Pathfinders: Paving the Glass Revolution in the U.S.

APRIL 11th - JULY 14th
Opening reception APRIL 11th, 5-7pm

Produced in partnership with the Sandwich Glass Museum and in consultation with the New Bedford Museum of Glass, Pathfinders: Paving the Glass Revolution in the U.S. chronicles the impact of Dale Chihuly's influence in the studio glass movement.

Chihuly's founding of the Pilchuck School - a place that has nurtured and schooled a community of artists in glass art techniques for more than 50 years - along with his visionary deployment of glass in the creation of monumental environmental sculpture, cemented a new legitimacy for the medium as a vehicle for fine art. The exhibition includes leaders in the world of glass sculpture from the 1960s up to contemporary glass artists.

See the full collection in person at the Art Museum.

Dale Chihuly

Artist Bio
Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is arguably the most famous glass artist in the world, Dale Chihuly's ideas are big ones, often stretching the limits of his chosen media. Over the years, Dale has developed a host of innovative techniques to achieve his artistic vision. Dale’s work represents a departure from the past. He pioneered a new way of working, utilizing gravity and centrifugal force to let molten glass find its shape in its own organic way.
Chihuly_Photo 1
D. Chihuly Sconce Photo

Dale Chihuly
Macchia: Pink and white with yellow lip wrap, 1986
14" x 19" x 12"

Dale Chihuly
Sconce
48" x 80" x 27"

KéKé Cribbs

Artist Bio
KéKé Cribbs

KéKé Cribbs was born in Colorado in 1951. She lived in Claremont, CA, Ireland, France, Corsica and New Mexico before making her home on Whidbey Island, WA after attending Pilchuck Glass School in 1984. She has taught at Pilchuck and the Penland School of Crafts, and in 1986 she started a Glass Program at the Swain School of Design which later became SMU in South Dartmouth, MA. She also taught workshops at TIGA in Toyama, Japan, and was invited to participate and lecture at the Sturbridge Glass Festival in 2019. She was co-curator for “Transformations in Glass” KeKe Cribbs, Richard Marquis, David Svenson, CLMOA, CA 20 -23

Her work has been collected internationally by twenty one museums including the Corning Glass Museum in New York, the LA County Museum, CA, the Racine Art Museum , WI, Tacoma Art Museum and Tacoma Glass Museum, WA, and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement

I have worked in and in glass since 1980. My desire has always been to investigate the possibilities of adding imagery and color to the surface of the glass. Techniques I have explored include sand carving, engraving and etching, gold leaf and fired vitreous enamels.

The work in this exhibition is all made by reverse painting on window glass using vitreous enamels fired in a kiln. Large sheets of glass are painted with both transparent and opaque enamels, fired at least three times, often gold leafed, and then cut into smaller mosaic pieces. Larger works, such as the sail of the boats where I develop narrative imagery, are left in tact.

I have always used other materials to enhance my works in glass, especially when using flat glass to make sculptural works. The boats are built over hump molds using thin set mortar and fiberglass mesh. The paintings include torn painted linen.
Birdie

KéKé Cribbs
Birdie, 2015
Reverse fired vitreous enamels on glass, think shell mortar, painted wood
24" x 38" x 8"

Persephone, verso, KeKe Cribbs

KéKé Cribbs
Persephone, 2022
Glass Mosaics, reverse fired vitreous enamels on glass
24" x 38" x 8"

Harvey Littleton

Artist Bio
Harvey Littleton

Harvey Littleton Harvey Littleton was an American glass artist and educator, one of the founders of the studio glass movement, often referred to as the "Father of the Studio Glass Movement". Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glass Works, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s. Expected by his father to enter the field of physics, Littleton instead chose a career in art, gaining recognition first as a ceramist and later as a glassblower and sculptor in glass. In the latter capacity he was very influential, organizing the first glassblowing seminar aimed at the studio artist in 1962, on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. Imbued with the prevailing view at the time that glassblowing could only be done on the factory floor, separated from the designer at his desk, Littleton aimed to put it within the reach of the individual studio artist.

In his role as an educator, Littleton initiated the first hot glass program at an American university (the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and promoted the idea of glass as a course of study in university art departments in the United States. Littleton's students went on to disseminate the study of glass art and establish other university-level hot glass programs throughout the U.S. Littleton retired from teaching in 1977 to focus on his own art. Exploring the inherent qualities of the medium, he worked in series with simple forms to draw attention to the complex interplay of transparent glass with multiple overlays of thin color.
littleton

Harvey Littleton
Blue Moon Arc, 1985
16" x  18" x 6.5"

David Schwarz

Artist Bio
David Schwarz

David Schwarz was born in Vancouver, WA in 1952. In the early 1980’s he received a Masters in Science/Glass from Illinois State University. He taught at the Pilchuck Glass School from 1979 to 1986 while developing his technique and style. Schwarz From that point he’s been a full time artist working out of his studio in Ridgefield, WA.

David Schwarz’s work is in collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, NY; Milwaukee Museum of Art, WI; Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington DC; the High Museum, Atlanta, GA; and the Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN; City of Seattle and the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri- Columbia. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s award winning arts program Oregon Art Beat featured him.
ZAOF

David Schwarz
Z.A.O.F., 2008
16" x  16" x 12"

Marvin Lipofsky

Artist Bio
Marvin Lipofsky

Marvin Lipofsky (1938-2016) was an accomplished sculptor who had a deep and lasting impact on the art world. Lipofsky developed his technique and abstractionist style by drawing and expanding on the expertise of master artisans and glassblowers encountered during his frequent travels around the world. Influenced by sculptors Peter Voulkos and John Mason, Lipofsky originally worked in clay, but his introduction to the use of glass through studies in 1962 with Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, marked a significant change in his work. Lipofsky introduced glass as an art form in 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Design, where he taught until 1972.In 1967, he founded and headed the glass department at the California College of Arts and Crafts and taught as a full professor until 1987.

As one of the early pioneers in using glass as a vehicle for personal artistic expression, he pushed the possibilities of the medium. Early in his development, he ventured to Europe to research and collaborate with European Glass Masters to gain insight from their long tradition.Since those early years, Lipofsky continued to travel the world for over 50 years to work in factories and to interact with other artists and designers.

Lipofsky’s use of vivid and saturated colors elucidates his forms. Influenced by painters of the 1950s and ‘60’s, the work of his glassblowing process is determined by what is available at the moment, while his arrangement of color and his combinations of different hues is conscious and precise, inspired by his surroundings: the environment, flowers, mountains, trees, forests, weather, and cultural conditions. Marvin Lipofsky’s sculpture is an expression of his world, which he permits us to explore through interplays of shape, form, and color.His sculptures are included in 125 museum collections throughout the world, with works created in 24 different countries.
M Lipovsky California Color Photo

Marvin Lipofsky
California Color Series #2, 1986
13" x 15" x 15"

Lino Tagliapietra

dino

Lino Tagliapietra
Dinosaur, 2009
11" x 5.5" x 46"

 

Nick Leonoff

Artist Bio
Nick Leonoff

Nick Leonoff was born in 1978 in Santa Clara, California. Leonoff began working with glass as an apprentice to Alan Masaoka, a stained glass artist in 1998. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University in 2002. Leonoff returned to glass in 2004 when Alan Masaoka introduced him to glass blowing. He has studied at numerous Craft Schools around the country including Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and the Studio at Corning.

He has studied with many notable artists including Davide Salvedore, Martin Janecky, Jack Wax and Jiri Harcuba, to learn his craft and develop his skills. Leonoff also considers himself self-taught with the considerable amount of time he has spent refining his techniques. In 2011, Leonoff moved his studio to Brooklyn, NY to further pursue his artistic endeavors. After a very creative and developmental time in NYC, Leonoff returned to his hometown of Carmel Valley, CA.

In 2017, he opened Leonoff Studios & Gallery where he creates his blown glass and shows his midrange works. He expanded in 2019 by opening a new showroom, Nick Leonoff Contemporary Glass Gallery to exhibit his blown and carved sculptures in Carmel Valley Village. Leonoff also continues to travel and exhibit his work at selected art fairs nationally.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement

The luminescent qualities of glass appeal to me as it responds to light. I am drawn to the potential of a material that can vary from a translucent to an opaque medium in a brilliant range of colors and gradations.

I create blown glass using Swedish overlay techniques layering colored glass in the walls and on the surface of the glass forms. I carve the surface of the pieces with diamond wheels to remove layers of glass and expose colors within the piece. The blown pieces become the canvas for the carving process and the carving becomes the core of the design in each piece. Through this coldworking process I have been able to explore the potential of the material and focus my artistic vision.

I am creating a relationship between the interior and exterior by juxtaposing opaque and translucent, glossy & matte, with light and dark. The balance that is revealed connects the conscious with the subconscious as the voice of the material emerges through the reflections of light.
N_Leonoff_Photo

Nick Leonoff
Portal #36, 2017
15" x 15" x 10"

Paul Seide

Artist Bio
Paul Seide

Paul Seide is an American Postwar & Contemporary sculptor who was born in 1949. MUDAC, Musée de design et d'arts appliques contemporains featured Paul Seide's work in the past.
loops

Paul Seide
Radio Loops, 1985
17.5"h x 20"w x 15"d

Concetta Mason

Artist Bio
Concetta Mason

Concetta Mason (born 1952) is an American glass artist. Her work is included in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the Hunter Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
sunset

Concetta Mason
Sweet Journey, 1993
21.5"h x 14.5"w x 8"d

William Morris

artifacts

William Morris
Suspended Artifacts, 1996
37"h x 25"w x 6"d

Toots Zynsky

for hope

Toots Zynsky
For Hope, 2009
9.5" x 17.5"

Stephen Rolfe Powell

Artist Bio
Stephen Rolfe Powell

Stephen Rolfe Powell was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1951. He studied painting and ceramics at Centre College and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1974. Before attending graduate school at Louisiana State University, Powell spent several years as an art instructor in his home state of Alabama. Between 1980 and 1983, he attended LSU and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics. It was during this time that Powell had his first experience with hot glass and it became a full-time obsession. His daily life revolved around it, whether he was teaching glass at Centre College or producing his own work.

Stephen Powell's work is exhibited nationally and internationally and he participated in workshops, demonstrations, and lectures across the globe. He worked in Russia, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan and demonstrated at multiple Glass Art Society Conferences, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. One of the highlights of his travels was an exhibition of his work at Venezia Aperto Vetro in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy. This honor was punctuated by the fact that he was one of only eight American artists invited.
S Rolfe Powell Massive Teaser Vessel Photo

Stephen Rolfe Powell
Massive Teaser Vessel
34.5" x 23" x 6"

Nancy Callan

Artist Bio
Nancy Callan

Nancy Callan grew up near Boston, MA, working as a pizza-maker, band roadie and graphic designer before attending the Massachusetts College of Art (BFA 1996). A chance peek into the hot glass studio changed the trajectory of her life; she was entranced by the fluid, glowing material and the demanding choreography of working at the furnace. In 1996 she relocated to Seattle, WA to join maestro Lino Tagliapietra’s glassblowing team, rising to a key position as his assistant and travelling internationally to teach and demonstrate the craft. Through this nineteen-year apprenticeship, Callan mastered the traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques that are the foundation of her innovative work with line, pattern and color.

Nancy Callan has blazed a trail as an LGBTQ woman, helping to inspire, teach and mentor the next generation of diverse artists in glass. Residencies, workshops and collaborations continue to feed her practice and create space for experimentation. Callan’s work brings a contemporary sensibility to the material and processes of hot glass working.

Nancy Callan is represented by galleries throughout North America and her work is in the collections of the Museum of Glass (WA), Microsoft Collection, Chrysler Museum (VA), The Mint Museum (NC), Peabody-Essex Museum (MA), Barry Museum (VA), Corning Museum of Glass (NY) and the Shanghai Museum of Glass (China). A major solo exhibition, “Nancy Callan: Forces At Play”, opens at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA in October 2024.
EDIT_EmbersDroplet 8 bit print

Nancy Callan
Embers Droplet, 2019
Blown and etched glass
19.5" x 16" x 16"

Therman Statom

Artist Bio
Therman Statom

Therman Statom is asculptor, glass artist, and painter - is most notably known as a pioneer of the contemporary glass movement for his life-size glass ladders, chairs, tables, constructed box-like paintings, and small scale houses; all created through the technique of gluing glass plate together. Sandblasted surfaces become a canvas for spontaneous vibrant colors and line work, which take nuances from Abstract Expressionism and concepts of Minimalism, while simultaneously incorporating a twist by using blown-glass elements and found objects.

Born in Winter Haven, Florida in 1953, Statom spent his adolescence growing up in Washington, D.C. His interest in the arts grew from a fondness of painting and he began to investigate ceramics at RISD. However, after an experimental glass blowing session with Dale Chihuly, he was soon hooked on the spontaneity of glass blowing and its limitless possibilities. Statom went on to pursue studies at Pilchuck Glass School during its inaugural year, completing a BFA in 1974 from RISD, and later studied at the Pratt Institute of Art & Design.

Throughout his career, public artworks have been permanently installed at prominent locations including the Los Angeles Public Library, Corning, Inc. Headquarters, the Mayo Clinic, San Jose Ice Center, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Jepson Center for the Arts in the Telfair Museum, Savannah as well as several hospitals across the country.

Much of the latter half of Statom’s career has been focused on the importance of educational programming within the arts. He has taken a deep interested in employing workshops as a catalyst for social change and in affect, positively impacting a community. Working directly with the artist himself, adults and children alike share a combined experience of exploring art making via a hands-on experience. Inhibitions and limitations are left by the wayside, and the practice or act of “doing” becomes a journey of self-discovery, creating an opportunity for the participant to go to a new place within themselves.
PESCA DE LA NOCHES PHOTO

Therman Statom
Pesca dela Noches, 2015
Glass, metal, mixed media
42.5" x 37.5" x 9.5"

Sidney Hutter

Artist Bio
Sidney Hutter

Sidney Hutter has spent 40 years creating fine art sculptures using traditional glass techniques in combination with commercial processes used in architectural glass,adhesive and pigment industries. His innovative cold-working style played an important role in the growth of the Contemporary Glass Movement. His uniquely developed pallet of pigmented adhesives allow him to create landscapes of color laminated between layers of clear, polished glass. Sidney’s work can be found in museums, private and public collections around the world.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement

I make objects that suggest containment. My interests in design and architecture and a background in glass blowing and fabrication has formed the foundation for my body of work. My artwork reflects the evolutionary aspect of my life - ever changing and always developing.

Over the years I have used machines and materials that have been specifically developed for my work in creating sculptures. I use cold-working techniques: cutting, stacking and laminating sheets of glass, to create volumetric forms. My interest in technological advances in glass and in ultraviolet adhesives, dyes and pigments lead me to design pieces with an amazing spectrum of colors.

My sculptures focus on both the exterior and the interior form of the vessel. I describe volume on the outside while portraying an interior landscape of color and light. By laminating a combination of rough and highly polished surfaces using dyed adhesive, I create three-dimensional paintings. Each piece is handcrafted and meticulously sculpted to emphasize its unique intersection of form, color and light.

I am a formalist in that I am intrigued by forms and structures in our environment and create art that adds to our enjoyment of that environment. As a visual artist, I make three-dimensional pieces that are best experienced by walking around each piece to view how it reacts to light, movement and the environment.
PLVV#25_7043_final

Sidney Hutter
Polished Laminated Vertical Vase #25, 2006
Laminated machined plate glass
18" x 12" x 8"

PGV#28-93_5708_final

Sidney Hutter
Plate Glass Vase #28193, 1993
Laminated machined plate glass
14.75" x 7.75" x 7.75"

William Beattie

Artist Bio
Will Beattie

Will Beattie (b. 1992 Queens, NY), is a sculptor whose work explores technology, the malleability of images, and glass’s ability to function as both a metaphorical and literal lens. With a background in prop making and television, Will is interested in the ideas of authorship, and how technology augments our perception of time, memory, identity, and imagined spaces.

Will is currently a Glass MFA student at the Rhode Island School of Design and earned a BFA at SUNY Purchase in 2014. Will has participated in several international exhibitions and has completed several residencies, including Vermont Studio Center in 2019.
Will B_03 denoise

William Beattie
Dürer's Polyhedron, 2023
Glass
16" x 16" x 16"