For someone like me–that likes the intersection of art and gardens–the Chihuly Gardens and Glass “gallery” in Seattle, literally at the base of the Space Needle, is my Mecca.
The Gardens and Glass gallery is at the base of Seattle’s Space Needle. It’s hard to get a decent photo of the “Viola Crystal Tower” without the Space Needle in it!
On a recent trip to Seattle our first ever, it was the first place we visited the first day we arrived. Since seeing a Chihuly exhibition in Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery in 1997, my wife and I have been hooked. this was before his projects that included gardens.
The exhibition covered many of his works series – the Chandeliers, the Macchia (flower-ish-shaped bowls), a glass forest, one of his Persian Ceilings, Ikibana and Float Boats, among other projects and collections.
The gallery opened in 2012. A central feature is its glass house, its design inspired by Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Crystal Palace in London.
I’ve seen a couple other installations of his glass in different botanical gardens around the U.S. and abroad. I can’t wait to see more.
“Neodymium Reeds” matching glass to plant inspirations.
Contrasting color combos.
Black mondo grass and black and white glass looked surreal.
Orange with orange blush inspirations.
Circles of color.
Contrastiing colors of Chihuly’s “Cattails”. The photo does not do justice to how purple these flowers are.
More “Cattails”
A “Mexican Hat Tower” contrasts wonderfully with the pines.
The Citron Icicle Tower.
“Neodymium Reeds”
A bed of 4,500 plantings of black mondo grass, is the 16’ in diameter “Pacific Sun”, an explosion of yellow and orange.
The suspended sculpture in the glass house is 100-feet long and has 1,340 individual pieces.
A series of Chandeliers hang in an outdoof corridor.
A room of “Chandeliers” in the indor gallery space.
One of the “Macchia” series.
“Macchia” series bowls. He was able to make these by layering the glass with a middle layer of white sandwiched by contrasting colors, rimmed with another contrasting color.
“Macchia” is Italian for spots.
Chihul’s “Glass Forest” inspired by his mother’s garden in an indoor gallery space.
Spectacular! I especially love the black and white glass surrounded by the black mondo grass – very Ansel Adams. Dale Chihuly has transformed gardens throughout the world with his organic glass work.
artofgardening823736298.wordpress.com 
Spectacular! I especially love the black and white glass surrounded by the black mondo grass – very Ansel Adams. Dale Chihuly has transformed gardens throughout the world with his organic glass work.
LikeLike
Yeah – it looked great in person – but when I saw the photo it looked like I had retouched the color out of the grass and glass!
LikeLiked by 1 person