Richard Jolley unveiling at Knoxville Museum of Art a festive occasion

This past weekend, the Knoxville Museum of Art in Knoxville, Tenessee, marked the unveiling of Richard Jolley’s permanent installation, Cycle of Life: Within the Power of Dreams and Wonder of Infinity, with a series of events that included a luncheon, a symposium, a street party, a gala evening and a family fun day. Commissioned in 2009, the monumental steel and glass sculpture, billed as one of the world's largest, makes a dramatic statement as you enter this regional museum dedicated to the work of East Tennessee artists. The unveiling of the massive installation on the wall and ceiling of the museum’s main hall coincided with the KMA’s 25th anniversary, and also included a related glass exhibit placing Jolley’s installation within the context of contemporary glass art.

 Responding to the museum’s imperative to “dream big,” as well as the massive scale of the space, Jolley’s piece is more than 100 feet long and 12 feet high and weighs over seven tons. Cycle of Life is a narrative in seven parts beginning with “Primordial,” a glimpse of the forest pre-mankind, and concluding with “Sky,” a multi-colored ceiling installation that suggests the cosmos. Visitors will not be disappointed by the breadth of techniques on display: the piece contains hundreds of detailed, individually blown glass components as well as huge human figures made of steel armatures and cast black glass.

To get a sense of the work of Jolley’s contemporaries, one has to only cross the hall. Housed in a neighboring gallery, Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass offers a survey of the current moment in glass art. Featured artists include Oben Abright, Graham Caldwell, Dan Clayman, Karen LaMonte, Harvey Littleton, Lino Tagliapietra, and many others. The works span a variety of styles and range from the minute to the large—though none, of course, is as large as Jolley’s.

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