Bertil Vallien

Schantz Galleries – Stockbridge, MA – schantzgalleries.com – October 4–November 3, 2019

Bertil Vallien had an epiphany over a block of ice. On a rugged training mission for the Swedish cavalry, he melted snow to drink, formed containers and left the water in them to freeze overnight. The next morning he noticed “found objects” trapped in the ice—objects that suggested hidden stories. He translated the experience to objects cast in glass and built upon it for over four decades to become one of Sweden’s top glass sculptors.

Vallien is best known for his sand-cast boats inspired by Viking boat burials.  Haunting in their beauty, craftsmanship and mystery, they suggest themes of journey, memory and transcendence. “Boats are good for fishing and travel,” he says, “but are also means to enter other worlds on vertical journeys.”

Bertil Vallien, See Man, sand-cast glass, 13.38 x 16.92 x 3.15″. Photo: Kim Saul.

At Schantz Galleries in Stockbridge, MA, the boats, other signature pieces, and new work will be on exhibit in October. The new works are largely from Vallien’s Landscape series of pedestal-size, black glass blocks (originally inspired by an aerial photo of a bombed Iraqi city) that are surface-scored, coated and pierced by metal objects. Others from his Watcher series are sentry-like figures. Still others evoke Janus, the two-faced Roman god of dualities. Most are freestanding; others are mounted on painted wall panels.

A draftsman and designer as well as a sculptor, Vallien chose his medium because its process “is like being close to a volcano—close to birth and death,” he said in a 2015 lecture at the Corning (NY) Museum of Glass. He likened its transparency to ice, which invites an infusion of story-telling objects.

Vallien pours molten glass into sand-cast molds rather than shaping it on blow pipes like most traditional glassblowers. He applies color and surface coatings to the mold before pouring, then embeds objects it has taken weeks to craft into the still-liquid glass. He partners with the Swedish glassmaker Kosta Boda in these projects.

While the secondary market for studio art glass has softened in recent years, new work by top sculptors such as Vallien and Dale Chihuly remains in demand, said gallerist James Schantz. “The newest work is what people want to see,” he said. “If you’re not evolving you’re losing ground.”