I recently caught a glimpse of the impressive glass spheres given to recipients of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts—like little abstract Oscars—and decided that I needed to meet their maker. So I tracked down multimedia artist Kiara Pelissier, master of all things red-hot and molten, for a chat; instead of detailing the complex process that must lie behind her elegant glass pieces that fold and glow like flesh, or the impressive schooling she’s racked up, or her position as an instructor at VCU, she started her story with her family. That seemed remarkably down-to-earth for someone whose most recent project was commissioned by the governor, but soon, I totally got it. Remember that scene in My Cousin Vinny when Marisa Tomei starts in on her qualifications as a mechanic (“Well, my father was a mechanic. His father was a mechanic. My mother’s father was a mechanic, my 3 brothers are mechanics, 4 uncles on my father’s side…”)? It felt like that kind of moment. Kiara’s father is a metalsmith, her mother is a textile artist, her grandmother was a sculptor, her grandfather was a painter, her great-grandmother (no, seriously!) was a sculptor. In bronze, for crying out loud. The family still reproduces some of her work from the original molds.
They’re a tight-knit clan, the Pelissiers, having formed a little Cary Street “compound” for themselves and several other artists including VCU’s glass department head Jack Wax. It’s not a public space, but you can check it out on Thursday, October 2, from 5-9 p.m., at 2310 Cary (between Stafford and Addison). Certainly worth the trip, as some of Kiara’s larger pieces—both glass and mixed media— can be found there: “Tick,” a piece made by gutting, restuffing and recoating a found mattress, sums up a good bit about what Kiara’s going for in the way of concept. “I manipulate (at times, ever so slightly) the forms of everyday objects in order to arrive at a metaphor for different states of being and feeling… these are all things that people have experienced. We have all felt extreme moments of freedom or heartache. The viewer must use imagination to connect with what the object means; I use the objects to guide the viewer into a certain mood.” She’s done site-specific installations,  painstakingly crafted textural glass sculpture, textile pieces, vessels, and commissions in private homes, all quietly exposing the generational genius pulsing in her blood.
Being happily entangled in a web of artistic projects and cohorts here in Richmond, she wants to facilitate more of that. “I fully support cross-pollination of the arts. It’s important to keep the community thriving, that access to all forms of art, dance, music. I’d like to see more merging.” You can catch up with her at Reynolds Gallery, in a show that’s up until October 11, and she’ll be putting up fresh commission work in the new Snead Hall at VCU in January. If you’re interested in going further, she’s also showing glass at the Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir, NC, with an October 31 opening. Of course, if you’d prefer to peruse what she’s done from your lounge chair, you can go to http://www.kiarapelissierglass.com.

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