Art

Item Description

Glass Sculpture from World Renowned Artist Toots Zynsky

Toots Zynsky has created Soliloquio, a unique glass sculptural vessel, especially for The Gamm's 10th Annual Fundraiser. Zynsky is known for her signature "filet-de-verre" technique with works in museum collections throughout the world. This one of a kind sculpture will be available at The Snow Ball -- a rare opportunity to collect this highly sought after artist!

Soliloquio, 2012

(Translated from Italian: Soliloquy)

Toots Zynsky

Filet-de-verre 

(fused and thermoformed color glass threads)

7 1/2 x 14 3/4 x 8 1/4"

19 x 37.5 x 21 cm

Artist Biography

Toots Zynsky was born in 1951. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she received her bachelor of fine arts in 1973 and was one of the first students of acclaimed artist, Dale Chihuly. In 1971, she was part of a group of Chihuly's friends and RISD students who founded the influential Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. There, she made installations of slumped plate glass and later experimented with video and performance work with artist Buster Simpson, incorporating hot and cold glass. This experimental work was critical to the development of using glass as a material to explore issues in contemporary art. 

In 1980, Zynsky became assistant director and head of the hot shop at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now UrbanGlass) in New York City, where she developed a new glass program for Parsons School of Design and The New School. During this time, she brought together her interest in diverse materials focusing on glass and barbed wire  and began to make her unique "spun glass" vessels. 

By 1982, Zynsky was working on pieces combining fused nets of glass threads with blown forms. She gave a name to the new technique she developed, calling it "filet-de-verre," or layers of glass threads that are fused and hot-formed inside a kiln.  

Zynsky's glass vessels are represented in museum and public collections throughout the world including  the Museum of Modern Art, NY,  the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,  the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan, and the Louvre. A recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and the Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts, she was recently elected to the American Craft Council College of Fellows.

An active supporter of the arts and education, she presently serves on the Boards of the Providence After School Alliance (PASA), Festival Ballet Providence, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the RISD Museum.

She and her family have lived in Providence since 1999 since returning to the USA after 16 years living and working abroad. (Biography excerpted from "Corning's Masters of Studio Glass: Toots Zynsky- Influential Work Transcends Traditional Glass Techniques," Glass Art, July/August 2011)

Please visit the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York website Masters of Studio Glass: Toots Zynsky to learn more about her work and exhibition click here.

To learn more about her work, view the artist's website.

Item Special Note

Opening Bid at Live Event: $5,900

Exhibition preview of this piece available February 2-18 at BankRI Gallery, 137 Pitman Street, Providence.

Lobby Hours: Monday-Friday 9 am - 7 pm, Saturday 9 am - 3 pm, Sunday 12 pm - 4 pm. 

Bidding for the Toots Zynsky's Soliloquio will be at the event only. If you cannot attend The Snow Ball, but would like to place an absentee bid on this item, please contact Development Associate Rebecca Bertrand at (401) 723-4266 x. 20 or email at rebecca@gammtheatre.org.