Larry Zgoda creates original art in stained glass. “Much of my art has resulted from a passion to explore possibilities within the parameters of the stained/leaded glass craft”. This exploration has led to many conceptual and technical breakthroughs. For over thirty years, Zgoda has explored a collection of unique materials and original techniques with which he articulates his creative inclinations. These include: beveled wire and flashed glasses, crown glass, and Clovis Glass, a treatment in which the individual glass pieces have are scalloped on the edge. With the availability of high quality stained glass jewels inadequate, he imports cut-polished, faceted crystals for his exclusive use.
As early as 1980, he pioneered experimental works with little or no color – Stainless Glass. In 1993, he began creating architecturally inspired, stained glass sculptures called Architonomous Art Glass. In 2000, the new millennium found ornamental, forged steel (wrought iron) armatures being used for their archaic beauty. Today, he repurposes recycled hot-glass materials to expand his pallet of colors and textures. Monumentals are free-standing, architecturally inspired compositions in which Zgoda explores the potential for a new, ornamental, architectural vocabulary. The potential of these materials and techniques, focused by Zgoda’s energy and imagination, is immense!
By
Jeff Huebner for
Chicago Art Magazine on May 06, 2010
For the last several years, Chicago stained-glass artist Larry Zgoda has organized a series of exhibitions at various locations showcasing the work of a group of local friends and associates who share his vision of an arts-and-crafts-integrated architectural utopia. The impetus, he states, has been “a dissatisfaction with the status quo and the desire for beauty in the built environment, something we seem to have lost in many instances.”
This year’s exhibit is called “Artifacts & Ideas for a Nature Inspired Architecture: Connecting Our Built Environment to the Living World” and it’s at the Chicago Mosaic School gallery till the end of May. The theme was built around the art of internationally known “organic architecture” and green building pioneer James Hubbell. This is the first time the Californian has shown work in Chicago, and he spent a few days here as well.
