Brit Micho, Curator of Exhibitions
In contrast to the intense heat required to blow glass, these sculptures are cold worked, meaning there is typically no melting of glass involved. Artists instead use manufactured sheet glass for shaping, adhering, and polishing at room temperature. Far from the drama of the hot shop, these artists emphasize geometry and capitalize on the optical properties of their medium in its cooled state to create dazzling sculptural works.
‘Cut glass’ as an art term originated in the 18th century when new techniques and fashions were applied to glittering crystal tableware and chandeliers. The cuts, similar to today, were made by large grinding wheels or wet saws that kept the glass from cracking or overheating.
Laminated glass in art refers to the process of adhering two or more pieces of glass together. Contemporary glass artists have adapted these techniques, applying them–often in tandem–to sculptural forms. Using thick glass, shapes are then cut from the glass or embellished into the surface creating abstract and geometric forms.
Artists like William Carlson, Sidney Hutter, Jiyong Lee, and Zoltan Bohus have developed their own techniques that push the intricate possibilities of cut and laminated glass, ultimately expanding studio glass history.
One of the key figures in the studio glass movement of the 70s is William Carlson , who is best known for his laminated geometric sculptures that incorporate granite with different types of industrial glass, such as Vitrolite, which was a popular colored glass in the 1930s. In 1971, Carlson was one of the foundational members of the Pilchuck Glass School, helping to build the hot shop and gaining for himself rudimentary glass experience. He received his BFA at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1973 and helped to establish the school’s first glass program.
Carlson’s interest was not born from a particular love of glass, rather it was a medium that allowed him to work with the modernism of architecture and design, exploring his interests and ideas by combining glass with dissimilar materials. He cuts, laminates, and polishes pieces of granite and glass, stating his intention with his sculptures as such:
“So, I’m not just taking geometry and coldly putting it together, but there’s a sense of a spine, a sense of a posture or a stance that these pieces have, that to me gives them a sense of grace and a sense of expression…[glass will] either exaggerate space or it’ll kind of close it up or it’ll multiply it.”
Alongside Carlson is artist Sidney Hutter– another key name in the early days of Pilchuck School and another one of the pioneering American Studio Glass artists who experimented with laminated glass technique. His work explores the concept of the vessel, exploring both interiority and exteriority through the intersection of light, color, and their environment. Hutter explains:
“I have explored and incorporated numerous combinations of colors, surfaces and forms to create solid, fragmented, airy, helical, circular and flat vessels by cutting, grinding, twisting and constructing individual pieces of plate glass. In this way my artwork reflects the evolutionary part of my life – ever changing and always developing.”
Although Hutter initially learned hot-glass techniques, his main influences of cubism, constructivism, and the Bauhaus were better fit for cold-working techniques. Using commercial glass, UV adhesives, and other mechanical methods, he has adapted this information into a unique studio practice that has contributed greatly to the Contemporary Glass Art Movement.
Differing from Carlson and Hutter’s angular, geometric lamination is Jiyong Lee’s organic laminated sculpture. His work is inspired by the science of a cell and its journey into becoming a living thing through multiple processes of division. Working with glass of different transparency and translucency, he brings the complex nature of cells, embryos, and molecular structures to his organic, yet geometric sculptures. Each piece goes through a labor-intensive cold working process of being cut, carved, or ground, then laminated back together in segments, “each symbolizing the building blocks of life.” His works bring the microscopic to a larger scale with vibrant, smooth glass sculpture that plays with the known and unknowns of science.
Another one of our featured artists in the glass wing is Zoltan Bohus (1941-2017) who was single handedly responsible for establishing glass art in Hungary. He is known for his architectonic laminated glass sculptures that are inspired by the clean constructivist and minimalist art styles found in the latter half of the 20th century. His skill with cold-working glass visually interacts with horizontal and vertical landscapes. The laminated sheets are the building blocks in which he created a vertical pictorial effect within the glass sculpture that plays with geometry, light, and symbols.
If you wish to see these works in person, they are in the museum’s collection and will be on display through January 11th, 2026 in the first gallery of the Glass Wing!