Josiah McElheny is an artist known for his interrogation of glass as a material and paradigm in art. A master glassblower himself, he has recreated miraculous glass objects pictured in Renaissance paintings, modernized versions of non-extant glassware from documentary photographs—and has even extrapolated stories about the daily lives of ancient peoples through the remnants of their glass household possession. McElheny’s work takes as its subject the object, idea, and social nexus of glass.
His elegant creations are often displayed with mirrors and as series, evoking a feeling of infinity. We love his use of silvered glass to build upon the theories of Noguchi and Buckminster Fuller proposing a “completely reflective ‘utopia'”.
For more about Josiah McElheny, click here, and for more about McElheny’s project at The Arts Club of Chicago last year, click here.
Josiah McElheny, Czech Modernism Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely, 2005. Handblown mirrored glass, transparent and industrial mirror, chrome metal laminate, wood, electric lighting.
Image courtesy: Art 21