Dante Marioni

Published by Ken Saunders Gallery 230 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 www.kensaundersgallery.com

Š 2012 Ken Saunders Gallery All Rights Reserved Printed and Bound in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 First Edition April 2012 Design: Deborah Kraft Photography: Russell Johnson ISBN 978-0-9834519-7-6

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Dante Marioni: In My Nature May 1- May 31, 2012

It is with great pleasure that Ken Saunders Gallery presents the work of Dante Marioni.

In the 50th year of the Studio Glass Movement museums and institutions around the world are mounting exhibitions devoted to telling the story of glass.

Articles and television documentaries are exploring the medium’s ancient origins and modern history. These fresh appraisals of 50 years worth of creative effort and output give us a chance to take stock of the significant moments and figures of the Movement.

Dante Marioni, born 1964, is one of a handful of very important artists who came along after the pioneers of the Movement had brought glass into the artist’s studio in places like Pilchuck in Washington and Penland in North Carolina. These early practitioners were working the kinks out of the studio system and exploring the limits of glass as a creative medium.

Dante Marioni, whose father worked with glass as an artistic medium before him, had access to hot-shops at an early age and worked diligently to develop his mastery as a glass blower. Dante and his contemporaries sought to bring a new level of design sophistication and technical prowess to their creative practice. Young artists who had immersed themselves in the techniques of the masters and who had great artistic visions of their own found a fertile climate in which to develop their own mastery as collectors and museums have enthusiastically supported the growth of the Studio Glass Movement.

Dante Marioni creates sculptures that are fully embedded in the traditions of glass making but are absolutely contemporary in form, color and composition. Today Dante stands as one of the most significant artists working with glass of his generation and is honored as such by museums, critics, collectors and above all, his peers.

Garnet Gum Tree Leaf 2012 46 x 9 x 5 inches Tanzanite Tree Leaf 2012 41 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches Amber Gum Tree Leaf 2012 43 x 9 x 5 inches

Black with Blue Standing Reticello Leaf 2012 41 x 7 x 4 /12 inches

Pink Standing Reticello Leaf 2012 43 x 7 x 5 inches

Red Snowman 2011 28 1/2 x 9 inches

Black Trio 2012 greatest height 44 inches

Ruby Reticello Leaf 2012 27 x 11 x 8 inches

Green in Purple Z Leaf 2012 39 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches Purple in Green Z Leaf 2012 39 x 8 x 4 1/2 inches

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS American Museum of Art + Design New York, NY ASU Art Museum, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY Ebeltoft Museum, Ebeltoft, Denmark Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL Liuligonfang, Lliuli, China Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Mint Museum of Craft+Design, Charlotte, NC Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL Museum of Arts+Design, New York, NY National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia National Museum of Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC National Museum of Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA New Zealand National Museum, Auckland, New Zealand Niijima Contemporary Glass Art Museum, Niijima, Japan Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan The White House Crafts Collection, Washington, DC Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan