The first extensive UK exhibition of glass installations by the internationally
acclaimed Seattle artist, Dale Chihuly, will go on display today at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
It will showcase the wide and breathtaking diversity of forms developed by
Dale Chihuly. Celebrated for its rich colour and extravagant shapes his work
reveals an organic subtlety and textural refinement.
Chihuly at the V&A will run from the V&As main entrance, in a straight line
through the ground floor galleries culminating in a dramatic glass installation
in the V&As Pirelli Gardens.
Chihulys work owes much to the grand and historic tradition of Venetian
glass. Despite its ancestry, Chihulys glass is technically and sculpturally
ambitious on a scale unmatched by any other maker. It is now a by-word for
all that is spectacular and exciting in contemporary glass.
The V&A already houses the only major work on public display in the UK by
Dale Chihuly - a five metre high chandelier designed specifically for the
Museums main entrance.
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly was introduced to
glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. In
1968, Chihuly was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to work at the illustrious
Venini factory in Venice, Italy. In 1971 he co-founded the Pilchuck Glass
School, in Stanwood, Washington. With this international glass centre,
Chihuly has led the avant-garde in the development of glass blowing as a
studio art and the broader contemporary interest in glass as an expressive
medium. Chihuly has been honoured as Americas first National Living
Treasure. His work can be seen in the collections of over 180 museums
world-wide.
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