Renowned glass artist's exhibit comes to DFW

Glass and gardens make for a beautiful mix. Just ask Dale Chihuly.

Or Dallas-Fort Worth residents over the next six months. The world-renowned glass artist's garden sculptures have found their way to the Metroplex.

The Dallas Arboretum began showcasing Chihuly's work this weekend at its 66-acre garden next to White Rock Lake. The exhibit, which runs through Nov. 5, is the first-ever display in the five-state region of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico.

"We're really excited to have the Chihuly exhibit with us," said Brian Shivers, chairman of the Arboretum's board of directors. "We've never done anything like this in our history."

Intertwined among the Arboretum's flowery ponds and walkways, Chihuly's glass sculptures garnish an already elaborate nature display with colorful mystery. Floats, boats, cattails and reeds -- each with its own design and décor -- conjoin natural and man-made art for a fitting spectacle.

"I just try to make something that nobody's seen before, and every installation is different," Chihuly said. "I try to always make it as beautiful as I can."

"Chihuly at the Dallas Arboretum" features 15 such installations, ornamented specifically for the exhibition, which includes new and early works representing Chihuly's vision over the past four decades.

New works on display include the yellow "Icicle Tower," artwork in the Lay Ornamental Garden, two boats and six "Blue Icicles" within the Thomsen Water Garden, outside the entrance to the main gate.

"The Sun," perhaps the exhibition's most eye-catching piece, is made up of 1,220 hand-blown glass elements and projects a vivid tangle of reds and yellows. "Dallas Star," named for the Dallas exhibition, is a smaller, colder version of "The Sun."

Chihuly Studio shipped the installations in five 53-foot containers from Tacoma, Wash., to Dallas. It took 12 days for studio team members to install the artwork around the Arboretum.

The final product, now available for viewing day and night, is Chihuly's 11th garden exhibition in 10 years. More than 200 museums, gardens and similar venues have featured his designs, including 97 exhibitions in seven different countries over the past decade.

Chihuly has been a pioneer in glass art most of his life. After graduating from the University of Washington in 1965, he enrolled in the country's first glass program at the University of Wisconsin, then continued his studies at Rhode Island School of Design, where he later started its own glass program.

Chihuly worked at the Venini glass factory in Venice in the late 1960s before cofounding Pilchuck Glass School, an international glass center in Washington.

"Seattle now has more glass blowers in that area than there are in Venice, Italy," he said.

Once his glass art sales matched his professor's salary, he quit teaching and returned to Seattle, where he's been ever since. His lifelong interest in glasshouses eventually led to exhibitions within botanical settings like the Arboretum's.

His "Garden Cycle" began in 2001 at Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago and kick-started a series of glasshouse and garden displays, including one at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London, and at a dozen such sites throughout the United States.

"I just love working with the nature," he said. "It brings a lot of people who normally don't go to an arboretum or glasshouse...brings a lot of people in to look at it because they're interested in art, and vice versa."

Through the years, Chihuly has been awarded 10 honorary doctoral degrees, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, a Fulbright Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships.

His glass sculptures have withstood the test of time -- and inclement weather. Some exhibits have faced heavy rains, wind, snow and even a hurricane. "I've never dealt with golf ball-sized hail, so that's the only thing I'm worried about," he said, "but it's pretty strong."

Thus, D-FW residents have ample opportunity to see Chihuly's work. They will likely atone to his beautiful mix.

"We try to look at the arboretum, look at the garden, find places that we really like the looks of, then make glass and use glass I already have -- a combination of both -- to fit in," he said. "It's an ideal way for me to work."

"Chihuly at the Dallas Arboretum" runs through Nov. 5. Daytime (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) admission prices cost $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $9 for children.

The Arboretum will offer garden hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings for Chihuly Nights, during which special effects lighting will illuminate the glass sculptures.

For more information, visit www.dallasarboretum.org.

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