Glass Education Center

 

Jay Musler

Jay Musler has been recognized as an innovative force in the glass arts for over three decades, having twice been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Born in 1949 in Sacramento, Calif., Jay studied with Marvin Lipofsky at the California College of Arts and Crafts in the late 1960s, and worked as a glassblower for nearly a decade.

Hanging sculptures like “Blue” suggest a surreal architecture, a dream-skyscraper sprouted from the ground. Adding to this sense of a self-enclosed world are lamp-shaped objects attached like arms to the sides of the sculpture, which give an anthropomorphic impression.

Jay says his work -- found at major glass galleries in the U.S. and featured in solo shows -- is about “constructing patterns. I see things in patterns. Patterns are everywhere; in nature, landscapes, and architecture. You can pull patterns out of anything."

His work is exhibited at many museums, including the Corning Museum of Glass; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Renwick Gallery of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.; the Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliques Contemporains in Lausanne, Switzerland; the United States Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey; the Kitano Museum in Tokyo, Japan; and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan. 

Jay is based in Oakland, Calif.  View his work at www.jaymusler.com.