Dale Chihuly at Kew Gardens: "Reflections on Nature"

American glass artist Dale Chihuly's works are currently on display at Kew Gardens in London in an exhibit titled "Reflections on nature". The artwork is scattered throughout the gardens to compliment the various plants and architecture of the buildings at Kew Gardens. Chihuly is from Washington State and went on to art school to study interior design, and he used glass in his artwork. He later went to Venice to work at Murano Glass where he learned even more about glass and the glass-blowing techniques, so there are some influences from Murano in his work.

Many of the installations are large-scale, and I am impressed at the scale of them considering that they are made of glass and must be very fragile as well as heavy (and dangerour) to move.

Paint brushes

Red Reeds

Ethereal White Persian Pond

Summer Sun

Scarlet and Yellow Icicle Tower

Neodymium Reeds and Turquoise Marlins

Cattails and Copper Birch Reeds

Sapphire Star

Niijima Floats

Lime Crystal Tower

Opal and Amber Towers

Temperate House contains several different groups of installations inside. The smaller ones are located throughout the greenhouse, in between plants or suspended from the ceiling.

Beluga Boat

Yellow Herons and Reeds

Green hornets and Gold Waterdrops

Red Reeds

Persians

Turquoise Marlins and Floats

In addition to the installations at Kew Gardens, the art gallery on the site (Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art) contains its own exhibition of Chihuly's work along with botanical artwork. There are several smaller examples of his work including glass wall hangings in three rooms and a video about the artist (which was too packed to watch or listen to). A couple of the different pieces are below, but they had so much more on display.

Basket

Persians

If you have not been yet, I recommend visiting Kew Gardens before the end of October (currently October 27) in order to see it. If you're not able to get there during the day (or even if you have and wish to see the art installations in a different light), a special Chihuly Nights event takes place during Thursday-Saturday evenings. In Chihuly Nights, the glass sculptures are illuminated at dark.