Octopus Chandeliers: I can’t get enough of them! I’ve been so excited to finally see one of artist Adam Wallacavage’s exhibits in person and my dream finally came true this past Saturday when Wallacavage’s current collection, Magic Mountain, opened at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Oh man, what a treat for the imagination and an amazing visual experience for everyone in attendance!
Magic Mountain features a series of mixed media sculptures and functional art objects as well as the artist’s first limited-edition multiple. In addition to some of his signature octopus tentacle chandeliers, Wallacavage explores new subject matter in this exhibition including jellyfish, sea anemones, cobra snakes and hybrid-sea-creature children.
He also cast some of the vintage toys in his personal collection to experiment with appropriating nostalgic, cute and kitsch imagery. Combining his passion for aquatic themes, 16th Century Baroque traditions, 1940s Americana and a wild imagination, this body of work embodies Wallacavage’s ideal fantasy flea market. The assortment of twisted shapes and brilliant colors results in a surreal experience.
Over a decade ago, Wallacavage first began experimenting with chandeliers in order to create a dining room in his Victorian brownstone inspired by the classic Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. To construct his original octopus chandeliers, he taught himself the traditional techniques of ornamental plastering, which involves casting and hand-sculpting with epoxy clay and resin. In the years since, he has continued to experiment in form, color and technique, developing his own unique glazes, vibrant hues and finishes.
This new body of work marks a transition point in the artist’s career, a master of his craft ready to expand his creative vocabulary in new directions.
Magic Mountain by Adam Wallacavage will be on Exhibit through November 16, 2013 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
Sometimes, you can see something so beautiful that it invades your imagination forever. I have been a fan of Glass Artist Dale Chihuly for years, but have never seen a comprehensive exhibit of his large scale works in person until I had the opportunity to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass during my recent stay in Seattle. While it is inarguably a beautiful city with innumerable natural attractions and tourist destinations, if you can visit only one notable spot on a trip to Seattle, go to Chihuly Garden and Glass. This place will completely and totally blow your mind and it is absolutely unlike any attraction you can see anywhere else.
I have been to museums and botanical gardens of all kinds all over the country, but have never before seen works of art and nature as consistently gorgeous as I did at Chihuly. Made up of eight exhibit galleries, a theater, a glass atrium and an outdoor garden, the “Oh Wow” factor of Dale Chihuly’s magnificent glass works is just insane, but I am going to let some of the photos I took during my visit do most of the talking.
GLASS FOREST
Click on Any Image to Enlarge for Detail
After passing through an introductory hallway where you can read brief, informative paragraphs on the history of Dale Chihuly’s career, you will come to the Glass Forest, the only Gallery in the museum featuring glass pieces where artificial light (in this case, neon tubing) is incorporated into the glass. The Glass Forest installation is so beautiful, it took my breath away. I could not even imagine how much more amazing it would get.
NORTHWEST ROOM
Each stage of Chihuly’s work represents a series, and in the Northwest Room you can see the glass baskets he created based on traditional woven baskets made by Native Americans. The Northwest Room also contains a small cross section of Chihuly’s extensive collection of gorgeous Navajo Blankets.
SEALIFE ROOM
The Focal Point of the Sealife Room is a ceiling-high blue glass sculpture dotted with pale amber blown glass Sea Creatures. This large piece is a good example of the modular nature of Chihuly’s sculptures of this type, in which individual glass limbs or bulbs are hung on a central, grid-like pole. This type of construction allows each installation to be site specific.
PERSIAN CEILING
Thousands of pieces of blown glass of all shapes and colors reflect their beauty behind the glass panels of the Persian Ceiling gallery.
MILLE FIORE
The Mille Fiore (Thousand Flowers) Gallery is an indoor garden of otherworldly delight. I think I took a thousand photos in this room alone.
IKEBANA AND FLOAT BOATS
The glass pieces in these two boats represent works inspired by fishing floats and also the Japanese art of Flower Arrangement known as Ikebana.
CHANDELIERS
The Chandeliers in this gallery were previously included in the 1996 exhibit, Chihuly Over Venice, where Chandeliers were hung adjacent to or over the canals in Venice, Italy.
MACCHIA FOREST
These flower-like bowls are lit only from above but they appear to glow from within due to process of layering colored glass on top of a white glass base. Hilariously, Chihuly’s Mother referred to these stunning works as “The Uglies.”
THEATER
Dale Chihuly
At the end of the indoor galleries there is a small theater where you can sit and watch a series of fascinating short films about Chihuly’s many ambitious projects including those in Las Vegas, Venice, The Citadel in Jerusalem and Finland. Do yourself a favor and watch all of them.
GLASSHOUSE
The centerpiece of Chihuly Garden and Glass is the Glasshouse, a 40-foot tall, glass and steel structure covering 4,500 square feet of light-filled space. The Glasshouse – the result of Chihuly’s lifelong appreciation for conservatories – draws design inspiration from two of his favorite buildings: Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London. The installation in the Glasshouse is an expansive 1,400-piece, 100-foot long sculpture in a color palette of reds, oranges, yellows and amber. Made of many individual elements, it is one of Chihuly’s largest suspended sculptures.
GARDEN
Just when you think you have seen every beautiful thing that could possibly be made of glass; get ready for your head to explode when you see the garden. On a beautiful sunny day (they do happen in Seattle) you will think you are in paradise as brilliantly colored glass flora mingles with complimentary species of living plants and flowers. Insane!
The Worley Gig cannot pile enough praise and hype on Chihuly Garden and Glass as the number one Must See Attraction for residents of and visitors to Seattle alike. We would also like to say a special Thank you to April, the museum’s in-house Head of PR, who was kind enough to not only comp our entry but to also give us a personal tour of the galleries. Chihuly Garden and Glass is fortunate to have such a passionate and knowledgeable employee.
Chihuly Garden and Glass is Located at 305 Harrison St. (right next to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail Station), Seattle, WA 98109. Open Every Day, Hours are Monday to Thursday 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM and Friday to Sunday 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Visit This Link for Admission Prices and Additional Information on Special Events.
In popular slang, the initials “DL” are commonly understood to stand for “Down Low,” indicating something that should be kept secret or given a low profile. In a neighborhood that’s quickly developing its own Restaurant Row (see Essex Street), The DL is a recently opened restaurant / bar located at the corner of Delancey and Ludlow Streets – the DL moniker deriving from this intersection – serving remarkably delicious food and offering a hip dining alternative completely free of any oppressive hipster attitude. Even if you’re reading about The DL for the first time in this review, once word gets out, we can envision this place being one of the most buzzed about dining spots on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
