood Hot Glass, and at Foci MCGA where he now works as an instructor and studio technician while continuing his artistic practice.
Patricia Punykova is a Minneapolis-based glass jewelry artist inspired by a love of color, form, and the allure of glass. Trained in apparel design in 1980s Seattle, she spent 15 years in the fashion industry before turning to glass in 2010. Her work has evolved from stained and kilnformed glass to flameworked pieces. Driven by the material’s endless possibilities, Punykova creates contemporary jewelry influenced by fashion trends and the dynamic relationship between color, material, and personal expression.
Randi Shandroski is a Canadian artist living and working in Minneapolis, MN with a master’s degree in sculpture from Yale University in 2012 and a bachelor’s degree in art and theology from Northwestern College (MN) in 2009. Shandroski has historically worked predominantly with textiles, to create maximalist worlds through fashion, costume, inflatables and installation, but over the past year has explored new methods and mediums, including glass casting, neon, and metal working through courses at Foci Minnesota Center for Glass Arts and Pittsburgh Glass Center. Shandroski showed the culmination of these new processes and works at a solo show at the beginning of this year at Nightclub gallery in St. Paul, MN. Over the past 14 years Shandroski had installations and performances at the PS1 Print Shop in NY, the Brooklyn Museum, Boston’s ICA, Julius Caesar gallery in Chicago, the Tampa Bay Museum of Art as a part of Suzanne Bartsch’s retrospective and many others. Shandroski worked as a costume developer for VStar from 2018-2020, making mascots for sports teams, Sesame Street and Trolls Live and currently make large scale inflatables for concerts and exhibits at Landmark Creations.
Skye Xollo is a Latinx social scientist and artist of indigenous South American descent. They began working with glass while pursuing a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and work across neon, kilnforming, coldworking, and hotshop techniques. Their practice centers kilnforming - particularly lost-wax casting - as a means of engaging and extending the ancestral craft traditions of the Muisca people, from whom they are descended.
About the Juror
Donna Rice earned her BFA in Glass and Metals from Carnegie Mellon University in 1981. For the past thirty years, she has worked to master the fine art of lost wax casting with glass, and presently maintains DJR Glass studio in Waconia, MN.
Donna’s nature inspired, cast crystal sculptures are included in the Corning Museum of Glass, the Cafesjian Art Trust Museum, and countless private collections around the globe. She has received numerous grants from the state of MN, and in 2025, was awarded an Open Studio Residency at the prestigious Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 2017, Foci MCGA hosted Donna’s first solo exhibition, and in 2020, she was the featured artist at the MN Landscape Arboretum’s annual flower show. Her “Fans of Light” are currently on display in Foci MCGA’s current exhibit, “Glass by Hand” at MSP Airport.
