a new lease on life…

Artist Richard Marquis works in a studio on Whidbey Island, Washington that is part 16th century kunst und wunderkammen and part retro auto body shop. His encyclopedic collection of ordinary things—from baseball gloves to boat motors, lanterns to license plates, tools to toys—reflects the artist’s interests and becomes inspiration for his work. Stacked in shelves, hanging from the rafters, filling old dishwashers, these discarded ephemera get a new lease on life in Marquis’ kingdom.

An insightful thinker, Marquis teems with ideas and notions that he wants to render in glass. As a glass master, he has an impressive repertoire of skills and techniques to achieve this goal. And as an artist, he shares an irreverently smart perspective on the world. In the process, he creates a diverse, clever, and evolving body of work. 

Richard Marquis studied ceramics and glassblowing at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s but was compelled to Murano, Italy by a thirst to learn from and work with the world’s glass masters. There, Marquis learned to make the murrine cane for which is so well-known today. He was especially drawn to murrine because of how it can be infinitely stretched and cut, offering endless possibility for patterning.  

What makes Marquis’ glass work so interesting is that simple forms belie a confluence of ideas and influences. In every work by Marquis, clever and ironic imagery results from studied practice and thoughtful manipulation of both the media and the message.

Marquis shares his home with his wife, assemblage artist Johanna Nitzke Marquis. He explains:

Meet the Artist

©2012 Museum of Glass

Available Works at the Schantz Galleries

About the Artist

Richard Marquis studied ceramics and glass at the University of California, Berkeley during the 1960s. He received their Eisner Prize for Design and the President’s Undergraduate Fellowship, enabling him to build his own glassblowing studio. In 1969, through a Fullbright-Hayes Fellowship, Marquis spent a year working at the Venini Fabbrica in Murano, Italy. Over the years, he has returned there many times to hone his skill and learn more from the masters. In 1972, he produced his famous Lord’s Prayer Murrina, as part of his UC Berkeley master’s thesis. In 1990, he begins his series of Marquiscarpa, pieces based on the work Carlo Scarpa did at Venini with Lino Tagliapietra. He has exhibited extensively across the world, from the Seattle Art Museum to The Hague to Asia. He has always freely shared his knowledge by teaching and demonstrating throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand; his glassblowing has influenced an entire generation of artists working in glass who aspire to his technical mastery and the originality of his voice. Richard Marquis : Keepers, through December 2020 is an exhibition at the Museum of Glass, curated from the artist’s archives, his “keepers,” the exhibition includes facets of Marquis’s work that have rarely been exhibited, such as ceramics and prints.

Photos from a visit to “RICHARD MARQUIS: KEEPERS” at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma.

Among his recent awards are: Neddy Artist Fellowship, Seattle (2010); James Renwick Alliance Masters of the Medium Award from Smithsonian Institute (2009); Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Alliance of Contemporary Glass (2006) and the Glass Art Society (2005); Elected to College of Fellows  of the American Craft Council (New York; 1995); Fulbright-Hayes Grant to study in New Zealand (1982 and 1988); NEA Grants (1974, 78, 81, 90). A monograph Richard Marquis Objects was published on his work in 1997, and his work is represented in nearly fifty public collections.