Dales Three works at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, with The Pilchuck Glass School are just beautiful. If your in Venice May 5th, make a visit to see each work displayed. Jamie Forbes, Publisher Finearrmagazineblog.blogspot.com, and SunstormFineartmagazine.com, Love Art Fun !!!
CHIHULY: Venice 2026 Opens May 5
with Three Monumental New Works on the Grand Canal
and an Archival Exhibition
Presented by Pilchuck Glass School and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
Venice, May 5, 2026 – Thirty years after transforming the city and its canals with his groundbreaking Chihuly Over Venice project, world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly returns to the source of his inspiration with CHIHULY: Venice 2026. Presented by Pilchuck Glass School and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, CHIHULY: Venice 2026 will be anchored by three dramatic new sculptures installed along the Grand Canal, celebrating the artist’s enduring dialogue with the city that fundamentally shaped his career. The installations will be accompanied by an interpretive and archival center curated by Suzanne Geiss, housed at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti at Palazzo Loredan. The exhibition opens May 5, concurrent with the Venice Biennale and in association with The Venice Glass Week 2026, closing on November 14, 2026.
“These three new sculptures are a tribute to the city that's inspired me for the last 60 years. It’s an honor to be back in this beautiful city that has had such an impact on who I am as an artist,” said artist Dale Chihuly.
The three new outdoor works, all viewable from the top of the Accademia Bridge, incorporate new forms to extend the formal vocabulary Chihuly first began developing in Venice and then over the course of his nearly 60-year career.
Gold Tower (2025)
Location: Palazzo Franchetti Garden, Venice, installed 2026
Dimensions: 31 feet tall
Description: Blown glass and steel armature
The Gold Tower is composed of a large variety of glass shapes. While the work is arranged vertically, its internal dynamic is centrifugal, pulling the viewer’s eye in circular motions across the surface. Continual experimentation is visible throughout the work, with new elements emerging that expand the artist’s vocabulary in decisive ways. The many gold tones shift from honeyed translucence to deeper amber, and light penetrates the elements in different ways, producing a layered glow that changes with distance and angle, as well as the time of day.
Blue Green Tower (2025)
Location: Palazzo Balbi Valier, Venice, installed 2026
Dimensions: 26.5 feet tall
Description: Blown glass and steel armature
The Blue Green Tower elements are intentionally limited, so that color and chromatic transition provide the work’s energy. Deep blues anchor the lower part, cooling the base and stabilizing the structure. As the column rises, greens appear and intertwine, producing a gradual chromatic shift. The interaction produces a layered chiaroscuro that changes throughout the day.
End of the Day Chandelier (2025)
Location: Terrace of Palazzo Querini alla Carità , overlooking the Grand Canal west of the Accademia Bridge, installed 2026
Dimensions: 16 feet tall
Description: Blown glass and steel armature
The End of Day Chandelier is composed of hundreds of individually blown elements—coils, tendrils, bulbs, and elongated forms—which are gathered into a single suspended body around a central gravitational axis. Forms radiate, curl, and droop, held in tension by suspension rather than compression. Color operates episodically rather than harmonically. Yellows, blues, reds, and greens cluster and disperse. The work’s name is inspired by traditional glassblowing practice, which repurposes residual glass at the end of the day’s production.
Descriptions by Suzanne Geiss
“What better time to revisit the city that transformed Dale’s life and career than on the 30thanniversary of Chihuly Over Venice? It will be a chance to reflect on his legacy, the impact he has had, and the inspiration we have all received from this remarkable city,” said Leslie Jackson Chihuly, President and CEO of Chihuly Studio, and Project Director of the Venice project in 1996.
The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, at Palazzo Loredan, in Campo Santo Stefano, presents the archival record of Chihuly Over Venice alongside objects and documentation spanning Chihuly’s broader practice. Photographs, faxes, production notes, and film trace the collaborative process behind the 1996 project—the international glassblowing sessions, the logistical coordination, and the installation of fourteen monumental Chandeliers throughout the city.
The Istituto will also highlight one of Chihuly’s most important innovations, represented by a grouping of Celadon Baskets, made in 2017 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Baskets series. These vessels actively embrace asymmetry, collapse, and mutation—unprecedented forms that intentionally challenge the centuries of technical precision and tradition found in Murano glassblowing and demonstrate his uniquely American approach.
“Venice has long been a site of transformation for Chihuly—a place where his approach to making fundamentally shifted. CHIHULY: Venice 2026 returns to that moment with greater concentration, bringing decades of experimentation into focus. The Grand Canal sculptures extend the ambition and experimentation that defined Chihuly Over Venice in 1996, while the exhibition at the Istituto Veneto foregrounds the collaborative, process-driven structure of his practice,” said Suzanne Geiss, curator of the Chihuly presentation at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti at Palazzo Loredan.
Now available is a richly illustrated accompanying exhibition catalog, edited by Geiss. It includes two forewords from the presenting sponsors, an introduction from Leslie Jackson Chihuly, and an important new essay about Chihuly’s practice and the impact of Venice on his career by Geiss. The publication will also offer an in-depth look at the original Chihuly Over Venice project (1995–96), as well as new photography of the sculptures presented along the Grand Canal in 2026.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (Palazzo Loredan)
Campo S. Stefano, San Marco 2945, 30124 Venezia
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Opening hours are subject to change
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly is an American artist who transforms spaces with experiments in color, light, transparency, and form. He is known for his exhibitions and large-scale architectural installations around the world and for revolutionizing the studio glass movement. Chihuly works with a variety of media including glass, paint, charcoal, neon, ice and Polyvitro, and his work is included in more than 200 museum collections worldwide, including Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Major exhibitions include Chihuly Over Venice (1995–96); Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem(1999); de Young Museum in San Francisco (2008); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2011); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (2012); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2013); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2016); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas (2017); Groninger Museum, Groningen, the Netherlands (2018); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London (2019); Gardens by the Bay, Singapore (2021); and Adelaide Botanic Garden, Australia (2024–25). Chihuly Garden and Glass, a long-term exhibition located at the Seattle Center, opened in 2012.
PRESENTERS
Pilchuck Glass School fosters and educates a diverse worldwide community that explores the creative use of glass in art and design. Pilchuck is an international center for glass art education. Their serene campus in Stanwood, Washington, is nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains amidst a working tree farm.
From May through September every year, Pilchuck’s program offers a series of courses for all skill levels, as well as residencies for established artists in all media. Summer sessions vary in length and offer concurrent courses in a variety of glassworking processes. Immersive workshops taught by world-renowned artists emphasize experimentation and teamwork while fostering individual initiative and expression. New and experienced artists alike often make tremendous conceptual and artistic progress in their short time at Pilchuck. Combining a deep focus on glass, access to a variety of resources, a picturesque Pacific Northwest setting and an ever-expanding international community of artists, Pilchuck has become the most comprehensive educational center in the world for glass artists.
“Pilchuck Glass School is thrilled to support Chihuly: Venice 2026,” said Donna Davies, Executive Director. “Pilchuck exists because of Dale and his indomitable generosity and vision. The inspiration and collaboration he gleaned from his time in Venice paved the way for him to found a school built on a commitment of collaboration, experimentation and exploration. Since Pilchuck’s first summer workshop under a tent on a hill in 1971, the collision of artistic traditions from around the world has been a hallmark of the Pilchuck experience. Now a globally acclaimed, state-of-the-art facility, this global exchange of ideas continues and is a testament to Dale’s vision, inspiration and global reach.”
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the world’s most significant botanic and sculpture experiences, was named the Best Sculpture Park in the United States in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, and is regularly listed in the 100-most-visited museums in the world and 15-most-visited museums in the United States by The Art Newspaper, the leading global art news publication. The permanent collection highlights hundreds of sculptures from internationally acclaimed artists Magdalena Abakanowicz, El Anatsui, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Chihuly, Mark di Suvero, Marshall Fredericks, Henry Moore, Beverly Pepper, Jaume Plensa, Auguste Rodin, Richard Serra, Yinka Shonibare CBE, and Ai Weiwei, among others. Indoor galleries with changing sculpture exhibitions have presented numerous solo shows, including artists Jonathan Borofsky, Edgar Degas, Jim Dine, Richard Hunt, Cristina Iglesias, Michele Oka Donor, George Segal, David Smith and others. The 158-acre main campus features Michigan’s largest tropical conservatory; one of the country’s largest interactive children’s gardens; arid and Victorian gardens with bronze sculptures by Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin; a carnivorous plant house; outdoor gardens, including a replica 1930s-era farm garden; an 8-acre Japanese garden featuring contemporary sculpture; and a 1,900-seat outdoor amphitheater garden, showcasing an eclectic mix of world-renowned touring musicians each summer. Learning Engagement programs welcome 80,000 students and guests each year. Culinary Arts & Events offerings include weddings, corporate meetings, and award-winning catering.
“From Grand Rapids to the Grand Canal, Meijer Gardens is celebrating the inimitable art of Dale Chihuly beginning this May,” said Charles Burke, President and CEO of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. “In Grand Rapids, we will trace the breadth and depth of artistic creation over the past 40 years. On the Grand Canal, we will celebrate the joy and beauty intrinsic to Dale, his practice, and his art.”
Chihuly at Meijer Gardens this May
Continuing a decades-long relationship with Dale Chihuly, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will also present a major U.S. exhibition of his work opening on May 2. CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens will transform both the outdoor gardens and indoor galleries to showcase the artist’s dynamic range and creativity. The exhibition will feature outdoor installations such as Chihuly’s towering sculptures, vibrant Reeds, and other site-specific artworks nestled within Meijer Gardens’ landscapes. Indoors, visitors will experience a rich, varied survey of works, highlighting more than four decades of Chihuly’s artistic evolution. Featured series include Baskets, Macchia, Seaforms, Putti, Ikebana, Persians, Venetians, Cylinders and Rotolo, complemented by original drawings that offer insight into his creative process.
