José Chardiet

José Chardiet is a glass artist that was born in 1956 in Havana, Cuba. At the age of four, his family emigrated from Cuba to the United States, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. Chardiet was introduced to glass as an art form while at Southern Connecticut State University, where he received his B.A. in 1980. He went on to continue his glass studies at Kent State University, where he earned his M.F.A. in 1983. Since that time, Chardiet has been on the faculty of Pilchuck, Penland and Haystack Mountain schools as well as the University of Illinois where he was a Professor of Art from 1991-2000.

Mastering glassblowing, casting techniques and electroplating, Chardiet has combined his artistic skills and vivid imagination to create a variety of sculptural forms. Drawing form a diverse range of topics, he has been inspired by African art, woodwind instruments, and still-life paintings. Utilizing the natural transparency of glass, Chardiet creates bold and sensuous sculptures that are imbued with an inner spirit, and have intrigued and delighted art collectors throughout the world. He thinks of the glass vessel as a kind of interior, a refuge for the imagination. His sculptural groups — which have been called still-life’s in spite of their energy — often evoke human families, undersea creatures, and exotic, otherworldly plants, all acting out dramas of love, sex, and conflict.

When speaking on what drives his artistic ambition, Chardiet states:

“One constant in all my sculpture is a greater concern for the interior or void of the piece rather than the walls that define it. Really for me the interior or void is where all the spiritual power lies, not the surface. This is true of my work whether it references architecture, as in the Prism, Teapot or Vitrine Series or the human figure as in the Still Life or Vessel Series. In my glass sculptures the power of the interior is increased or made more explicit by exposing it through polishing and translucency.”

Recognized internationally for his sculpture, Chardiet has received numerous fellowships and honors and his work is included in many private and public collections, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Art Museum, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan, and the Musee des Arts Decoratif in Lausanne, Switzerland, among many others.