ROYAL OAK, MICH.- Corey Hampson, President of Habatat Galleries, has announced its 47th International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition, which is the largest international glass exhibition in the world, and opens to the public with a celebration on May 4th at 8:00pm at the gallery, located at 4400 Ferule Avenue, a 30 minute drive from DTW airport, and will be on view through July 5th.

The three day Invitational includes Habatat’s 23rd Masterworks Auction, featuring artists from more than dozen countries, both historic and new works will be available from many of the most legendary artists in the medium of glass, including Harvey Littleton, Dale Chihuly, Toots Zinsky, Lino Tagliapietra, and Paul Stankard, to name a few. Following the live auction, the Invitational will offer a wide variety of events and opportunities, from artist lectures, museum tours, and demonstrations, to dinners, parties, and the Pop and Lock show, an idea based upon popular modern culture that becomes an art form.

A juried show of more than 100 artists will reveal 25 winners, all of whom will be later featured in a group exhibition at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana this coming summer.

The theme for the 47th Invitational is “An Artists’s Life!,” in which the gallery asked each of the participating artists to provide a glimpse into their lives as an artist and share their thoughts.

“We have found it tremendously gratifying to explore this interesting side of our artist’s lives and allow them the opportunity to open up about their individual creative processes,” said Hampson. “We are eager to share their stories with the audience.”

Founded in 1971 by Ferdinand Hampson, Habatat Galleries quickly established itself as the premiere gallery of the Studio Glass Movement that had begun in 1962, when ceramist Harvey Littleton teamed up with Dominick Labino to create the first American “hot shop” in Toledo, Ohio. Littleton carried that over to the University of Wisconsin, where he implemented a glass program within the school’s ceramics department. Ferdinand Hampson was an early visionary in recognizing the potential of the medium of glass as an expression of modern art.