OPENING: Michael Schunke’s Vetri show is gallery’s first dedicated goblet exhibition in a decade

Opening Thursday, September 1st, and running through the 2nd of October, 2016, a new exhibition at Seattle's Vetri Gallery showcases Michael Schunke's solo goblets (as distinct from his ongoing Vetro Vero collaborative project with partner Josie Gluck). Entitled "Time Well Spent: A Show of Goblets," the exhibit features over 100 of the artist's exquisitely crafted goblets and represents the first time in over a decade that the gallery will devote its showroom solely to the art of goblet making, "Time Well Spent" demonstrates how far Schunke's capable hands take the form not just as remaking historic forms, but as a form of individual expression. Internationally known for his mastery of the material, West Grove, Pennsylvania-based Schunke is known both for his dedication to the practice of making and his sophisticated eye for contemporary design.

Pieces in the exhibition are displayed both as individual testaments to the artist's skill, such as Opaline Lidded Goblet, and in meticulously composed sets of different goblet forms, such as Mixed Goblet Arrangement. As gallery associate Ashley Smith states in Vetri's press release, while Schunke's work is "rooted in historic Venetian style and technique, [his] goblets are fresh in design." The pieces on display in "Time Well Spent" showcase Schunke's expertise with both technical manipulation of the material and artistic manipulation of volume and form that has emerged from his many years invested in the practice of goblet making. The resulting formal compositions offer intense visual interest and complexity.

As Schunke's design partner, Josie Gluck, described in a telephone interview with the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: "When [Schunke] makes a mixed group and displays it in a line or in a box it's this landscape of form. It's almost a cityscape or a landscape that he makes all at once and then puts it together in this way that is... a study of all these different forms together."

Transcending functional stemware, with their pared back, bespoke color schemes (melted specially by Schunke and Gluck for the goblets) and considered arrangement Schunke's mixed sets of goblets are expressions of the artist's deep aesthetic understanding of and appreciation for line, form, and volume. As he states in the gallery's press release: "How they look is crucial. It's intuitive and comes from a place in my mind that goes beyond words." 

In their effortless construction and design, which belies years of intense dedication to process and a sophisticated visual language, Schunke's goblets are certainly emblematic of a talented artist's time well spent. 

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