DANTE MARIONI
Dante Marioni was exposed to and enamored of glassblowing by the age of 15, when he moved with his family to Seattle. The son of pioneering studio glass artist Paul Marioni, Dante Marioni grew up with a family of artists that includes two well-known uncles, painter Joseph Marioni and conceptual artist Tom Marioni. Dante received an intensive early training at Pilchuck School in Stanwood, Washington, working overtime to practice glassblowing. Here, he met Lino Tagliapietra, whom he credits as the greatest living glass artist, and whom he gratefully calls mentor. Marioni is strongly inspired by Benjamin Moore (some of his more monumentally tall and thin vases are created in Moore’s studio) and Richard Marquis (with whom he developed the mosaic technique).
By the late-1980s, Marioni could claim his own successful career, exhibiting in major galleries and museums such as the Bellevue Art Museum, Washington and the American Craft Museum, New York. In 1995, he was invited to the Clinton White House as part of an exhibition, and his work graced the cover of the accompanying publication, The White House Collection of American Crafts. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. His works are part of major collections and museums throughout the world, including: the Corning Museum of Glass (NY); the Chrysler Museum (Norfolk, VA); the New Zealand National Museum of Art (Wellington); the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC); and the Yokohama Museum of Art (Japan).
Marioni’s work developed out of the Venetian tradition—both in form and method—with an elegance and whimsy that belies its technical excellence. His mosaic murrini vases were inspired by Venetian architect Carlos Scarpa who made objects for the Venini Factory by fusing tiles together and rolling them on the blowpipe. Marioni has also mastered reticello—a difficult decorative lace-like technique used in Murano in which two parts are fused together in an overlapping pattern, trapping little bubbles of air. What is unique about Marioni is his penchant for working in groups, creating still-life compositions of multiple variations on a theme. His groupings might be inspired by a form (like a Venetian pilgrim flask), a color (like a particularly attractive blue glass color bar), a pattern (like straight parallel lines), or an object (like an acorn).
He is still drawn to the studio first and foremost to practice glassblowing, attempting each day to do it well, create beauty, and bring something original to the art form. He loves the physical element of working with glass, the tension of creating the object from start to finish without stopping. That he gets to do so with a team of some of his closest friends is an added bonus.
Selected Museum Collections
The White House Collection of American Crafts, Washington, DC
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Selected Museum Exhibitions
2016 #BeTheCurator; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
All About Color and Geometry: Selections From the Diana and Peter Jannetta Gift of Art; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, PA
2015 Visiting Artist Collection from the Museum of Glass, National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, England
Greek Vases: From Myth to Modern; Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi, Japan
Fired: Glass; Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO
Tradition Reinvented: Italian and American Glass Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Luminous Allure: Studio Glass from the Collection of Audrey & Norbert Gaelen; The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, University Park, PA
2014 Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest; Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Ritual & Residue: The Art of Drink; Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY
2013 Links: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
Some Like it Hot: Color from the Collection; Muskegon Museum or Art, Muskegon, MI
Feel the Heat: Contemporary Glass Sculpture; The Columbus Museum, Columbus,
2012 The Marioni Family: Radical Experimentation in Glass and Jewelry; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
50 Years of Studio Glass; Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY
Studio Glass in Focus: Dialogue and Innovation; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Global + Local: Studio and Contemporary Glass on Florida’s West Coast; Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg, FL
2012 The Harverty Collection of International Studio Glass: Redux; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
2009 Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA
2008 Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA
Contemporary Glass; Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
A Gathering of Contemporary Glass: Artists from Haystack and Pilchuck; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
2007 Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern; Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX
Dante Marioni: Form, Color, Pattern; Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI
2006 Capturing The Light: Masters of Contemporary Glass; Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA
Group Exhibition; Liuligongfang Museum and Gallery, Shanghai, China
2004 Glass in the World Today; Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (IVSLA), Venice, Italy
2003 Trial by Fire: Contemporary Studio Glass; Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Jacksonville, FL
Fire and Form: The Art of Contemporary Art; Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL
Contemporary Directions, Glass from the Maxine and William Block Collection; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
2002 Contemporary Directions, Glass from the Maxine and William Block Collection; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
2000 Millennium Glass; Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (known as Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation in 2000), Louisville, KY
1998 International New Glass: Venezia Aperto Vetro; Palazzo Ducale and Museo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
Marioni/Marioni; Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA
1997 Group Exhibition; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Heir Apparent: Translating the Secrets of Venetian Glass; Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA
Glass Today by American Studio Artists; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Embracing Beauty; Huntsville Museum, Huntsville, AL
1995 Holding the Past: Historicism in Northwest Glass Sculpture; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
1993 Formed By Fire; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA
1992 Clearly Art: Pilchuck’s Glass Legacy; Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA
1991 Pilchuck Glass; Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA
1990 Vessels; American Craft Museum, New York, NY
1988 Young Americans; American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Pilchuck School: The Great Northwest Glass Experiment; Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA