MICHAEL GLANCY

risd connection: BFA in Sculpture, 1977; MFA in Glass, 1980; Adjunct Faculty, Jewelry + Metalsmithing; at RISD since 1982

medium: glass and metal

talent: Thinking in glass, seeing everything in life as a square or circle, Glancy begins where most contemporary glass artists leave off – in the cold state. “I can do more with it” — such as sawing, sandblasting, carving, acid-cutting and electroforming. The result: gleaming, abstract recreations of a 3,000-year-old medium — the vessel.

getting there: After defecting from business to art at the University of Denver, rumors about a revolution in contemporary glass drew Glancy to Dale Chihuly’s doorstep at RISD. While Chihuly forever changed his view of glass, he quickly discovered the Venetian blown style wasn’t his thing. But then he discovered electroforming — behind a Jewelry + Metalsmithing Department door that just happened to be open at the right time.

breaking in: Drawn to the plasticity of glass in its cold state and an equal love of metals and physics, Glancy began to explore his belief that symmetry is most beautiful when broken. This led to bewitching Byzantine compositions of raised glass, metal grooves and grids, and copper-spattered, landscape bases — refractive metaphors for man’s invasion of nature. Unskilled in hot glass, he began annual pilgrimages to master blower Jan Erik Ritzmans in southern Sweden to gather his starting materials – blown glass blanks.

making it: In the ’80s, the Metropolitan Museum bought pieces from Glancy’s first New York show before it even opened. Collectors soon began bringing their own red dots to his openings. But what pleases the third-generation glass maker just as much is that famous scientists also collect his work. His work is featured among 26 public and museum collections in eight countries and was included in nine solo and group exhibitions in the past four years. In 1996 he was the Invited Artist at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

average day: …spending as much of it as possible in his Rehoboth, MA, studio… trading acid-cutting tips with a Providence jewelry worker… brushing up on his physics… spending time with his wife and two sons…

discoveries: “More people know my work than my face.” In the days with Dale, glass was “hot” — a small, wide-open world. Now it’s big, competitive and a lot harder.

education
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, Rhode Island School of Design