Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 www.kensaundersgallery.com © 2016 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Design by Amy Stieve Photography by Amy Stieve and Russell Johnson
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
DANTE MARIONI - IN A BREATH November 4, 2016 - January 10, 2017
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In considering Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Rule, presented in his book Outliers, it’s interesting to contemplate how the cards Dante Marioni was dealt affected the kind of artist he would become and the level of success he could achieve. As the son of well-known glass artist Paul Marioni, Dante was surrounded by glass artists all of his life. But of equal importance is his internal passion for working with the molten material. The combination of his innate glassblowing ability, developed through thousands of hours of practice, along with his passion for the work gave birth to one of the most highly skilled and successful American glassblowers in history. Dante Marioni took the glass world by storm at age 19 with his exacting and intuitive command of both Venetian design and technique. The resulting monumental postmodern sculpture referred to vessels and paid homage to glassblowing itself. His early aesthetic signature included graceful form, impeccable finish, and the use of solid opaque colors, all of which made his work instantly recognizable. Always looking for a new challenge, Marioni has created many series that are short lived, The natural evolution of process and form led to an aesthetic shift away from opaque, bold color to an exploration of pattern created through Venetian techniques such as reticello and zanfirico in transparent glass. Marioni’s current work beguiles the viewer with its intricacy, beauty and perfection of form, revealed in sculptural vessels that are inspired by the stylized leaf as found the decorative arts. “When I was a kid, I heard people say that every artist gets one good idea. It’s always been my goal to keep the work interesting and challenging, but it’s also skill and process driven. I want to move forward and make more compelling and technically difficult objects.” Excerpts courtesy of Glass Art magazine, Dante Marioni: Honoring Glassblowing Tradition through Intensely Individual Forms by Shawn Waggoner, November December 2016 issue, www.glassartmagazine.com. Accompanying podcast available on iTunes.
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Dante Marioni, in studio
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In Dante Marioni’s fifth exhibition at the gallery the artist gives himself over to color and pattern, exploring the bending of his canes of glass into geometric kaleidoscopes. Past exhibitions have seen the artist explore color and form. Indeed, the artist’s monochromatic leaps of color blown into shapes of awesome complexity and scale stand as some of the most impressive works created by an American glassblower. The inclusion of a Trio from 2006 in this exhibition is a reminder of just how sophisticated Dante’s vision can be. The large Pitcher is a tour-de-force. For this exhibition Dante creates works of significant scale seemingly without effort. In several cases color and pattern are explored as many as three times in variously sized forms. Exhibited together these groupings take on a conceptual quality as the optical brilliance of all that pattern plays with and against itself. We are thrilled to once again present the work of one of the most significant artists working with glass today and to document the exhibition with this catalogue. Ken Saunders November, 2016
BLUE WAVY LEAF
(left)
blown glass 46 x 10 x 2.5 inches 2016
BLUE WAVY LEAF
(right)
blown glass 31.5 x 11.5 x 2.5 inches 2016
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YELLOW IN RED LEAF
(left)
blown glass 49 x 9 x 2.5 inches 2016
YELLOW IN RED LEAF blown glass 27 x 13 x 2.5 inches 2016
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(right)
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PINK & GOLD WAVY LEAF blown glass 32 x 12 x 2.5 inches 2016
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GREEN IN PURPLE LEAF
(left)
blown glass 37 x 10 x 2.5 inches 2016
GREEN IN PURPLE LEAF
(center)
blown glass 31.5 x 11.5 x 2.5 inches 2016
GREEN IN PURPLE LEAF blown glass 46 x 10 x 2.5 inches 2016
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(right)
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BLUE WITH BLACK TRIO blown glass tallest height 42 inches 2016
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PURPLE WAVY LEAF blown glass 35 x 10 x 2.5 inches 2016
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PURPLE & GREEN WAVY LEAF blown glass 36 x 10 x 2.5 inches 2016
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SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS 2016 2015
2014 2013 2012
2009 2008
2007 2006 2004 2003
2002 2000 1998 1997
1995 1993 1992 1991 1990 1988
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The Westmoreland Museum of American Art / All About Color and Geometry: Selections From the Diana and Peter Jannetta Gift of Art / Greensburg, PA National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland / Visiting Artist Collection from the Museum of Glass / Sunderland, England Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum / Greek Vases: From Myth to Modern / Aichi, Japan Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities / Fired: Glass / Arvada, CO Philadelphia Museum of Art / Tradition Reinvented: Italian and American Glass Art / Philadelphia, PA The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University / Luminous Allure: Studio Glass from the Collection of Audrey & Norbert Gaelen / University Park, PA Palm Springs Art Museum / Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest / Palm Springs, CA Wichita Art Museum / Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest / Wichita, KS Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft / Ritual & Residue: The Art of Drink / Louisville, KY Museum of Glass / Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest / Tacoma, WA Muskegon Museum or Art / Some Like it Hot: Color from the Collection / Muskegon, MI The Columbus Museum / Feel the Heat: Contemporary Glass Sculpture / Columbus, GA Tacoma Art Museum / The Marioni Family: Radical Experimentation in Glass and Jewelry / Tacoma, WA Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft / 50 Years of Studio Glass / Louisville, KY Cleveland Museum of Art / Studio Glass in Focus: Dialogue and Innovation / Cleveland, OH Museum of Fine Arts / Global + Local: Studio and Contemporary Glass on Florida’s West Coast / St. Petersburg, FL Mobile Museum of Art / The Harverty Collection of International Studio Glass: Redux / Mobile, AL Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art / Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern / Virginia Beach, VA Museum of Glass / Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern / Tacoma, WA Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University / Contemporary Glass / Stanford, CA Farnsworth Art Museum / A Gathering of Contemporary Glass: Artists from Haystack and Pilchuck / Rockland, ME Amarillo Museum of Art / Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern / Amarillo, TX Muskegon Museum of Art / Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern / Muskegon, MI Everhart Museum / Capturing The Light: Masters of Contemporary Glass / Scranton, PA Liuligongfang Museum and Gallery / Group Exhibition / Shanghai, China Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (IVSLA) / Glass in the World Today / Venice, Italy Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts / Trial by Fire: Contemporary Studio Glass / Jacksonville, FL Norton Museum of Art / Fire and Form: The Art of Contemporary Art / Palm Beach, FL Toledo Museum of Art / Contemporary Directions, Glass from the Maxine and William Block Collection / Toledo, OH Carnegie Museum of Art / Contemporary Directions, Glass from the Maxine and William Block Collection / Pittsburg, PA Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (previously known as Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation) / Millennium Glass / Louisville, KY Palazzo Ducale and Museo Fortuny / International New Glass: Venezia Aperto Vetro / Venice, Italy Fresno Art Museum / Marioni/Marioni / Fresno, CA Cleveland Museum of Art / Group Exhibition / Cleveland, OH Bellevue Arts Museum / Heir Apparent: Translating the Secrets of Venetian Glass / Bellevue, WA Museum of Fine Arts / Glass Today by American Studio Artists / Boston, MA Huntsville Museum / Embracing Beauty / Huntsville, AL Seattle Art Museum / Holding the Past: Historicism in Northwest Glass Sculpture / Seattle, WA Carnegie Museum of Art / Formed By Fire / Pittsburg, PA Whatcom Museum / Clearly Art: Pilchuck’s Glass Legacy / Bellingham, WA Bellevue Art Museum / Pilchuck Glass / Bellevue, WA American Craft Museum / Vessels / New York, NY American Craft Museum / Young Americans / New York, NY Bellevue Art Museum / Pilchuck School: The Great Northwest Glass Experiment / Bellevue, WA
AWARDS 2016 2012 2002 1997 1988 1987
Recipient of the Libenský | Brychtová Award / Pilchuck Glass School / Seattle, WA Elected Fellow of the American Craft Council College of Fellows / New York, NY First Place, Reticello Competition, Ebeltoft Museum / Ebeltoft, Denmark Outstanding Achievement in Glass, Urban Glass Award / New York, NY Young Americans Award, American Craft Museum Council / New York, NY The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS The White House Collection of American Crafts / Washington, DC Tacoma Art Museum / Tacoma, WA Seattle Art Museum / Seattle, WA Corning Museum of Glass / Corning, NY Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Los Angeles, CA The Museum of Art and Design / New York, NY Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery / Washington, DC Carnegie Museum of Art / Pittsburgh, PA The Westmoreland Museum of American Art / Greensburg, PA Birmingham Museum of Art / Birmingham, AL Chrysler Museum of Art / Norfolk, VA Cincinnati Art Museum / Cincinnati, OH Columbia Museum of Art / Columbia, SC The Museum of Fine Arts / Houston, TX Hunter Museum of American Art / Chattanooga, TN The Henry Ford Museum / Dearborn, MI Flint Institute of Arts / Flint, MI Racine Art Museum / Racine, WI Vero Beach Museum of Art / Vero Beach, FL Huntsville Museum of Art / Huntsville, AL Mint Museum of Craft and Design / Charlotte, NC Mobile Museum of Art / Mobile, AL Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts / Suffolk VA New Orleans Museum of Art / New Orleans, LA Philadelphia Museum of Art / Philadelphia, PA Whatcom Museum / Bellingham, WA Washington State University’s Museum of Art / Pullman, WA University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum / Miami, FL Western Washington University / Bellingham, WA University of Missouri’s Museum of Art and Archaeology / Columbia, MO Stanford University’s Iris & Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts / Stanford, CA Arizona State University’s Art Museum / Tempe, AZ Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Quebec, Canada Victoria and Albert Museum / London, England Scottish National Gallery / Edinburgh, Scotland Ebeltoft Glass Museum / Ebeltoft, Denmark National Museum if Fine Arts / Stockholm, Sweden The National Museum of Modern Art / Tokyo, Japan Niijima Glass Art Center / Niijima, Japan Koganezaki Glass Museum / Shizuoka, Japan Yokohama Museum of Art / Yokohama, Japan Toyama Glass Museum / Toyama, Japan Liuli China Museum / Shanghai, China New Zealand National Museum / Auckland, New Zealand National Gallery of Victoria / Melbourne, Australia Powerhouse Museum / Sydney, Australia
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