Artist of the Month
August 2016
John Kiley
John Kiley uses primary geometric forms as the architecture for his deconstructed glass sculptures. Juxtaposed colors and carved optic passageways create a separation of space, allowing the viewer to peer into and through the form. A gaffer on Dale Chihuly’s team in the late 1990s John also worked as a principal assistant to Lino Taglipietra from 1994 to 2011. John is represented by Holsten Galleries.
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Falco, 2016; 14.5 x 13.5 x 11.5 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Sun Peak, 2014; 13.5 x 13.5 x 12 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Rest, 2014; 12 x 15 x 13.5 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Coast, 2016; 16 x 11 x 13 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Crystal Curve, 2013; 13.5 x 12.5 x 13 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Jewel Peak, 2015; 16 x 9 x 10.5 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Pagoda, 2016; 18 x 12 x 15 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
Solstice Halo, 2016; 8 x 13.75 x 13 inches; blown, cut and polished glass (photo by Jeff Curtis)
John Kiley
Artist Statement:
When I was a child, my parents, tore the roof off of our house and began a seven-year remodel. With the exception of a couple of months sleeping in a borrowed RV parked on the street, our family of four lived among the constant demolition and reconstruction. Along with the piles of broken plaster and splintered wood inside the shell of our home, the yard was also a construction zone, full of mounded soil and puddles of mud. A favorite pastime of the neighborhood kids was engaging in dirt-clot throwing wars, and our yard provided plenty of ammunition.
One day I picked up a handful of soggy earth and began to slowly and deliberately fashion it with my bare hands. After perhaps and hour of shaping, the amorphous matrix began to take the form of a ball and eventually a perfect sphere. To me, this tennis ball-sized object was too perfect to sacrifice in battle, so I placed it in a small glass dish borrowed from the remnants of my mother’s kitchen and hid it inside a barn-shaped tool shed behind our house. This spherical shrine was perched on a shelf at my eye level, just to the right of the door. I would visit it almost daily.
Weeks later, I decided to share my creation with the other kids in our neighborhood. After summoning everyone for the big reveal, not a single one of my cohorts believed that the sphere was merely soil shaped by hand! The leading theory among the group was it must be a ball coated with dried mud.
I pondered two options, return my treasure to the shed or break it open and impress my friends. At that moment I had no idea what the outcome would be.
Looking at the broken pile of earth, splayed out on the sidewalk, I felt a sense of pride that I had created something so perfect, and a sense of loss that it was ruined; or was it? I stood there, my gaze fixed on the destruction below – not a pile of ruin but clearly a broken sphere. The round outside surfaces were still intact; rough inside sections cast contrasting shadows, and questions arose: which is more interesting, intact or sectioned, outside or inside, material or shadow? Why was I so drawn to this broken form?
As a sculptor, today I am still searching for the answer by making work that asks some of these same questions. The answer lies in what composes each piece and what is left out.
About John Kiley
"I was delighted to be invited to have one of my artists featured as artist of the month on the AACG website. For this honor I have chosen Seattle glass artist John Kiley. Holsten Galleries began representing John in late 2008 and was the first gallery to do so. I had been following John's work as he was a key member of Lino's team at that time. Since that time I have enjoyed watching his blown glass sculptures evolve into some of the most sophisticated work in contemporary glass." – Kenn Holsten, Holsten Galleries
John Kiley was born in Seattle in 1973. He first started working as a glassblower/clodworker at Glass Eye Studio in Seattle in 1993. Among his career achievents, he was a gaffer on Dale Chihuly’s team in the late 1990s and worked as a principal assistant to Lino Taglipietra from 1994 to 2011. John currently is glass director of Schack Art Center in Everett, WA.
John uses primary geometric forms as the architecture for his deconstructed glass sculptures. Juxtaposed colors and carved optic passageways create a separation of space, allowing the viewer to peer into and through the form. Often his sculptures are balanced on edge seeming to defy gravity.
He says of his work: “I am drawn to how glass, and its perceived delicacy and preciosity, can create a sense of tension, concern and longing in the viewer. The final decision I make before a piece is complete is how it will be situated. During this final step, there is a moment when I don’t known for sure if it will survive or lie broken on the studio floor. It is in this final step that each piece finds its own unique balance; in this moment the sculpture emerges and comes to life.”
Click here for an artist's resume.
(Photo by Russell Johnson)
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Holsten Galleries for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.
The Alliance informs collectors, critics and curators by encouraging and supporting museum exhibitions, university glass departments and specialized teaching programs, regional collector groups, visits to private collections, and public seminars.
