"Breathing Glass" by Sandy Skoglund, a Cibachrome photograph of an installation. Photo courtesy of the artist.
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City has an exhibition on view through April 7th that surveys the studio glass movement in America. I walked through Playing with Fire: 50 Years of Contemporary Glass recently in order to do research for a blog post I am preparing for our client, Larry Lazin, who studied and taught off-hand glassblowing. I’ve seen a number of exhibitions at MAD and I felt this one was very well presented, and the variety of work was astonishing.
"Tastes Like Applebees, 2007" by Matt Eskuche. Photo credit David Behl.
An icy cylinder of cast, cold-worked glass seemed as if it had been sprayed like water into a pipe, then pulled whole and frozen from the tube–elegantly dog-eared along the exposed edge. This was Masahiro Asaka’s “Surge.” Martin Lipofsky’s “Pilchuck Summer Series #4,” produced between 1988 and 1989, undulated in matt tones of persimmon and cobalt, pod-like as if unleashed from some subterranean place, then eaten into as if too tender for the life it thought it could live on the earth’s plane.
Tim Tate's "I Want To Run Away and Join the Circus, 2009," a multimedia piece. Photo courtesy of the artist.
There was a small piece by Harvey Littleton, whom Larry deeply admired. He tells a wonderful story about taking a road trip after graduating from Goddard; hopping into his Volvo station wagon and driving across America for two summers in a row during 1977 and 1978. He shot super-eight film of his experiences, which included visiting the Corning Museum of Glass and the labs there, and Harvey in Madison, Wisconsin. He happened in on the famed glassblower on his 70th birthday and stayed to celebrate. All and all, his quest for cool was pretty massive, as he remarked when he told me the story about the trips. I could see the pleasure the memories brought to mind.
Detail of Peter Bynum's triptych "Untitled No 202," the close-up showing how incredible the work is.
He also visited the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, founded by Anne and John Hauberg and Dale Chihuly, whose piece “Macchia Basket” in the show waffled in wavy hues of pink and blue similar to a sky meeting the ocean near sunset. I had two favorite pieces in the show: one a triptych by Peter Bynum (“Untitled No. 202“), made from six layers of tempered glass, acrylic paint, LED lights and steel brackets. The paint bled into freeform shapes between the layers of glass, delights or organic veining (detail shown).
"Marin Group, 2008" by Steffen Dam. Photo courtesy of the artist.
I was also fascinated by Steffen Dam’s “Marine Group,” a series of hot worked glass cylinders containing ethereal creatures born of his creativity in 2008 (the top image). If only life were as clear as the liquid in the glassy wombs encasing these floating imaginary beings.
Ayala Serfaty's "Trust, 2008." Photo credit: Albi Serfaty.
Ayala Serfaty was also included in the exhibition. I had seen her ephemeral light fixtures at Cristina Grajales’ Soho gallery with Larry when she had a solo exhibition there. Her light fixtures are truly so dreamy in person. There are more than 100 works contained in the show at MAD so don’t feel you seen it all in this short post: it is well worth stopping in to see all things fiery in glass.
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