SF Arts: Montague Gallery Host Third Exhibition from Maestro Artist Lino Tagliapietra

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Category: Art, Museums, Galleries

Published on Saturday, 15 August 2020 08:54

Written by Janet Walker

Montague Gallery* is pleased to present Indomitable, a selection of new and recent works from the Italian master glassblower Lino Tagliapietra. Widely considered the best glass artist in the world, this will be the Maestro's third exhibition with the gallery.

Tagliapietra newest exhibition will showcase many recent works he made before suspending glassblowing amidst the global Coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The exhibition opened on August 7, 2020 and runs through September 30, 2020.

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The gallery is currently open during regular business hours with strict social distance requirements. An additional suite of online programming and virtual tours will be announced on the gallery website, montaguegallery.com.

Nassau, 2020, Blown Glass, 14H x 15.5W x 6.5D Inches

Indomitable presents an exhibition of work from the past year along with a curated selection of earlier works. The show celebrates how Tagliapietra's indomitable and uncompromising spirit continues to shape his artistic practice. The exhibition highlights the prolific innovation Tagliapietra continues to pursue within his vast series of work including, the Avventurine, Dinosaur, Endeavor, Masai, and Florencia, series.

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In the Avventurine works, Tagliapietra masterfully integrates copper—which melts at the same temperature as glass—to create a seamless fusion between the two materials that juxtaposes sparkling bits of copper with colored and translucent glass. In the Endeavor series, Tagliapietra plays with bright primary colors suspended in a network of fully transparent channels. Nassau, the artist's newest series from 2020, features a style reminiscent of colorful feathers or leaf-like designs inspired by the natural world. 

Lino Tagliapietra was born in 1934 in Murano, Italy and became an apprentice glassblower at age 11. Even at a young age, Tagliapietra exhibited an immense dexterity for glass and was appointed the title of "Maestro," an honor reserved for only the best glassblowers, when he was just 21 years old.

In 1979, the artist visited Seattle for the first time and introduced students at the famed Pilchuck Glass School to the long tradition of Venetian glass blowing creating a cross-cultural collaboration that helped to shape the identity of the American studio glass movement.

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Tagliapietra ultimately diverged from the Murano factory structure and its constraints in order to follow his own creative vision. Since then his work has been characterized by a bold and unapologetically wild use of color and the constant pursuit of inspiration and innovation with new shapes and forms. His work creates a tension between technical mastery and experimentation that comes from a lifelong intimacy with an intricate, mysterious and sometimes volatile medium. 

About Lino Tagliapietra

Lino's exquisite and unique pieces grace some of the most prestigious museum collections in the world, including the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, as well as numerous galleries and private collections.

Left: Stromboli, 2017, Glass, 31 x 11.25 x 5.75 in. Right: Dinosaur, 2019, Glass, 48 x 25 x 7 in.

In 2009, the Museum of Tacoma dedicated a major traveling retrospective exhibition of Lino's work, which was also hosted by other museums in the United States including the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery Washington DC; the Chrysler Museum of Art Norfolk, Virginia; the Palm Springs Art Museum Palm Springs, California; and Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan.

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In Venice, 2011, the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, dedicated an exhibition to Lino entitled "Lino Tagliapietra from Murano to Studio Glass." In June of 2019, Lino Tagliapietra celebrated the 40th Anniversary of his first summer at the Pilchuck Glass School, where he began teaching American glassblowers in 1979. 

About the Montague Gallery

Established in February of 2017, Montague Gallery is the only one of its kind in San Francisco. The gallery focuses on contemporary fine art glass featuring an expansive roster of world-class artists and showcases a variety of techniques including blown, cast, flameworked, and cut glass. Carefully selected paintings, jewelry, and wood artwork are also shown. Montague Gallery is located at 445A Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA, 94108 in the Union Square area. For more information, please call 415-964-4978, or visit us online at montaguegallery.com.

*Montague Gallery is open to visitors with strict mask and social distancing policies in place. 
Image Credits: Courtesy of Lino Tagliapietra and Montague Gallery.