Orlando Museum of Art celebrates 50 years of studio glass

Orlando Museum of Art curator Hansen Mulford needs only one word to describe the process of moving the latest exhibition's works of art into the museum:

"Frightening."

That's because the current exhibition at the Loch Haven Park museum is titled "Contemporary Glass Sculpture: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Studio Glass." To say the works are fragile is more than a bit of an understatement.

The exhibit has more than 60 pieces and includes work by several generations of important glass artists, including Harvey Littleton, who Mulford calls "the father of studio glass," and his most prominent student, Dale Chihuly, along with a broad range of international glass artists. Some have introduced video, lighting and other media into their works.

In size, the works range from delicate cubes the size of a coffee mug to totem pole-like figures that tower over the average visitor.

There are three thematic sections in the exhibit. "Color" features pieces in every hue from bold orange to delicate pink, while "Transparency" shows the beauty and versatility of working with clear glass. "Representation" displays works that use metaphor and narration to convey meaning.

Many of the works come from the private collections of Floridians, including philanthropists Stephen H. Goldman, Charles Steinmetz, Kelly and Alan Ginsburg, artist Barbara Sorensen and Michael A. Mennello, founder of the nearby Mennello Museum of American Art.

"Glass collectors are a special community," Mulford said. "They get really gung-ho about glass — and sharing it."

Glass artists can be found in many nations, working in many styles, Mulford said: Pop art in England, blown glass in Italy, cast glass in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. But collectors tend to be found in the U.S.

"The Americans created a market for collections in the 1970s and '80s," Mulford said. "It's an American phenomenon even though artists all over the world contribute."

The studio-glass movement was initiated in 1962 by Littleton and Dominick Labino. They developed innovative practices that allowed individual artists to create one-of-a-kind works themselves, on a small scale.

Before that, Mulford said, artists could design a piece but then had to hire craftsmen to create it in a factory-type setting.

"Most artists couldn't afford to do that," he said, stifling growth in the field.

The first studio-glass works were primitive. "They looked like crude bubbles," Mulford said. "It was really simple stuff."

But as the treasures in the Orlando Museum of Art exhibition show, the field has evolved dramatically.

The exhibit, which continues through March 31, wrapped up a nationwide yearlong celebration led by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass, a national organization dedicated to the art form.

Other museums spotlighting studio glass included the Oakland Museum of California, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Orlando Museum of Art

• What: "Contemporary Glass Sculpture: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Studio Glass," on view through March 31

• Where: Orlando Museum of Art, 2416 N. Mills Ave., Orlando