Marvin Lipofsky
March 22 - April 27, 2025
Opening reception:
March 22, 2025
5:00 - 8:00 pm
inquiries: cole@houseofseiko.info
We are thrilled to announce an exhibition of work by the late Bay Area-based glass artist, Marvin Lipofsky.
Marvin Lipofsky
September 1, 1938 – January 15, 2016
born: Elgin, Illinois
Education:
University of Illinois, 1962
University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1964
Was an American glass artist who helped reinvent the challenging material of glass through experiments in scale, color, and technique. Lipofsky studied ceramics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before turning to glass in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was one of the six students that Studio Glass founder Harvey Littleton instructed in a program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall of 1962 and spring of 1963. He was a central figure in the dissemination of the American Studio Glass Movement, introducing it to California through his tenure as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Lipofsky was an instructor for seminars and workshops at art and craft schools, including the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington; Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio; Southwest Craft Center in San Antonio, Texas; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine; San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California and the Art Department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Throughout his six-decade career, Lipofsky traveled to glass factories in Europe, Asia, the Soviet Union, and Mexico, where he took photographs of glass worldwide, led workshops, and crafted new pieces with local glassblowing experts. In this environment, Liposky collaborated with a glass master and teams of glass handlers in various factories to create larger multi-colored sculptures, which were shipped back to his studio in Berkeley, where he finished them using a variety of coldworking processes, such as sandblasting, polishing, and grinding.
Many of Lipofsky’s works are colorful “bubbles” of glass. Often semi-translucent, they allow the viewer to examine their depths. He is best known for the organic form of his pieces. Lipofsky is well known for having devoted his career in glass to endless variations on the turbulent, broken bubble form. Corning Museum of Glass curator Tina Oldknow has written that she admires Lipofsky “for his devotion to material and form. His non-objective vessels break apart and rearrange the blown glass mass while retaining the breathy, ephemeral quality, one of the medium’s most intriguing characteristics.”
Notable awards garnered by the artist include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass in Chicago, Illinois, in 2005 and a Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, in 2003. He was named an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Glass Art Society in 1986 and a California Living Treasure in Sacramento, California, in 1985. The artist was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants in 1976 and 1974.
Lipofsky’s work can be found in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Philadelphia Museum of Art and Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Overseas, his work is in Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark; Frauenau Glass Museum, Germany; Museum Bellerive in Zürich, Switzerland; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Holland; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan.
Czech Flowers #8, 1991
Egermann-Exbor S.P., Novy Bor, Czech Republic
Sandblasted glass
10” x 16” x 14”
Czech Flowers #9, 1992
Egermann-Exbor S.P., Novy Bor, Czech Republic
Sandblasted glass
12” x 17” x 18 1/2”
Czech Flowers #3, 1992
Egermann-Exbor S.P., Novy Bor, Czech Republic
Sandblasted glass
9 1/2” x 18” x 22”
GA Series #6 (IGS V), 1999
Novy Bor, Novy Bor, Czech Republic
Sandblasted glass
10” x 23” x 12 1/2”
Lauscha Group # 3, 1997
Farblashutte, Lauscha, Germany
Sandblasted glass
11” x 16” x 12”
Suomi Finland Series #11, 1992
Humppila Glass Factory, Helsinki, Finland
Sandblasted glass
12” x 13” x 16”
Violetta Series # 7, 1995
Violetta Glass Factory, Stronie Slaskie, Poland
Sandblasted glass
12 1/2” x 10 1/2” x 15”
Series Meisenthal #20, 1993
International Center for Glass, Meisenthal, France
Sandblasted glass
10 1/2” x 14 1/2” x 11”
Public Collections:
Museum of Arts and Design (American Craft Museum; Museum of Contemporary Crafts), NYC, New York
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Oakland Museum of California (Oakland Art Museum), Oakland, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco Museum of Art), San Francisco, California
Musee D’Art Contemporain, Skopje, Yugoslavia
The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
National Museum of Glass, Leerdam, Holland
Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland
Stedelijke Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York
Museum Für Kunsthandwek, Frankfurt, Germany
Kunsthaus AM Museum, Koln, Germany
Kunstsammlungen Der Veste Coburg, Coburg, Germany
Musee de Design ET D’Arts Appliques/Contemporains (Musee des Arts Decoratifs) Lausanne, Switzerland
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
Umeleckoprumyslove Muzeum, Prague, Czechoslovakia
St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri
Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
The Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Fonds National d’Art Contemporin) Paris, France
Hokkaido Government Prefectury, Sapparo, Japan
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
International Glass Symposium Collection, Crystalex, Novy Bor, Czech Republic
Crystalex, A.S./Lemberk Castle
Zsolnay Museum, Pecs, Hungary
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Museum of Decorative Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
All-Russia Decorative, Applied and Folk Art Museum, Moscow, Russia
National Museum in Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada
The Hsinchu Cultural Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Awards and Honors:
1974/76 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship
1983 Honorific Prize, Viconiter ‘83 1st International Exhibit of Contemporary Glass, Valencia, Spain
1985 “California Living Treasure,” Creative Arts League of Sacramento, Sacramento, California
1986 Honorary Life Member, Glass Art Society, Annual Conference, Los Angeles, California
1989 Distinguished Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art, Barrington High School, Barrington, Illinois
1991 College of Fellows, The American Craft Council, New York, New York
1998 Trustee emeritus, American Crafts Council, New York, New York
2002 Honorary Award for Inspiration and Instigation of the Bay Area Glass Community, California Glass Exchange, San Jose, California
2003 Master of the Medium Award, James Renwick Alliance, Washington, D.C.
2005 Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass 2005 Artist Award
2009 Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award, Glass Art Society, 39th Annual GAS Conference, Corning, New York
2016 Wisconsin Visual Art Achievement Award, Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, Wisconsin
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
1969 Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, New York
1969 Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
1970 Stedelijke Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
1974 California Institute of Technology, Baxter Art Gallery, Pasadena, California
1978 Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan
1979 University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
1981 Habatat Galleries, Lathrup Village, Michigan
1982 Betsy Rosenfield Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1985 Ree Schonlau Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska
1985 Holsten Galleries, Palm Beach, Florida
1989 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist Gallery (2 Person Exhibit), Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, California
1991 Leo Kaplan Modern, New York, New York
1996 Marvin Lipofsky’s World of Glass Show: An Historical Retrospective, Kennedy Art Center Gallery
1996 Holy Names College, Oakland, California
2003 Marvin Lipofsky: A Glass Odyssey, Retrospective, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
2005 Marvin Lipofsky: A Glass Odyssey, Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California
2006 Marvin Lipofsky: A Journey in Glass, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
2009 Marvin Lipofsky: Survey 1969-2009, Micaela Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 Marvin Lipofsky: Survey 1969-2009, 555 Concourse Gallery, SF, CA
2015 Duane Reed Gallery, Marvin Lipofsky, SOFA Chicago, Illinois
2017 Richmond Art Center, Marvin Lipofsky: Molten Matter/Fantastic Form, Richmond, California
2018 World Without Borders: The Art of Marvin Lipofsky, Jay Musler Gallery, San Francisco, California
2021 Craft Front & Center: What Can You Do with Glass?, Museum of Arts & Design, NYC, New York
2021 Marvin Lipofsky: International Studio Glass, SFO Museum, San Francisco, California
Archival Images:
Humppila Glass Factory, Helsinki, Finland, 1990 - 1992
Egermann-Exbor S.P., Novy Bor, Czech Republic, 1991-1993
International Center for Glass, Meisenthal, France, 1993
Violetta Glass Factory, Stronie Slaskie, Poland, 1995
Farblashutte, Lauscha, Germany, 1997
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inquiries: cole@houseofseiko.info
photography courtesy of Graham Holoch