Exhibition Review – Dale Chihuly, the Halcyon Gallery
Exhibition Review – Dale Chihuly, the Halcyon Gallery
Dale Chihuly is an American artist, born September 20th, 1941 who is known for his glass sculptures. One of his most well known pieces is the blue and green glass sculpture hanging in the front entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (figure 1). His work has included over 200 museum collections worldwide, and I visited his exhibition in the Halcyon Gallery on New Bond Street in London on the 23rd of January 2012.
The entire exhibition was made up of glass sculptures fitting into several different genres created by the artist; for example ‘Seaforms’, ‘Persians’, both created in the 1980’s, and ‘Fiori’, which he created in the 2000’s. Chihuly explored a variety of glass blowing and manipulation techniques in creating the naturalistic forms of the sculptures, making an inanimate material feel almost alive and growing.
With three floors of captivating pieces, I felt the layout and setting of the exhibition was extremely effective, as the pure white walls and ceilings enhanced the vividness of the colours of the glass. The set-up of the lighting in the exhibition created really interesting shadows and reflected coloured points of light on the white walls, which seemed an extension of the pieces themselves, adding to the overall vibrancy in the room. The layout of the room itself was well done, as the pieces were not so far apart that I felt I lost interest or that the room was not used to its best capacity, but not so close that the pieces were difficult to move around, as each allowed a full 360-degree view with the pieces being hung or up on pedestals, and the space around was sufficient for several people to view the work at once. The 360-degree view around most of the glass-works was incredibly effective, as it allowed the viewer the chance to look at every aspect of thought and detail gone into the making of the piece. Two smaller exhibition rooms outside the main one were almost
Dale Chihuly is an American artist, born September 20th, 1941 who is known for his glass sculptures. One of his most well known pieces is the blue and green glass sculpture hanging in the front entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (figure 1). His work has included over 200 museum collections worldwide, and I visited his exhibition in the Halcyon Gallery on New Bond Street in London on the 23rd of January 2012.
The entire exhibition was made up of glass sculptures fitting into several different genres created by the artist; for example ‘Seaforms’, ‘Persians’, both created in the 1980’s, and ‘Fiori’, which he created in the 2000’s. Chihuly explored a variety of glass blowing and manipulation techniques in creating the naturalistic forms of the sculptures, making an inanimate material feel almost alive and growing.
With three floors of captivating pieces, I felt the layout and setting of the exhibition was extremely effective, as the pure white walls and ceilings enhanced the vividness of the colours of the glass. The set-up of the lighting in the exhibition created really interesting shadows and reflected coloured points of light on the white walls, which seemed an extension of the pieces themselves, adding to the overall vibrancy in the room. The layout of the room itself was well done, as the pieces were not so far apart that I felt I lost interest or that the room was not used to its best capacity, but not so close that the pieces were difficult to move around, as each allowed a full 360-degree view with the pieces being hung or up on pedestals, and the space around was sufficient for several people to view the work at once. The 360-degree view around most of the glass-works was incredibly effective, as it allowed the viewer the chance to look at every aspect of thought and detail gone into the making of the piece. Two smaller exhibition rooms outside the main one were almost