(August 20-December 19, 2021)

Visitor’s Center

Organized by the Long Island Museum, Fire and Form: New Directions in Glass will feature nearly 50 works from eight contemporary artists, all proving that glass is a sculptural creation of near-infinite artistic and narrative variety. The artists chosen in this exhibition all illustrate a variety of approaches, methods, and inspirational starting points. And they include some of the most influential and important creators in this medium. Toots Zynzky’s filet de verre vessels, made from thousands of layers of multicolored glass threads, are stunningly original and instantly recognizable. Judith Schaechter creates stained glass lightboxes that evoke magnificent flora and fauna details (butterflies, wildflowers, magpies) even while hauntingly grounded by dilemmas of the human condition. Another stained glass artist, Joseph Cavalieri, uses arresting pop cultural images from Isaac Hayes to The Simpsons in a variety of innovative techniques. Deborah Czeresko, the inaugural winner of the recent Netflix series Blown Away, explores themes of gender and artistic representation through gloriously colorful blown glass, including a car muffler, a giant peach, and a still life bowl of fruit. The married couple Bengt Hokanson and Trefny Dix, have manipulated glass that echoes an array of different visual inspirations, including a “tapestry” series that is a nod to the texture and colors of some Native American and Asian cloth. Marianne Weil, an artist who began as a bronze and copper sculptor, came to incorporate cast and blown glass with metal in her work that sometimes summons the ruins of lost civilizations. Andy Stenerson creates rondelle glass sculptures with complex color wheels conveyed through circular patterns and caning. This visually striking exhibition will sprawl over a total of 2,500 square feet in LIM’s Visitor’s Center. It will also be accompanied by a richly illustrated 30-page catalogue that will be printed as a takeaway for visitors and is available for purchase at the gift shop. 

Thank you to our generous sponsors:

Premier Sponsor:  Olivia & Harlan Fischer

Media Sponsor:  WSHU Public Radio

Exhibition funding was provided, in part, by:

Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass

Humanities NY

New York Community Bank Foundation

New York State Council on the Arts with the support of

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature

The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America

The Peter & Barbara Ferentinos Family Endowment

Robert W. Baird Incorporated/Baird Foundation, Inc.

Smithtown Community Trust