Toots Zynsky

American artist Toots Zynsky is an acknowledged Master of the International Studio Glass Movement. Zynsky studied at the Rhode Island School of Design at a time when the cultural thresholds between Fine Arts, Applied Arts and Design were beginning to blur. At RISD, the artist began working with glass in radically new ways, first as thermo-formed sculpture and then in video-performance. After graduating, she traveled extensively and lived in Europe (Paris and Amsterdam), from the early eighties until 1999. During that time she also designed a special project for Venini in Murano.

The sculptures on show were made in the artist’s studio in Providence (USA), where she currently lives and works. Her current artistic practice is based on a technique she developed and named “Filet-de-Verre” involving the thermal fusion and forming of large quantities of colored glass threads, produced in her studio from glass cane from Murano, Italy.  “These glass-threads  are simply my raw material.   The entire physical and thought process is similar to  drawing,  painting and sculpture  combined. My work is largely inspired by music".

Zynsky’s artworks are represented in over 70 International museum collections, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués (mudac), Lausanne, Switzerland; Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre, Paris, France; Musei Civici Veneziani (Museo Correr), Venice, Italy; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia; 
National Museum of American Art (Renwick Gallery), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.

Zynsky has been featured selected exhibitions in last ten years, (group and solo) at New Glass Now, Cornign Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, USA (2019); Richard and Carolyn Barry Opening Exhibition, Barry Art Museum, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA, (2018); 25th Anniversary Exhibition of the White House Collection of American Craft, Clinton President Library, Little Rock, AR,USA (2018); Davidson-Gerson Modern Glass Gallery Opening Exhibition, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI, USA (2018); Hot Glass, Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts, Dania Beach, FL, USA (2017); Tresors de Sable at de Feu Verre, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, FR (2015); Toots Zynsky, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan, Venice, IT (2014); Why Glass, Liuli China Museum, Shanghai, China (2014); Dayton Celebrates Glass: Chihuly, Labino, Littleton and Beyon, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, USA (2014); Designing Modern Women 1890-1990, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA (2013); Playing with fire: 50 years of Contemporary Glass, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, USA, (2013); Studio Glass in Force: Dialogue and Innovation, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA (2012); Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA (2012); Evolution/Revolution: Fifty Years of American Studio Glass, Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL, USA (2012); Masters of studio glass: Toots Zynsky, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, USA (2011); Beyond the figure: Abstract Sculpture in the Norton Collection, The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA (2010); Eyes of Glass: The Price Collecrion, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA, USA (2010); Voices of Contemporary Glass: The Heineman Collection, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, USA ( 2009); Living with Studio Furniture: Collection of Robert And Carolyn Springborn, The Patty and Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art, Naples, Florida, USA, (2009).