KILEY / MARIONI

 

contemporaries

Dante Marioni and John Kiley working together on a limited series of pieces that employ intricate patterns as the dividing membrane between separate sections. Shown creating works for the 2020 exhibition at Schantz Galleries.

Dante Marioni and John Kiley working together on a limited series of pieces that employ intricate patterns as the dividing membrane between separate sections. Shown creating works for the 2020 exhibition at Schantz Galleries.

When these two distinct aesthetic points of view coalesce—when Dante Marioni’s fine patterning endows the central membrane where John Kiley’s colored objects fuse together—a stunning harmony is achieved. Though Kiley’s glassblowing demands discipline and technical prowess, and each piece of Marioni’s cane represents decades of practice and hours of labor, the physical act of combining Kiley’s two spheres with Marioni’s reticello core occurs in mere seconds.

The current collaboration between them is genuinely synergistic—two friends coming together to have a good time in the hot shop, each of whom bring to the experience distinct aesthetics and aptitude. The singular and exceptional results of the venture are a testament to the spirit of skill, spontaneity, experimentation, and friendship that began “way back” and continues to this day.

 
 
 

_____________________________

Take a seat in the Museum of Glass Hotshop!

 

Video courtesy Museum of Glass, used with permission. 3 minutes

Catalog from June 2020 exhibition.