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Seekers presents the work of Thomas P. Kelly, who creates
elegant, contemporary designs with an Art Deco flair, using ancient glassblowing
techniques.
Working in his Corning, NY studio Kelly designs and executes a
wide range of works including vases, bowls, perfume vials, paperweights and
sculptural forms. Drawing on classical influences, he explores the optical
properties of glass and conveys a sense of the fluidity of the medium.
A highly versatile designer, Kelly's works range from simple
statements in form and color to pieces with elaborate surface decoration.
His
series of Deco Perfume Vials feature graceful wings of frosted glass, curved
gently around the colored bottle. Each one-of-a-kind piece is free blown, without the use of
molds. Many of his designs combine clear crystal with colored glass in a variety
of transparent, translucent and opaque formulations.
Kelly has trained with leading glass artists, including Lino
Tagliapietra, Fritz Dreisbach and Thomas Buechner III. In 1996, after ten years
with Buechner, he took over ownership of Vitrix Hot Glass Studio, which Buechner
had founded.
Kelly was integrally involved in Vitrix Studio work that has
been published in The Corning Museum's prestigious New Glass Review 3, 4 and 8
(only 100 works are selected annually from thousands of international entries).
His studio's work has been shown at major museums throughout
the United States, Europe and Japan. Among the museums that have purchased
Vitrix work for their permanent collections are The Corning Museum of Glass, NY;
the Rockwell Museum, NY; the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Germany; The High
Museum of Art, Atlanta; The New Orleans Museum of Art; and London's Victoria
& Albert Museum.
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