Want!

[gerisullivan]

athenais went to the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young Museum today. I love Chihuly's glass, so went looking at the online exhibition pictures and found this work of glass art.

Want. Seriously lust want. Scroll through all six pictures. The second one fills me with joy just imagining being is such a space. A ceiling of light, color, and beauty...the colors cast on white walls. Color, light, shape, and sheen: transformative space.

Now that's a glass ceiling I could gladly live with.

Further poking around the Chihuly site turned up the information that he received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and helped establish their glass program. A special Chihuly exhibition opened at RISD today in conjunction with their new exhibitions gallery in the new Chace Center.

"A riot of sculptural forms of a scale and energy unlike anything seen before in New England, this unique, site-specific work will fill the largest gallery (nearly 6,000 square feet) in the new Chace Center."

Oh, yeah. Wanna see that. Absolutely.

There's also a companion exhibition: "Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years" and Building Books: The Art of David Macaulay.

These will all be on exhibit through early January. I'm going to do my darnedest to get there at least once. Who's interested in an expedition to Providence?

Comments

[dlacey.livejournal.com]

I first read that as "the Cthulu exhibit" and thought "cool!" Also, next time you're in Toronto, I'll have to take you to the Sandra Ainsley Gallery in the distillery district. They have some amazing work.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

The Flying Spaghetti Monster and all of his noodly appendages are more Chihuly's style, but I have no doubt he create do a nightmare-inducing glass Cthulhu.

The Sandra Ainsley Gallery looks interesting, and I'll gladly visit anywhere you recommend. Especially with you. :-)

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely. Thank you. I had read about the RISD exhibit and wanted to go just on the basis of one photo; this makes it definite. (And if you come to Providence alone, you're welcome to stay over in our guest room. It would be good to see you again.)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Likewise on the seeing you again front.

It wouldn't be before late October. Even if I don't stay over, perhaps I can stop by for a visit or tea.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I want to come visit, but not as soon as January. However, I look forward to hearing about your expotition.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Sure thing. And it's just as well on the timing -- it's clear we'll have more than enough places to explore around Toad Woods and Boston as is:

-- The Glass Flowers
-- the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum (you'll love the Venetian-style palace setting at least as much as the exhibits contained within)
-- the DeCordova Sculpture Park
-- glacial potholes and the Bridge of Flowers at Shelburne Falls, if we head for the foothills of the Berkshires or further. (Everything's close out here.)

...and lots, lots more to choose from. Whale watches to dinosaur footprints, quiet woods to tromp in, and a deck the wireless reaches to. That's a joy in good weather.

We'll have fun figuring out what we want to do whatever timing ends up working out.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Another reason why I miss Seattle.
Dale had one of his workshops very close to my old apartment.

But, if you make it to Seattle, you will need to make a short trip to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

http://www.museumofglass.org/exhibitions/current/

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Neat -- it looks like a place I'd enjoy. Thanks for the pointer!

It's likely to be quite some time before I'm in the Pacific Northwest again. It would be lovely to come out to Corflu in March, but I'll be in New York that weekend watching Gavi Levy Haskell perform with her school choir at Carnegie Hall!

Out here, I look forward to visiting the Corning Museum of Glass -- the next time I drive to Battle Creek, I hope.

It's the world's largest glass museum --and reportedly marvelous, too. Gavi and Susan (her mom) stopped there on their way home from their last visit here, so I've heard some first-hand reports as well as having read articles about the place. 35 centuries of glass art -- wow.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I've been there! It was right on my way up to James' party :::mumble::: years ago and I made a hotel reservation there. I went through the museum, watched them working at the glory hole, and bought a nice marble before I retired to my room at the hotel, which came with a recliner! I asked about that, and they said that they get mostly truckers on that route and they all want recliners. Corning, the city, is interesting, too. I stayed there on the way back and did a bit of driving about and looking around.

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

There was a large Chihuly exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory from May 2007 until early 2008. I'd never heard of him before, and stumbled over the exhibit by accident the day it opened. Chihuly was at the opening, leading a pack of press around. He was quite the character.

I saw the exhibit during the day, and then at night. The lighting of the suspended glass pieces was spectacular.

[redbird]

I am now whether it would be remotely feasible to take an Amtrak train up to Providence, looking at glass art, hanging out a while, and then getting commuter rail to Arlington.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'm of two minds about that installation (and about exhibits of glass & many other Arts in general) because a significant part of the Artistry is tactile. Sam Maloof could (and did) get away with specifying that the East Coast museum that bought several of his rocking-chairs place them out where people could actually _sit_ in them, but not many artists have that much clout (or determination, or independent income). Mind you, I don't expect to ever own, or be able to run my hands over, a Work from the Chihuly Studios.

On another hand, yes, the display of light through colored glass strikes a primordial chord, and I think even more can be done with this today than in the era that produced, say, the windows at Chartres, and I regret that more advantage isn't being taken of this in modern public architecture.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I can't afford that, I just have crystals hanging in my kitchen window so we get rainbows on the walls.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

Both Chihuly and Macaulay were both still in Providence during my days there ... I'd join you in a Providence tour any time!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Too far, too expensive. Take pictures and notes!

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

I'll come down from Boston to see that. Not sure whether I can coordinate with other folks about it, but I'm not missing it...