KALAMAZOO – The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts welcomes Chihuly in Kalamazoo, an exhibition of the works of artist Dale Chihuly. Designed exclusively by the artist for the KIA, Chihuly in Kalamazoo opens to the public September 25 and continues through January 1, 2006.
Hundreds of Chihuly?s large- and small-scale glass pieces will be massed throughout the museum, some in spaces never before used for temporary exhibitions. The galleries will feature a ?Fiori? garden of glass, a Boat installation inspired by his work on the Nutajoki River in Finland, and a ?Macchia Forest? ? a colorful assemblage of multicolored vessels that seem to glow from within.
A gleaming Tower of glass will command space in the KIA Lobby Gallery, and a dream-like Persian Ceiling will envelop visitors as they descend from Gallery 5 to the Lower Level Galleries. Chihuly in Kalamazoo will be the only major exhibition of the artist?s work in North America during most of this time period. Chihuly in Kalamazoo is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.
Chihuly: a glass revolutionary
From the beginning of his involvement with glass in the 1960s, Chihuly has been a leader in the movement that transformed blown glass into a medium suitable for sculpture. His work is characterized by its large, organically shaped forms that feature a striking palette of colors. Both his installations and individual pieces reflect his passion for the natural world, for testing the physical limits of glass, and for transforming the architectural spaces into which these objects are placed.
Chihuly?s works ?look like nature caught on fire, nature in molten flux, nature in the process of being created,? wrote Robert Hobbs in an essay for the catalog that accompanied Chihuly?s one-man show at the Louvre?s Museum of Decorative Arts, in Paris.
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. After graduating in 1965, Chihuly enrolled in the first hot glass program in the country at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he later established the glass program and taught for more than a decade.
In 1971, Chihuly established the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, the only school in the United States devoted solely to glass as an art form, and still a well-known gathering place for international artists with diverse backgrounds.
Yet it was a trip to Italy three years earlier that would change Chihuly?s life ? and revolutionize contemporary American glassmaking.
In 1968, armed with both a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant and a Fulbright fellowship, Chihuly went to Murano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon that has been the center of Venice?s glass industry since the thirteenth century, to serve an apprenticeship at the famed Venini Fabrica. Here he observed master craftsmen at work, taking note of their team approach to glassblowing and absorbing techniques that were essentially unknown in the United States.
It redefined his craft, launching Chihuly on a creative journey that helped elevate art glass from craft to sculpture.
Since the late 1970s, when Chihuly lost the sight in one eye in a car accident and a subsequent injury to a shoulder forced him to relinquish his lead position on the team of glassblowers, he has directed teams of artisans in the creation of a large, diverse body of work.
Chihuly?s work is collected worldwide by individuals and institutions, and is part of the permanent collections of more than 200 museums around the world, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). Chihuly has been the recipient of numerous awards, including seven honorary doctorates and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chihuly in Kalamazoo will mark the second consecutive year the KIA has hosted a ?blockbuster? exhibition. In 2004, Millet to Matisse helped the KIA set new records for museum attendance.
Ticket information and museum hours
Individual tickets for Chihuly in Kalamazoo are available at the KIA on the day of your visit. Advance tickets are available for groups only. General admission tickets are $12, students and seniors (62 and older) are $10, and KIA members are $6.
During the exhibition, the KIA will be open Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. The KIA is closed on Monday.
For more information on these events, click on KIARTS.Org
