Annette Rose-Shapiro has been making glass beads for over 25 years. She was first introduced to this art at UrbanGlass in downtown Brooklyn, where she worked as the Publisher and Managing Editor of GLASS Quarterly. Shapiro studied with several top glass artists at UrbanGlass and in Venice. She also founded The Bead Project in 1997, a program for economically challenged women to learn the skill of bead making and jewelry making as a means of earning income. Shapiro’s practice as a glass bead maker continues a tradition of torch work that originated in 13th century Venice. She has a degree in Fine Art from the State University at Brockport with a concentration in photography and printmaking and also does digital illustration. She has been a student at Bo Law Kung Fu for over 20 years.
Shapiro also collaborates on a line of jewelry with Master Tak Wah Eng, who contributes his painted stones, jade, and other objects from his extensive personal collection. You can see their work at www.engandshapiro.com.
For this exhibition, Shapiro created a digital illustration with photographs that she has taken in Italy, where she has a home, and in Chinatown, where she is almost every day. She shows the similarities between Italy and Chinatown, and why both places are so important to her.
