A Dallas artist has etched his largest show to date. Past Particles: Simon Waranch’s Life in Glass is now on view at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas. Segmented into three thematic galleries, the artist’s fifth solo museum exhibition explores the aesthetic, conceptual, and methodological aspects of glass blowing. The exhibition also marks a first for the museum, as it is the first exhibition of glass works.
Waranch is an artist at the vanguard of fine glass sculpture. Blending a proficiency in classical technique with imaginative formal experimentation, he creates work that displays both his zest for life and his reverence for the history behind his chosen medium. A master of Venetian technique, pattern work, and conceptual design, the Dallas-native, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts grad, has been featured in solo exhibitions at the National Center for Jewish Art and the Longview Museum of Fine Arts.
“What excites me about this show is its multi-faceted nature,” says museum curator Matthew Ward of the institution’s first glass exhibition, “Not only are visitors educated on the process of glassblowing, but they get to appreciate the end result of that process at the highest level.”
The exhibition’s second gallery, a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree installation of Waranch’s ‘skittle’ forms, invites visitors to enter a more meditative state. This installation, the artist hopes, will allow viewers to experience his work on a more “intimate” level.
For a chance to see Waranch in action, the artist will stage a live glass blowing demonstration on the museum grounds this Saturday, February 25th. To see this young artist explore and demonstrate his craft, it is well worth the excursion out of the metroplex and into spacious West Texas.
Past Particles: Simon Waranch’s Life in Glass is on view through April 2, so if you miss the live demonstration this weekend, there are still plenty of other weekends to make the trip and see the exquisite collection of glass and sculpture by Waranch.