Silken, 2007 by Dan Dailey — ***Silken***, 2007 by Dan Dailey

"Silken" of the Individuals Series is Acquired by the Chrysler Museum of Art

June 21, 2021

NORFOLK, VA — The Chrysler Museum of Art has acquired Silken, a blown glass sculpture made by Dan Dailey in 2007. Standing 22 inches high, the life-size bust will join Dailey’s glass vases Repair (1983) and Liquid Visions (1980) as part of the museum's permanent collection. Silken is one of 128 unique blown glass figures from Dailey's ongoing Individuals series that he began in 2004.

“As in much of Dailey’s work, there is no attempt at realism. The essential qualities of the figure are conveyed through facial expressions, and each Individual is ripe with suggestive body language despite the absence of a full body.”

— CAROLYN SWAN NEEDELL, Curator of Glass

An exhibition of Dailey’s figurative work titled "Dan Dailey: Character Sketch" opened at the museum in February, 2020. The show featured 33 works that span four decades of the artist’s career, including Silken.

"Artifacts at the End of a Decade" Exhibition Opens at the UMCA

March 15, 2021

AMHERST, MA — The online opening for the University of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition, Artifacts at the End of a Decade took place Thursday, February 25th, at 6:00pm. Co-curated from the UMCA collection by Jill Hughes, 2021 MA Art History candidate, and Jessica Scott, 2021 MFA Studio Arts candidate, the exhibition presents the artists’ book Artifacts at the End of a Decade in its entirety for the first time since 1989.

In August of 1979, Steven Watson and Carol Huebner mailed 200 invitations to artists they had never met, asking if they would like to contribute to a project about the previous decade.

More than fifty artists replied, “Yes,” and two years later the project was completed. Artifacts at the End of a Decade is the result — an unbound artists’ book whose “pages” consist of 44 unique pieces of photography, ceramics, fiber, print, clothing, painting and glass, contributed by Dan Dailey and many other artists, including Martha Rosler, Fab 5 Freddy, Laurie Anderson, Sol LeWitt, Michelle Stuart, John Ashbery, Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs, and Robert Kushner.

Artifacts at the End of a Decade 1981 by Dan Dailey. Etched and polished glass. Photo by Stephen Petegorsky — ***Artifacts at the End of a Decade*** 1981 by Dan Dailey. Etched and polished glass.
Photo by Stephen Petegorsky

“The forced perspective of this shape recalls the many steps of an upside-down temple or ziggurat, bringing the viewer to an imagined sense of the far past. The light passing through the transparent etched glass skyline simultaneously allows us a vision beyond the plate towards a possible destination.

"The combination of the image, font and materiality of the piece suggests a science fiction of a fabled or failed utopia. Artifacts was being published in 1981 at the same time as the original Blade Runner was being filmed. Many of us ask ourselves if the world is even more unreal now than Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott imagined it.”

— Jessica Scott

To view the digital exhibition, including virtual tours and audio guides by Jill Hughes and Jessica Scott, visit the exhibition page here.

Source: https://www.umass.edu/arthistory/news/digi...

"Venice and American Studio Glass" Exhibition Opens at Le Stanze del Vetro

December 1, 2020

VENICE, ITALY — The exhibition “Venice and American Studio Glass” opened at Le Stanze del Vetro on September 6, 2020, and is on view until January 10, 2021. Curated by Tina Oldknow and William Warmus, the exhibition gathers together 155 outstanding examples of contemporary art, craft, and design in glass by American artists, with a selection of iconic works by legendary Venetian maestros.

Dan Dailey, a pioneer of American studio glass, designed the exhibition layout for “Venice and American Studio Glass,” in which his work is also featured. The diversity of work in glass, both traditional and ground-breaking, demonstrates the enduring and versatile legacy of Venetian glassmaking in America.

Artists in the exhibition such as Harvey Littleton, Richard Marquis, Lino Tagliapietra, Dale Chihuly, Ginny Ruffner, Dante Marioni, and Nancy Callan, among many others, have had a profound influence on the development and evolution of American studio glass.

“It was back in 2016, when David Landau, one of the founders of Le Stanze del Vetro, was talking to Laura de Santillana, the granddaughter of Paolo Venini, that the idea struck. As he told me, 'I wanted to make sure that people realized that glassmaking in Venice was not only beautiful in itself and had its own history, but also... that it had an enormous effect on American Studio Glass.' Landau went on to invite Tina Oldknow and William Warmus, both former curators at The Corning Museum of Glass, to organize an exhibition to examine this relationship, and met with enthusiastic affirmative responses.

'It’s a story that’s been touched upon several times but has never been systematically thought out,' says Oldknow. The result was 'Venice and American Studio Glass,' which explores the many ways in which Venice in general and glassmaking on Murano in particular have influenced and inspired American glass artists from the nascent days of Studio Glass to the present day.”

— EMMA PARK, Glass Quarterly

Art historian and philanthropist David Landau is behind Le Stanze del Vetro exhibition space on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. It is a joint initiative between The Cini Foundation and the Swiss-based, non-profit foundation Pentagram Stiftung, headed by Marie-Rose Kahane, David’s wife. The aim of Le Stanze del Vetro’s programming is to introduce 20th- and 21st-century glass to as many people as possible, and to make them aware of its history, its beauty, importance, and function.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Tina Oldknow is an independent curator and art historian specializing in contemporary art, craft, and design in glass. William Warmus is an art writer, independent curator, and art critic.

They have both been curators of modern and contemporary glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

Take a virtual tour of “Venice and American Studio Glass” at Le Stanze del Vetro.

From his rural New England studio, Dailey collaborated closely with Oldknow, Warmus and many of the artists throughout the exhibition planning process. He gave studio assistant Ken Gray the assignment to design and build a 1:20 scale model of the Stanze del Vetro galleries and the 155 works to be placed within. The laser-cut, painted cardboard structure was made to fold flat for shipping, with reference photos and instructions for snap-together assembly upon arrival in Venice.

Source: https://urbanglass.org/glass/issue/winter-...

Bus Ride 1990 ink drawing. — ***Bus Ride*** 1990 ink drawing.

Glass Quarterly Features Dan Dailey in Fall 2020 Issue

October 21, 2020

BROOKLYN, NY — In issue #160, Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly features Dan Dailey in “Sketches in Silica,” an artist profile and in-depth interview by Farah Rose Smith.

Exploring the role of drawing in Dailey's approach to portraying humanity in sculpture, Smith cites Carolyn Needell, Curator of Glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk VA, who organized the exhibition “Dan Dailey: Charachter Sketch" there in February.

Beaujolais 1984. Vitrolite, blown glass, gold-plated brass, aluminum. 26 x 15" — ***Beaujolais*** 1984. Vitrolite, blown glass, gold-plated brass, aluminum. 26 x 15"

“The work is rarely repetitive and it constantly presents a fresh take on the world around us.”

— Carolyn Needell, PHD

Viva 2005 ink drawing. — ***Viva*** 2005 ink drawing.

“At once worldly and playful, unbound by the limitations of realism, Dailey’s glassworks invite us back to a familiar realm— especially now, as we all face sharply curtailed interactions during a time of pandemic and social distancing. ”

— Farah Rose Smith

Five Wild Dogs 1998. Blown glass, bronze and gold-plated bronze. 25½ x 17 x 17” — ***Five Wild Dogs*** 1998. Blown glass, bronze and gold-plated bronze. 25½ x 17 x 17”

Smith's interview covers topics of character as subject, Dailey’s history, and his recent exhibition at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Following is an excerpt, or read Dailey’s entire interview in the Fall 2020 Issue of Glass Quarterly.

Quizzical 2004 Individuals series. — ***Quizzical*** 2004 Individuals series.

GLASS: I find the relationship between artists and their subjects very interesting. Can you talk a bit about how you choose who to study as a character? Is there a greater emphasis on the visual appearance of a person, or their personality?

DAILEY: I don’t go after it. It’s there to be discovered. It comes down to being observant. There was a period when I traveled often to eastern France to work at the Daum glass factory. I would always be sure to stop in Paris. I would walk around by myself, sit in cafés, observe people. Even the New York subway, looking at faces and body language, the attitude people have towards dress, the way they seem to carry themselves by nature, the way they dress themselves. I don’t go with a particular thing. I’m not searching. Some people have told me that my observations are cynical because I like to make fun of things, but it is done with a sympathetic attitude. I try not to do something like that at someone’s expense. The drawings are not of a specific person either ... they are character types, an iconography of human types and my own symbology.

Nude Running among Giant Leaves 1995 — ***Nude Running among Giant Leaves*** 1995

GLASS: Can you talk a bit about your interest in character as a subject and the significance of human nature and characterization in your work?

DAILEY: Being an observer of human nature, it’s something that came along early. I remember once when I was going from grade school into junior high school, I went to an interview at school and a lady had a book with 10 photographs of people in it. She asked me to tell her who I would sit next to on the bus. They were black-and- white photos, perhaps for some psychological test. It was indicative of the way I see things. Everyone chooses who they sit near. As a child I took three buses a day to get to school in Philadelphia. I had lots of conversations, even as a kid. I think that’s what it’s about. You are either interested in people and like to engage, or you don’t.

UrbanGlass is a Brooklyn, New York based nonprofit organization established in 1977. It fosters experimentation and advances the use and critical understanding of glass as a creative medium. Glass: The UrbanGlass Quarterly has provided a critical context to the most important artwork the medium of glass for more than 40 years.

Source: https://urbanglass.org/glass/issue/fall-20...

Take a Virtual Tour of "Dan Dailey: Character Sketch" at the Chrysler Museum of Art

June 30, 2020

NORFOLK, VA — In this 5 minute video posted June 24, Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass Carolyn Swan Needell guides you on a virtual tour of "Dan Dailey: Character Sketch," an exhibition of Dailey’s figurative work that opened February 21 at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Public tours have been postponed until further notice while the museum remains closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition will remain installed until November 29.

Last month on May 1, Needell guided members of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass on an in-depth exploration of the exhibition in the first half of the video chat below.