Artist John Kiley has made a career out of intervening in the geometry of glass sculptures, whether with cold-shop tools to cut away sections of blown vessels, or with blunt force to fracture it, and then rebuild it, always with great precision to detail and innovative creative processes.
Kiley just opened his latest exhibition "Horizons" at Traver Gallery, where we see the next step in the evolution of his "Fractographs" series.
In the exhibition announcement, Kiley explains that he is cutting into blocks and reconstructing the fractured glass. "I cut each block into sections that abstractly reference the forms created when a block of glass is broken.... they are intentionally made not to fit perfectly back together, making the negative space just as integral to the work as the structure itself," Kiley writes, and the way he puts the blocks back together is a set of expressive choices.
" The final placement of the pieces is subjective - its iterations infinite- but every element remains part of a once clearly defined form that had a beginning and an end," he writes.
With a career that spans decades, Kiley has made a name for himself by experimenting with varying methods of glass art, and his newest exhibition "Horizon" is no different.
IF YOU GO:
John Kiley
"Horizons"
Traver Gallery
Seattle
August 2–30, 2025