Glass Art Blog

Kentucky glass artist Stephen Powell is widely known for his large blown glass sculptures. Most of his works are around 40″ high.  Recently Stephen has begun a new series of much smaller pieces. The piece pictured here, “Puckering Prissy Tickler,” is a mere 16″ high. I love both the form and the colors in this piece. Stephen uses an old Murano technique involving laying out a pattern of glass beads (called “murini”) on a flat metal table and then picking them up (“gathering” them) onto a bubble of hot glass. Then the bubble is blown out and shaped. Stephen has been influenced in his work by fellow glass artist Lino Tagliapietra who is widely recognized as the greatest living glassblower alive.  Check out more of Stephen Powell’s works on his artist page at www.holstengalleries.com.

Each year Dale Chihuly creates several prototypes for smaller scale works.  These beautiful pieces are called Studio Editions and are smaller versions of his most popular series such as Seaforms, Macchias, Baskets and Persians.  This year there are four different Studio Editions to choose from.  The one pictured here is entitled “Wild Poppy Persian Pair.”  Each Studio Edition comes with a handsome plexiglass display case which includes a square black bottom and a clear plexi  hood.  Many glass collectors who do not have space for a larger, unique Chihuly piece choose to add one or more of these smaller works to their art collection. Some of the pieces from previous years, including all four from 2010, are also available.

LINO AT MUSEUM OF GLASS IN TACOMA

Last week my wife Christine and I had a real treat. We got to watch Maestro Lino Tagliapietra blow glass at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I’t is always a pleasure to be present when Lino is working. I never tire of observing the finesse and skill of this glass blower whom most people consider to  be the best in the world.  We also enjoyed a great meal with Lino and his wife Lina and his business manager Cecilia Chung and her husband Tony at Lino’s favorite Japanese restaurant. I feel very fortunate to have represented Lino now for over 25 years. In that time his career has flourished to a degree that possibly exceeds even his own expectations. Bravo Lino!

We also were able to visit with several other of my Seattle artists, including Nancy Callan and John Kiley
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Dale Chihuly’s beautiful glass sculptures and installations can currently be seen in a major exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  This is one of the most important exhibitions in Chihuly’s career along with those at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2001 and the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2008.

The MFA exhibition is titled “Through the Looking glass” and features all of Chihuly’s best known series such as the Seaforms, Baskets, Persians, Venetians and Ikebanas. In addition, there are several major glass installations such as the magnificent Persian Ceiling pictured here.  This Chihuly exhibition will be in Boston until August 7, 2011 and I strongly recommend seeing it to anyone living in or visiting the New England area.

Fenice

Getting new works by Lino Tagliapietra is for me like receiving a holiday gift!  Not that I get to keep any of the great new pieces on my website. But being their temporary custodian and then passing them on to enthusiastic glass collectors gives me great pleasure.  Recent additions to the Lino page of my site include this spectacular example of the Fenice series, a smaller than usual Dinosaur, a new Angel Tear and a rather atypical example of the Bilbao series.  It is totally amazing to me that at age 76 Lino is creating some of the best work of his life. Imagine blowing glass for 65 years! No wonder Lino is so masterful in his technique. The surprising thing though is that after all of these years of creating blown glass sculpture Lino continues to come up with pieces that are as fresh and exciting as these. Take a moment and check out the other new works at www.holstengalleries.com!

John Kiley is a glass artist from Seattle who has been getting a lot of attention recently.  He was awarded a prestigious residency this year at the Tacoma Museum of Glass. His piece at the annual auction at that museum sold for more than the retail price.  He is being sought after actively by major private collectors in the U.S. and abroad.

John has been a key player on Lino Tagliapietra‘s Seattle team for many years and assists Lino whenever he is in Seattle to blow glass. Kiley was also an important part of Chihuly’s team back in the 1990′s.  His glass sculptures normally consist of two or sometimes three bubbles of glass of different color which are joined together while the glass is hot.  Once John’s glass sculptures have cooled he cuts away sections  from each bubble, resulting in a finished piece which is very sculptural. John’s most recent work is among the best work coming out of Seattle today.  The piece featured here is entitled Curved Overlap.

Nancy Callan is one of my favorite Seattle glass artists. She has been a key player on Lino Tagliapietra‘s glassblowing team for many years. In addition to working with Lino when he is in Seattle blowing glass (John Kiley and Dave Walters are also part of team Lino),  she creates wonderfully colorful and playful glass sculptures of her own. The one pictured here is from Nancy’s Cloud series.  The multi-colored cane work and the whimsical form are typical of Nancy Callan’s glass art. Another series of Callan’s blown glass art is her Top series. The one pictured on the left is entitled Mediterranean Helix Top.

Nancy is at a point in her career where things are really taking off. She is now part of many major collections and yet her prices are still very reasonable. Check out her page on my website!

The Rattle that Sings to Itself

This wonderful piece by Preston Singletary has just been completed. In my mind, it is one of the very best examples of this popular series of Preston’s which he calls “Rattles.”  Many of you know that Preston is a native of the Tlingit tribe. Preston pays tribute to his Northwest native ancestry by depicting stylized blown glass objects which often tell a story. The story here is hinted at by the title, “The Rattle that Sang to Itself.”  Preston is quickly gaining prominence not only among native american artists but also in the realm of museum quality glass sculpture. His retrospective exhibition, currently at the Tacoma Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington,  has gained Preston Singletary coverage in several major national art journals.  p.s. 6-15-11 Preston’s show is not at the Museum of the American Indian in New York city.

Daniel Clayman has long been one of my favorite glass sculptors.  When I use the term glass sculptor or glass sculpture, I am not, of course, referring to the classical reductive mode of sculpture used in carving stone, for example. In Clayman’s case, the real sculpting is done in creating the mold to receive the molten glass which then becomes the glass sculpture once the mold is removed.  Daniel Clayman tends to work in large scale and his pieces are both subtle and yet also quite dramatic. Dramatic in their forms, dramatic in their soft colors and dramatic in the sense of having a lot of what I would call “presence.”  Yes, presence is what I feel most when standing in front of one of Daniel Clayman’s works.

"Preinte"

I am very excited to have added the glass and metal figures of David Bennett after many years of wanting to work together.  Not having done so earlier was based mainly upon not having sufficient space in the Stockbridge gallery to show large scale works.   David is an interesting guy on his third career. His first short career was in the military in the 1960′s. He then became a lawyer with a very successful practice for 25 years or so. At that point he wanted to do something different and ended up doing something really different: he became a glass artist! When I first got to know David’s work he was creating very large blown glass horse heads. I love that series and wish I owned one! David is now doing mainly human figures combining blown glass with metal.  This ancient technique which involves blowing glass into a metal mold is actually 2000 years old but not well known or often employed. Also rather unique to Bennett’s work is the fact that they are lit from within by light emiting dioes (LED’s).  David Bennett’s glass sculpture can be found in numerous major collections, both private and public. Check out his other works on my website!