about the artist
Pamina at Work Pamina Traylor earned her M.F.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology and her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. She has lectured and demonstrated around the world including Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey and has taught workshops at The Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts, and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, among others. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Benton Museum of Art, CT; The Museum of American Glass, NJ; The Speed Art Museum, KY; Tittot Glass Art Museum, Taiwan, among others. From 2013 - 2015, she was Craft Curriculum Coordinator at California College of the Arts (CCA) where she has been on the faculty since 1995. She was Interim Chair of the CCA Glass Program 2012 - 2013 and 1999 - 2000. Fall semester of 2007, she was an invited visiting artist/faculty member at the Osaka University of Art, Japan. She also served as a member of the Glass Art Society's board of directors from 2003 - 2011, and on the executive committee from 2006 - 2011. She was featured on KQED public television's SPARK program, "By Hand" (see video).

Critical Commentary

Donald Kuspit: "Pamina Traylor's series of organic, vaginal-like images in "Cadence" remind us of the erotic potential of glass. Glass is at once a fragile yet strong material, suggesting that Traylor's evocative female forms have the same strength -- as their forthrightness suggests -- as well as fragility, indicated by their "self-divided" character. There is an understated excitement to Traylor's installation, confirmed by her exquisite handling. Subtly conceptual and starkly subtle at once, Traylor's postminimalist serial sculptures speak to contemporary social as well as aesthetic concerns."

Daniel Kany: "Pamina Traylor's sculpture is based on pairs. But rather than pursuing uniformity or similarity, her work explores oppositions through form, material, structure, and finish. Traylor, who is the Acting Glass Program Chair at the California College of Arts and Crafts, tends to work with glass and metal. The majority of her pieces are solid glass forms juxtaposed with metal or wood structures that articulate the glass through a context of form. The relationships between the elements are overarchingly sensual, regardless of complexity. Traylor's work is about dichotomies: strength/vulnerability, confinement/sanctuary, public/private, and the performance of gender difference. Traylor is keenly aware of how language and its subtexts affect the perceptions of the viewer and she highlights this strength in her work: an accompanying text may not describe a work, but, rather, alter its apparent context, dissolving any obvious meaning along the way. Traylor wants the viewer to notice the interaction of an object with its shadows. By making us look in between things, Traylor reminds us there is no singular truth inherent in any object. This approach makes her use of gloriously sexual imagery poignant through sexuality's constant desire for an Other. Traylor's masterful craftsmanship ensures these statements and conversations are particularly articulate, witty and beautiful."