Michael Rogers, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's School for American Crafts, has been named the recipient of the Lillian Fairchild Award. The annual award, which is administered by the Department of English at the University of Rochester, is presented to a Rochester area resident who has produced the best visual, literary, or musical work of art during the past year.
Rogers was recognized for his glass sculptural objects displayed in the 2nd Rochester Biennial Exhibition at the University's Memorial Art Gallery in 2006. His work typically incorporates painstaking engravings of literary passages on the surfaces, reflecting and combining his interests in language, literature, transparency, and found objects.
"Michael Rogers is one of the country's prominent glass sculptors, whose work combines text and object to form worlds that are at once intellectual and sensual, mysterious and subtle," said Grant Holcomb, the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery and a member of the award committee.
"These glass works by Michael Rogers move the audience to consider and find new connections between visual and literary art," said Frank Shuffelton, chair of the University's Department of English and also head of the award committee.
Before joining the faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology in 2002, Rogers lived and taught for 11 years in Japan, where he was head of the glass program at Aichi University of Education in Kariya and established the Studio Shihokusa in Seto. He was co-chair of the 1998 Glass Art Society Conference in Japan and is a former president of the society. He also served as chair of the School for American Crafts for three years.
Rogers, who lives and has a studio in Honeoye Falls, has held exhibitions in Italy, Latvia, Taiwan, Ireland, and other countries, and workshops in the United States and Turkey. His work is in the permanent collections of museums in the United States, Japan, Spain, Mexico, Taiwan, and Ukraine.
The Fairchild Award was established by Herman L. Fairchild of the University's Department of Geology in memory of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at age 32. The first award was given in 1924. Previous winners have included choreographer Garth Fagan, architect Frank S. Grosso, novelist Andrea Barrett, and composer and Eastman School of Music professor David Liptak.