His Sculpture Is a Glass Act

The simple message glass sculptor Howard Ben Tre learned three decades ago is that people connect through a primitive, unspoken language.

His work speaks volumes.

So does he, with a handful of high-tech gadgets.

He is dressed entirely in black, from his wool sweater and denim pants to his shiny shoes; his long, wavy gray hair is tied back and he’s wired to his cell phone through an earpiece, taking notes on his Palm Pilot.

He’s talking about “molds,” “drills” and “fiber optic coils” amid the installation of his show, “Howard Ben Tre: Interior/Exterior,” an exhibit that’s at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach through May 6.

“It’s been so busy,” Ben Tre apologizes once finished with his incoming calls that came minutes apart. “That’s the art-making business, I guess.”

His successful career has taken him around the world. When he’s not on the phone, he’s molding glass to communicate. His trademark sandblasted, cast glass is dense, monolithic in stature, translucent and opulent in shades of muted green.

The understated sculptures seem worlds removed from his harried schedule. He’s been busy for decades.

This exhibit is a mid-career retrospective, 1983-1996, of 30 sculptures and 11 works on paper. There’s also a video about the artist, maquettes (small models) and photographs from four public art projects. The show was organized by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona.

The motif of the show’s title is apparent throughout the sculptures; each has an exterior form and either an object or a cavity inside.

His works can be displayed indoors or outdoors and Ben Tre believes they “talk” among themselves.

“The installation of the pieces is a dialogue between a family of sculptures,” said Ben Tre, 51, who refuses to use exhibition labels because he believes the viewers’ communication with the art will be interrupted.

“I want viewers to take 15 minutes and to do their own work and thinking about what they see and feel,” Ben Tre said. “So it’ll be different than your normal museum experience.”

Ben Tre first discovered that glass spoke to him in 1975.

“Everyone was blowing glass at the time,” Ben Tre said. “It’s a fascinating material. When it’s hot, you can shape it and manipulate it. It’s a supercool material.”

But his stint with glass-blowing was a passing conversation.

“I thought glass-blowing wasn’t intellectually stimulating enough. It was too limiting as far as what you saw. With casting, you have two separate discourses on the inside and outside,” Ben Tre said.

Considered a pioneer in casting glass much the way that sculptors cast bronze, Ben Tre found a new means of expression.

Rather than seeming fragile, Ben Tre’s glass sculptures are inches thick, dense and sturdy as stone, and have a deep resonance. Fissures or “flairs,” which are created when the glass cools, suggest a sense of vulnerability. The way the glass absorbs ambient light adds to its ethereal quality.

Coming of age in the ‘60s, Ben Tre was on a quest to find the essence of all things.

“I became an artist because I was searching for a place for myself in society,” Ben Tre said. “I wanted to find a spiritual place. So when I’m making the work, it’s a transcending moment for me.”

The son of a carpenter, Ben Tre creates archetypal, universal images sometimes inspired by primitive vessels from Asia, Africa, Native America or Greece.

Over the years his sculptures have shifted from geometric, industrial and hard-edged forms to curvaceous, bold, figurative ones.

A Brooklyn native, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and now a resident of Providence, R.I., Ben Tre holds a basic belief: People of all nations and governments are more alike than different.

That tenet steered him to a small, tropical island during a tumultuous period for the United States.

Ben Tre traveled to Cuba in 1969 with a group of 100 American activists, known as the Venceremos Brigade. They harvested sugar cane to help an underdeveloped Cuba gain autonomy from the Soviets.

The “sugar cane project,” as it was known, marked the 10th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. In an act of solidarity for Cuba’s support of the Vietnamese in their fight against the French, Cuba named one of its cities for a town in Vietnam. Ben Tre was so moved by that gesture that he took the name of that city, Ben Tre, as his surname.

His trip to Cuba, where he met his wife Gay, was life-altering.

Ben Tre recalls sitting at a dinner table among strangers. Two men, one American, another Vietnamese, began talking and realized they had fought as enemies in the Vietnam War.

On an island distant from the political conflicts of their countries, the two men broke bread. They shared wine, tales of the war and tears. And they hugged.

After such experiences in Cuba, Ben Tre was inspired to create art in a universal language that would speak to thousands.

He’s currently juggling a dozen public works art projects that take him to England, Minneapolis and Washington. His fountains, benches, plazas and walkways can be found in parks, hospitals, libraries and museums across the country and around the world.

“My public art projects are about enhancing communication and the collective spirit of people.”

SHOW TIMES

“Howard Ben Tre: Interior/Exterior,” Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. $4 to $5. Youths under 16 and members, free. Free Tuesdays. Through May 6. (949) 759-1122.