Dan Dailey's 1980s Science Fiction Fantasies

"Against an ever-evolving field of American studio glass, Dan Dailey stands apart, a singular voice with a body of work that follows its own developmental thread-sometimes seemingly parallel to the trajectory of his peers and other times widely divergent," wrote ACC's director of education Perry Price when he curated the most recent exhibition of Dailey's work at the Fuller Craft Museum in 2012. Such a statement is confirmed upon first sight of Dailey's witty and vibrant architectural designs. In honor of the announcement by the Glass Art Society (GAS) that Dailey is their 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, we're devoting this week's Throwback Thursday to the consummate glass artist. 

Born in 1947 in Philadelphia, Dailey received a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1969 with a focus on ceramics, metalwork, and filmmaking. He went on the receive an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1972. Dailey's passion for glass began when a Fulbright Hayes Scholarship took him to Italy in 1972, where he worked at Venini on the island of Murano, learning Italian glassworking methods and techniques. Upon returning to the U.S. he founded the glass department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he taught for 39 years. In 1998 he was inducted into the ACC College of Fellows. He has received numerous other honors including an Outstanding Achievement in Glass Award from UrbanGlass, a GAS Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, a Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance, and the President's Distinguished Artist Award from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Dailey's colorful and complex Art Nouveau inspired vases, which often incorporate humor and storytelling, caught the attention of staff at the American Craft Museum back in the early 1980s, as they prepared for the monumental exhibition "Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical." Work from the artist's Science Fiction Series (1985-86), including Garden of Oddities, a blown-glass vessel that was stenciled, sandblasted. and acid-polished with outerspace imagery and illuminated with vitreous enamel, was selected for exemplifying new creative expression in glass. Dailey's unique approach and incorporation of glass and metal techniques in his elaborate forms clearly continues to set him apart in the field today.

Congratulations to Dan Dailey - we look forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future!

Throwback Thursday is a weekly series highlighting visuals from the American Craft Council Library's Digital Collections Database. Check back on Thursdays for more.