RANDY STRONG:

New Sculptural Works 2007

at RASgalleries in Yountville

by Charles Neave
“When I got into making Fine Art Glass in the 1960s I had no idea there was such a relatively small group of people doing Fine Art Glass as a real art form. Most people saw it as a decorative form of art, that was all,” said Randy Strong, one of the nation’s most significant Fine Art Glass artists and a native of the Bay Area. His exciting show, New Sculptural Works 2007, which will exhibit up to a dozen of his newest works, will take place throughout the months of May and June at RASgalleries in Yountville, beginning with an artists reception on Saturday, May 19 from 1 to 4 p.m.
“To be part of something as unique as this upcoming show is very special. It is not just the fact that each piece will be brilliant and one-of-a-kind, it is being able to see them go from a rough sketch to reality that to me is always an amazing act of creation and of Randy’s consummate skill,” said Ronda Schaer, the owner of the gallery they bears her name in Yountville.
Strong’s work has been displayed in – among many other places – the Louvre in Paris, at the Corning Museum in New York and in numerous other prestigious public and private collections around the world. Strong has also worked with world-renowned Fine Art Glass artist, Dale Chihuly.
A graduate of the California College of Arts and Crafts, he also was one of the few students to study in Osaka, Japan, where he embraced the Oriental philosophy, a philosophy that embraces both strength and delicacy and is reflected in each of his works. His combination of shapes and design can be almost startling in their originality and execution in such a seemingly delicate medium as glass, but it is a feeling that has become a core – the core – to his design process.
“When RASgalleries presented RANDY STRONG: Symphony in Glass in 2003 we premiered his first sculptural body of work,” Schaer said. “It has evolved into a genre that has set new standards in the contemporary art glass movement.”
“In my new works I feel that I am really continuing to challenge the idea of solid form in glass. I am trying to express the personality of the medium through both lightness and movement,” the artist said. “These new pieces are physical, sculptural expressions of my passion as an artist.”
Each piece is so vibrant, so full of color and shape that they are literally transforming to the viewer and to the space where it is positioned. They seem to go beyond three dimensions even as they leave each person with their own feeling for the art, which is part of what makes Strong’s pieces so important, that and the great technical mastery that they flawlessly exhibit.
As Strong says, “Making Art Glass is like having a perfect marriage: it is not always easy, but very much like a marriage, it certainly has its rewards.”
RANDY STRONG: New Sculptural Works 2007 will begin May 19 and will continue throughout the month of June. RASgalleries is located in Beard Plaza (next to Bouchon Bistro) at 6540 Washington Street in Yountville, Napa Valley. For additional information the gallery can be reached at (707) 944-9211; it is open from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (Tuesday by appointment).

Related Information

• RASGalleries