Gallery exhibition in the Berkshires offers Chihuly at a human scale

Dale Chihuly is best known for his monumental glass sculptures that transform museums, botanical gardens, or even cities where they are installed, remaking and forcing new ways of seeing well-known spaces. This summer offers a unique opportunity to see new site-specific Chihuly works in a more intimate setting. Through August 28th, Schantz Galleries is presenting its first-ever exhibition of Chihuly’s work, and it's a rare chance to see Chihuly work at a relatively more modest scale. That said, three site-specific installations are on display, a Persian Wall and two Chandeliers in addition to many smaller works, such as work from his "Venetians" and "Black Cylinders" series.

Schantz Gallery is no stranger to Chihuly’s work. Principal Jim Schantz told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in a telephone interview that, “we’ve been representing Dale’s work for many years. We have a strong relationship with him… But to-date we’ve never had a dedicated show, dedicating our gallery space to his work and giving it a feature exhibition.” The expansive show this summer will rectify that, and Schantz seems very pleased with the result. “It worked really beautifully, in terms of the work Dale chose for the space.”

Chihuly's creative energy has made an impact on the gallery before. Back when it was the Holsten Gallery, then-director Schantz had an influential encounter with the artist's groundbreaking work. “I met [Chihuly] personally in the mid-1990s at the WheatonArts Creative Glass Center," he said. "[This was] right before he launched "Chihuly Over Venice" and he showed some film clips of River of Glass… and seeing the real leap that was taking place with his work, I wanted to take a part in it. And it was at this point that we expanded the gallery and built the atrium," the added space of which "allowed for us to specifically install a Chihuly Chandelier." With this exhibition, Chihuly has inspired a renovation of the gallery once more. “We raised the ceiling and did renovations downstairs to create the right setting for the work. It really has a nice intimacy... yet it’s showcasing really important work, at the same time.”

The exhibition showcases work from several series across the artist's career. A set of voluptously malformed Baskets are displayed on a 200-pound plinth of Douglas fir; a wall of the gallery is dedicated to Chihuly's flamboyantly ornamented Piccolo Venetians; and a steel table of uncharacteristically violent Black Cylinders promises to provide a certain counterbalance to the otherwise bright and curvaceous works. Also prominently featured in the show are Chihuly’s drawings, which, though overshadowed by his sculptural works, display just as much exuberance and vigor. In many ways, they are a more immediate expression of Chihuly’s ecstatic vision. The artist has said that “the drawings were done, as my glass is done, very quickly, very fast," and this is apparent; it gives them a distinctly Chihulian energy, while also — Schantz points out — allowing them to be “done for their own sake, expressing painting ideas.”

All of this is placed in the setting of three new installations: a Golden Amethyst Persian Wall, a Clear Platinum Hornet Chandelier, and a 14-foot, two-tiered Sunrise Topaz Chandelier, which is comprised of approximately 430 individual glass pieces. Such physically and energetically large works run the risk of coming off as imposing in a smaller setting. Schantz described to us the 4 ½-foot Clear Platinum Hornet Chandelier that hangs from the gallery’s 9-foot ceiling, bisecting its vertical space. It’s a bold choice, one that Schantz characterizes as “[setting] off the space very differently.”

Thankfully, there is little need to worry if all of these elements will integrate with each other and the space in a mutually beneficial way. Chihuly is known to be very hands-on in his exhibitions, and working with a close, longtime associate like Jim Schantz, we have every reason to expect his team's curatorial finesse to be on full display. Schantz certainly believes this to be the case, telling the Hot Sheet that, “[it’s important] to see how the work relates to each other, the different series’ within the space; I think it works really beautifully in terms of a certain harmony to the exhibition.”

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