JOHN KILEY AURORAE TRAVER GALLERY
JOHN KILEY AURORAE TRAVER GALLERY
JOHN KILEY / AURORAE TRAVER GALLERY / OCTOBER 2012
John Kiley’s sculptures are lessons in balance and stability. His deconstructed spheres appear suspended in time; captured in mid-motion they appear to tumble, lean, and roll through space. Transparent and opaque, they draw us in to the nuances of the form; the interior and exterior relationships change as we move around them, the reflective and transparent surfaces of the glass endlessly shifting with the changing light and weather of each day. They are gravity defying and they are suspenseful — and like good sculpture in every medium, they demand your attention. We are very proud to introduce John Kiley’s second solo show at Traver Gallery. In this exhibition the artist introduces an entirely new body of opaque work. With his monochromatic colors Kiley calls on us to examine the purity of the form. Alongside these new densely colored works he continues to study the possibilities of transparency in glass; playing with overlapping color and highly polished mirrored surfaces he creates complex and dynamic optics. In both the opaque and transparent series, each sculpture is a viscerally enthralling and exquisite study — an artist’s meditation on form, balance, and color.
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“ The final decision I make before a piece is complete is how it will be situated. During this final step, there is a moment when I don’t know for sure if it will survive or lie broken on the studio floor. It is in this final step that each piece finds its own unique balance; it is in this moment that the sculpture emerges and comes to life.� JOHN KILEY 2012
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Bronze Halo 12.5 x 13 x 13 inches, 2012
Red Halo 14.5 x13 x15 inches, 2012
Contradiction 14 inches diameter, 2012
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Amber Overlap 16 x 11 x 15.5 inches, 2012
Title of Piece 21 x 12.5 x 4.5 inches
Tumbler 15 x 13.5 x 13 inches, 2012
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Arctic Concentric 17 inches diameter, 2012
White Leaning Overlap 11 x 12.5 x 12.5 inches, 2012
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Sail 12.5 x 13 x 15 inches, 2012
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Integration 17 x 16 x 16 inches, 2012
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Sectioned Sunrise 11 x 12.5 x 10 inches, 2012
Falling Nest 16 x 13 x 13 inches, 2012
Dive 15 x 13 x 11 inches, 2012
Precarious Jewel Title of 13.5 Piece x 1321 x 13.75 x 12.5inches, x 4.5 inches 2012
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Turn 13.5 inches diameter, 2012
Title of Piece 21 x 12.5 x 4.5 inches
Fade 16 x 13 x 13 inches, 2012
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Open 15.5 x 13 x 14 inches, 2012
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Suspension 14.75 x 9 x 14.75 inches, 2012
Suspension 14.75 x 9 x 14.75 inches, 2012
Solstice 14 x 8 x 13 inches, 2012
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Curved Twilight Overlap 12 x 10 x 11 inches, 2012
to Finland, Ireland, Mexico, and Italy as part of the Chihuly Over Venice Team. He was a principal member of Lino Taglipietra’s team until 2011 when he became the Glass Director at the Schack Art Center in Everett, Washington. In addition to his work with Chihuly and Tagliapietra, John has worked with Dante Marioni and Benjamin Moore and has been a teaching assistant to Lino Tagliapietra, Dante Marioni, Benjamin Moore, Richard Marquis, Josiah McElhenny, Checco Ongaro, and Ben Edols. He has been a visting instructor at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland; The Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel; and the Pittsburgh Glass Center and Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. He has worked and demonstrated in Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, China, Australia, Brazil, and Turkey. In August 2010, Traver Gallery gave John his first solo glass show entitled The Space Within. Since then he has exhibited his work at galleries around the world. John says of his work: “Constantly, I ask myself the question: Why do I choose to work with glass? Transparency, optics, the physical challenge, or a primal fascination with fire, are valid reasons that many glass objects are created. For me, it is important that these material attributes work in service of the sculpture, rather than be the reason for the sculpture. I am drawn to the way glass, and its perceived delicacy and preciosity, can create a sense of tension, concern, and longing in the viewer (and myself). The final decision I make before a piece is complete is how it will be situated. During this final step, there is a moment when I don’t known for sure if it will survive or lie broken on the studio floor. It is in this final step that each piece finds its own unique balance; it is in this moment that the sculpture emerges and comes to life. I hope that this new body of work, both opaque and transparent, seemingly stable or precarious, succeeds in evoking feelings that would not be present without this choice in material.”
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Traver Gallery 110 Union Street #200 Seattle, Washington 98101 206 587-6501 info@travergallery.com
Design: Anne Traver
Studio. Promoted to Gaffer on Dale Chihuly’s chandelier team at the age of twenty-one, he travelled
Photography: pages 2–11, © 2012, Russell Johnson; pages 12– 46, © 2012, Jeff Curtis
A native of Seattle, John Kiley began his professional career at the age of nineteen at The Glass Eye