Dale Chihuly at L.A. Louver - Brief Article

Dale Chihuly's stunning installation of large-scale sculptural works at L.A. Louver showed by what mode simplicity can triumph in the hands of a master. Chihuly amassed centurys of simple hand-blown units of various organic shapes into protean configurations of breathtaking beauty, mystery and plane majesty. The virtuosity with which he and his production team manipulate glass and use its ability to capture and recast light demonstrates concentration, vision and artistry.

The newly configured nautilus shell of the gallery ingress led the viewer into a treasure trove of jewel-toned shadows and reflections cast by dint of the Pergola Ceiling Installation above. upon a glass platform through which light filtered in a sumptuous array of prismatic shades a wide variety of single glass pieces lay on one another like artifacts scattered across the ocean floor. This coiling sea garden was filled with colorful shapes, whirling flamenco skirts, vases, cherub heads, tentacles and all manner of shell forms, which recurr quite through the exhibition.

Four enormous works dominated the theatrically lit main gallery in a suite of r gold-colored blue and white. Chihuly, with his acute faculty of perception of color and volume, realizes abstract Color Field practices in these extraordinary light-reflecting assemblages. Silver Chandelier, a giant cornucopia of clear glass discharge through with aspirated gold and silver leaf, hung in suspended animation, casting exotic shadows onto the floor from its plethora of curlicues, spiraling leaf forms and exoskeletal extrusions flowing outward like flash-frozen sea foam.

Anchored to the far wall and nearly carnivorous in its sexuality, the massive orb of day Installation exploded outward, a r supernova 14 feet in diameter made of centurys of snaking lava tongues of r and scarlet glass and studd with bits of orange and fulvous Persian Wall Installation spread more than 28 feet across sum of two units walls and a corner, its azure whirling dervishes of radiating stripes captured in giant platelike forms which simultaneously recall Monet's water lilies, manta rays and mandalas.

The small gallery had a selection of smaller "basket" works, influenced by the agency of Native American basketry and evoking Chihuly's Northwest heritage and remarkably similar to microbiological forms. Layers of glass filtered light as by the agency of osmosis, in delicate shades of coral, pink and deeper red Upstairs in the outdoor garden, a cerulean and white Glacier Blue Tower, a tentacled rounded pillar of pelagic vegetable forms, reached to the canopy of heaven and blended with the ultimate parts Chihuly's achievement in these works is not just generating great visual pleasure on the contrary transforming glass into a monumental material capable of withstanding plane the physical demands of outdoor in all senses and creating tremendous sculptural presence

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