Dale Chihuly glass gardens

Dale Chihuly glass gardens
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly studied interior design at Washington University, from which he graduated in 1965. Three years later Dale Chihuly went to Venice to work at the Venini glass factory. The talented artist has created more than twelve well-known series of works, and among them – Cylinders and Baskets, Sea-forms, Macchia, Venetians, Persians, Niijima Floats, Chandeliers and Fiori.
Beautiful glass-works of Dale Chihuly exhibited in more than 200 hundred museum collections in different countries. Colorful glass in his new garden looks so natural as if it has grown by itself.

In 1971, Chihuly co-founded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. With this international glass center, Chihuly has led the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art. Also, in 1986, he had his solo exhibition at the Museum of Art Decoration, Palais du Louvre, in Paris. And in 1995, he began Chihuly Over Venice, for which he created sculptures at glass factories in Finland, Ireland, and Mexico, then installed them over the canals and piazzas of Venice.

Meanwhile, more than 1 million visitors attended Chihuly’s impressive installation “the Light of Jerusalem” at the Tower of David Museum (1989). Noteworthy, in 2001 he had an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Chihuly’s lifelong fascination for glasshouses has grown into a series of exhibitions within botanical settings.

According to Chihuly, he began his Garden Cycle in 2001 at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. Next, he exhibited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London, in 2005. Other major exhibition venues include the de Young Museum in San Francisco, in 2008, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2011. Chihuly Garden and Glass opened at Seattle Center in 2012.

Dale Chihuly glass gardens

Traditionally, Dale Chihuly begins with sand and fire. Like an alchemist, he brings these elements together and transforms them into glass. For a glass-blower, there is nothing essentially remarkable about the production of glass from heated sand. On the other hand, if this transformation leads to such a diversity of form, such glorious color, such a complex interplay of opacity and transparency as is the case with Chihuly, one is actually tempted to speak of a miracle. With his glass installations, Chihuly is creating a world of his own.

Marked by engagement with nature, his glass installations bring the two worlds together in various projects. These encounters between two worlds, staged with great care, create an impression as though they have grown there naturally.

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