The Seaforms seemed to come about by accident, as much of my work does—by chance. We were experimenting with some ribbed molds when I was doing the Basket series. By blowing the pieces into ribbed molds, it gave them more strength. It's sort of like corrugated cardboard—or actually, like sea shells themselves, which are very often ribbed. Then the Baskets started looking like sea forms, so I changed the name of the series to Seaforms, which suited me just fine in that I love to walk along the beach and go to the ocean. And glass itself, of course, is so much like water. If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea. Chihuly
Education 1960-1965 University of Wisconsin, Seattle, WA (BA in Interior Design) 1965-1967 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (MS in Sculpture) 1967-1968 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (MFA in Ceramics) 1969 Established a glass course at RISD, Teacher for eleven years 1971 Cofounds the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood near seattle, WA Exhibitions (Selection) 1998 | The Magic of Chihuly Glass, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan | 2000 | Form from FireListasafn Reykjavíkur, Reykjavík, Iceland Naples Museum of Art, Naples, Florida Chihuly: Masterworks in Glass JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design, Adelaide, Australia | 2003 | Chihuly Seaforms Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee, Florida Southwest School of Art & Craft, San Antonio, Texas Chihuly: The George R. Stroemple Collection Lakeview Museum, Peoria, Illinois | 2009 | Chihuly Reimagined Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus, Ohio Making Worlds, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy | 2010 | Chihuly: Recent Work Naples Museum of Art, Naples, Florida |
Awards (Selection) 1968 | Fulbright Fellowship to Murano, Italy | 1975, 1979 | National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship | 1975, 1979 | National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship | 1986 | Honorary Doctorates, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island Governor's Art Award, Rhode Island Named Fellow of the American Craft Council | 1993 | Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, Alumni Association, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington | 1995 2000 | Honorary Doctorate, Pratt Institute, New York Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts | |