Glass Art Blog

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"

Turquoise Handstand

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!

Tom Patti has long been one of my favorite American artists working in the glass medium. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Holsten Galleries had several major shows of Tom’s celebrated small scale layered and fused glass sculptures.  For the past decade or more Tom has been focusing on very large scale architectural installations in museums, airports, subway stations, synagogues

"Flight Dialogue"

and other public spaces.  I am very pleased to be representing Tom Patti again and welcome inquiries about his commissioned glass installations.

Today we added 17 new works by Maestro Lino Tagliapietra. Some of these pieces, including this beautiful example of Lino’s “Dinosaur” series, are among the best of Lino’s work that I have ever had the pleasure of showing. One might think that at the age of 75 Lino could be slowing down a bit or even resting on his laurels. Such is quite obviously not the case.  Take a look at the AVAILABLE WORKS page on Lino’s page and see if you don’t agree with me on this. Bravo Lino for continuing to push the edge of what is possible in blown glass by bringing into the world of form your wonderful ideas! May you do so for many years to come!

"Dinosaur"

New Year’s greetings! It has been several months since I have posted a blog and one of my new year’s resolutions is to resume doing so. It has been a very eventful period of time for me. On October 2 I sold the “brick and mortar” business to my longtime employee and friend Jim Schantz and his wife, Kim Saul. The gallery continues on much as before under the new name “Schantz Galleries.”

I myself am now an independent art dealer and consultant focusing mainly on growing the website part of my business. www.holstengalleries.com is in its 15th year and has long played a key role in selling glass art. I am now able to “grow” my virtual business in a number of interesting ways. First, I am able to add artists working on a large scale whose works would not have been able to be accomodated in the Stockbridge gallery. Recently I have added the work of David Bennett, Daniel Clayman, Dan Dailey and Mary Van Cline and I am in the process of adding Ginny Ruffner and Tom Patti.

Another part of my online gallery that is expanding is the secondary market page. Here you can see outstanding examples of earlier works by artsts such as Harvey K. Littleton and others.

I wish you all a new year full of good health, peace and abundance and look forward to staying in touch.