Dale Chihuly, THE most outstanding glass artist, has explored new and old techniques, pushing the boundaries of contemporary art. He draws inspiration from the - natural - world around him.
Living or traveling in the USA, Japan, or the UK? You might not be far from a museum that exhibits his artwork. Even many botanical gardens, among them the one in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis, MO, the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ, or the Kew Gardens in Great Britain, are displaying his artworks.
Not only his museum in Seattle, WA, but many more in the USA and around the world offer a permanent exhibition of his work. Permanent exhibitions of his glass art can be found, among many other places, in:
- Toyama, Glass Art Museum, Japan
- Oklahoma City, Museum of Art, OK, USA
- St. Petersburg, Morean Arts Center, FL, USA
- Tacoma, Art Museum, Washington, USA
- Colorado Springs, Fine Arts Center, Colorado, USA
- Pamela & Fred Buffett Cancer Center, Omaha, NE, USA
- Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, USA
- Kew Gardens, UK
"I want people to be overwhelmed with light and color in some way that they've never experienced."
~ Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly began his career with weaving. During a weaving class at the University of Washington, he first incorporated glass shards into woven tapestries in 1963. This foray into glass led him to blow his first glass bubble in 1965, by melting stained glass and using a metal pipe. Years later he revisited the idea of textiles and glass, drawing with intricate threads of glass, then fusing the threads onto the molten glass. This pick-up drawing technique was used by Dale and his team in his Cylinders and other series.
From 1994 to 1996, the artist worked with glassblowers in Finland, Ireland, Mexico, and Italy to create 'Chihuly Over Venice', a series of Chandeliers that he hung over canals and in piazzas of his favorite city.
Dale Chihuly has completed ambitious architectural artwork installations all over the world. Inspired by a lifelong interest in architecture and gardens, Chihuly creates site-specific sculptures for a wide variety of settings
Chihuly Studio creates some 30 site-specific pieces a year, ranging in price from $200,000 to millions of dollars, and has done commissions for collectors like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.
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