Victor Chiarizia

Victor Chiarizia is an American glass artist that has explored many facets of glassmaking since the 1970’s; including blown, flameworked, cast, etched and sandblasted. His sculptural works express his thoughts about life, growth and renewal in art glass comprised of two distinctive techniques – hot glass and flameworked glass with vitreous fired-on enamels. Profound images from Chiarizia’s Italian-American background coupled with a boundless imagination give an earthy yet surreal style to much of his sculptural work. He studied at Salem College in New Jersey, Haystack School of Crafts in Maine, and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. 

Chiarizia’s glass is well-known for its technical innovations, organic forms, and spirited colorations.  His most acclaimed work includes The Botanicals, a series of sculptures with flameworked glass which is treated with multiple applications of enamels to give luster and luminosity to the vines, blossoms, fruit, human hands, and other elements that cling to amorphous hot glass vessels. The Legends and Icons series also incorporates these techniques along with cast glass elements representing mythical, spiritual, or cultural characters which are nestled into lush, clinging vines or stoic ancient tombs. Through their vivid imagery, this body of work illustrates the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Chiarizia also creates limited-edition vessels and sculptures which demonstrate an exceptional use of Incalmo, a 500-year-old Venetian technique that requires the artist to create cup-shape vessels which are then connected to one another on the blow pipe. Incalmo and reverse incalmo are complex and physically demanding processes for even the most experienced glassblowers. Chiarizia uses this unique technique to produce large vertical and diagonal bands of color within a vessel. He also creates various blown glass series of vessels and sculptures; some revealing deeply organic textures and others in lively colorations.

Victor Chiarizia is represented by fine galleries throughout the United States and around the world including: Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; The Smithsonian, Washngton DC; Hsinchu Glass Art Museum, Taiwan, among many others.