Dante Marioni Preston Singletary Schantz Galleries 2017
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Dante Marioni Preston Singletary Schantz Galleries 2017 Š2017 Essay: Jeanne Koles Layout: Rose Tannenbaum Photography: Russell Johnson, Jeff Masotti, Kim Saul Published by: Silver City Studio Design and Publishing Schantz Galleries, 3 Elm Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (413)298-3044 www.schantzgalleries.com
Cover: Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary, Black Wolves, 2015 Blown and sand carved glass, 16 x 15 x 13.5"
Demonstration on collaborative sculpture with Dante Marioni and Preston SIngletary, in the Berkshires in 2011.
Dante and Preston have known each other for over thirty years. As friends who grew up together in Seattle, they developed their technique in the early days of Pilchuck. With a great deal of hard work and discipline, Dante and Preston have each gone on to individual, highly acclaimed careers, forging their own unique vision with their art. As glassblowing relies on a group effort there is always some form of collaboration in the creative process. When these two recognized artists chose to work together, they combined their ideas to encourage more introspection and form a new synthesis of their art. It was at one of their first collaborative opportunities in 2011, when Dante and Preston came to work in the Berkshires at our Glass Collectors Weekend. It was so exciting and informative to watch these two masters sharing their techniques. We had no idea what they had planned for us. Dante brought the prepared cups from which he would blow a vessel, and Preston brought sculpted figures to make the delicate procedure fit into the three-hour time period that is typical for one of these events. We are proud of our history of representing Dante and Preston at our gallery over the years. Thank you, Dante and Preston, for your great work both individually and together. Kim Saul and Jim Schantz
Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary Cooperative Glass-making and the Individualism of the Creative Spirit
Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary, Black Wolves, (detail), 2015
Jeanne Koles
Glassblowing is by nature a team endeavor, members moving in often-wordless harmony towards a single goal. Glass artists are the conductors, sometimes physically participating but always orchestrating the various participants around their vision. Though the production process requires a skilled and trusted team, the creative process is more often an individual one. When two creative forces come together in collaboration, however, a deep union of their spirits can blossom. Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary, friends and colleagues since high school, have periodically teamed up on collaborative work over the past seven years. This is more than just a marriage of prodigious technical talent and diverse aesthetics, it is a collective honoring of two artistic lights resulting in a sublime body of work. Marioni and Singletary’s synergy grows out of certain philosophical commonalities. Both express their reverence for nature with graphic or stylized representations. Marioni’s leaf
vessels are elegantly elongated forms whose delicate veining is captured through fine reticello or graphic cane work patterns. Singletary’s spirit animals, soul catchers, and glass baskets pay homage to his Tlingit ancestry through economy of form and refined Northwest Coast formline design. Though employing different styles and techniques, both artists convey the essence of their subjects instead of providing direct reproductions. Color is also an evocative tool for both artists, though their palettes differ. Marioni uses translucent purples, sparkling blues, shimmering reds, and luminous greens to impart the innate characters of a leaf. Singletary calls upon earthy reds, rich golds, and deep azures to conjure flora and fauna and suggest the land, sea, and sky upon which they reign. Singletary uses his glass making skills as a way to connect with his native heritage, translating Tlingit cultural traditions of Chilkat basket-weaving, stone, and wood working into a contemporary medium that bridges new audiences to traditional narratives. In Marioni’s hands, ancient and primitive forms are completely metamorphosed. In his African Gourd, an archetypal shape is translated into a sleek vessel, an opaque container with primitive markings is transformed into a diaphanous surface with stylized graphics, and a utilitarian object becomes an exquisite work of art. The extraordinary amalgamation of these viewpoints and aesthetics is visually arresting— merging Marioni’s graceful forms, delicate cane patterning, and luminous surfaces with Singletary’s sand-carving technique, Tlingit mythical designs, and deep earthy colorations. Adornments on Marioni’s sleek vessels are traditionally rare and, when existent, clean and streamlined. To their artistic collaboration, Singletary brings the addition of blown glass figural and animal elements. Instead of delicate spherical handles, two black wolves (a symbol of a Tlingit clan) stand upon the shoulders of a graceful vase, melding Venetian and Tlingit traditions in a singular and striking association. Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary met as teenage boys, when life was about playing music and having fun. Today, each has forged a prodigious career in the field of glass art and gained notoriety for their distinctive skills and styles. With their artist collaboration comes a revival of their youthful camaraderie, along with an egoless openness to the creative process and receptivity to the interchange of ideas. In both their collaborative and individual work, Dante Marioni and Preston Singletary embody both the cooperative nature of glass-making and the individualism of the creative spirit.
Dante Marioni & Preston Singletary Collaborations
Village Under the Lake, 2012
Blown and sand carved glass 18 x 12.5 x 4.5"
Shark Cage, 2017
Blown and sand carved glass 28.5 x 9.5 x 7.25"
Chilkat, 2017
Blown and sand carved glass 20.25 x 9.75 x 6.75"
Bear in the Woods, 2017 Blown and sand carved glass 19 x 10 x 7"
Preston Singletary Mystical Figures
Supernatural Raven, 2017 Blown and sand carved glass 19 x 9 x 8 "
Grey Olive Basket, 2017
Blown and sand carved glass 5 x 7 x 7"
Tlingit Shelf Baskets, 2013-16
Blown and sand carved glass Red: 8 x 9.25 x 9.25", Sage: 8.75 x 8.25 x 8.25", Black: 8.5 x 8.75 x 8.75"
Spring Awakening, 2017
Blown and sand carved glass 13.5 x 8 x 8"
Raven Woman (Medicine Woman), 2012 details Blown and sand carved glass 12.5 x 23 x 8"
Raven Woman (Medicine Woman), 2012 Blown and sand carved glass 12.5 x 23 x 8"
Soul Catcher, 2016
Blown and sand carved glass 9.5 x 19 x 5.5"
Tlingit Crest Hat, 2017
Blown and sand carved glass 6.25 x 14.75"
Preston Singletary "Far away from the flame from whence they were birthed, these intricate collaborative works—whose reductive processes tempt fate—stand as testament to the miracle of creation. From blowing to designing and sandcarving, they demand extraordinary commitment from Singletary and a select group of highly skilled artisans working at his atelier. Ultimately, each sculpture serves as a metaphor for both the artist’s journey and our own. Perhaps this is why we welcome the work he bestows upon us like a blessing. Drawing upon his heritage and looking forward to the future, Preston Singletary remains firmly rooted in the present. Preserving a language, a culture, and its stories is necessary work. Knowing this instills within us a sense of responsibility to help him perpetuate it. By sharing with us his exceptional talent, Preston Singletary continues to elevate our appreciation for his unique art form." Melissa G. Post, is a studio potter, as well as a writer, juror, and lecturer specializing in contemporary craft and design. Excerpt from Transformations, Schantz Galleries, 2012
Collections Anchorage Museum at Rasmussen Center, Anchorage, AK The Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA The British Museum, London, UK The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY The Burke Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Château-Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer, France City of Seattle, Portable Works Collection, Seattle, WA Corning Museum of Glass, Corning NY (Rakow Commission) Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Ethnografiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, MI Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA Fred Jones, Jr, Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA Heard Museum of Art, Phoenix, AZ Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH Microsoft Art Collection
Mint Museum of Art & Design, Charlotte, NC Museum of Art + Design, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, WA The Museum of Natural History, Anchorage, AK National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS St. Paul’s Cathedral, Oklahoma City, OK Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, WA
Dante Marioni Streamlined Elegance
Red Leaf, Blue Leaf, 2016
Blown glass
28 x 10.25 x 2.5" 35.25 x 9.5 x 2.5"
Purple Leaf, Green Blue, Green Yellow Leaf Vessels, 2016
Blown glass
42.5 x 10.75 x 3" 33.25 x 11.25 x 3.25" 39.25 x 11.5 x 3.75"
Green in Purple Z Leaf, 2017 43 x 10 x 2.5" 26.5 x 14 x 2.5" 29 x 11 x 2.5"
Green Tree, 2017 Blown glass 35.5 x 9.5 x 3"
Blue Vessel, 2017 31 x 9 x 2.5"
Blue Leaf, 2016 35.25 x 9.5 x 2.5"
Green African Gourd, 2016 26.25 x 10.5 x 3.25"
African Gourd, 2014
27 x 12 x 3"
Dante Marioni “Marioni’s work finally can be understood as classic, rather than classical, a modern and contemporary evaluation of some principles considered by previous maestri, not an homage to the past as much as it is its reinvigoration, his discovery that a new and bold articulation of tradition ends up energizing the past, the present, and, the undoubtedly, the future.”
James Yood, Professor of art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and regular contributor to Artforum, GLASS, and American Craft magazine. Excerpt from the artists website.
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 Toyama Glass Museum, Toyama, Japan Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, 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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