23 June 2008

Dante Marioni

Dante Marioni (Courtesy of the artist)

(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Art on the Edge: 17 Contemporary American Artists.)

Colored Vessel Display, 2003. (Courtesy of the artist, Seattle, Washington)

From Dante Marioni's Web site (http://www.dantemarioni.com):

“Ask Dante Marioni what his artwork is about and his answer is immediate: ‘It is about glassblowing.’

Marioni has a love and a profound respect for the glassblowing process. For him, making objects is about 'the art of glassblowing rather than the blowing of glass art,' and he is careful to preserve the traditions of the craft as they were passed on to him. His focus and primary interest is the working of glass, and his elegant vessels are the radiant record of his ongoing relationship with the material."
        - Tina Oldknow, Art historian specializing in historic and contemporary glass

[Dante Marioni (b.1964, Mill Valley, California) was educated in glass making at Pilchuk Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, and the Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina (1983). His work has been shown widely in both solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. His many honors include the Outstanding Achievement in Glass, Urban Glass Award, from the New York Contemporary Glass Center, New York City (1997); the Young Americans Award, from the American Craft Museum, New York City (1988); and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, Oyster Bay, New York (1987). Marioni has taught at numerous academic institutions, and from 1990-2000, at the Pilchuk Glass School. His work is displayed in public collections such as the White House Crafts Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Japanese National Museum of Craft, Tokyo; the New Zealand National Museum, Auckland; and the National Museum of Stockholm, Sweden. Marioni lives and works in Seattle.]