Dan Dailey’s glass art achieves a state of consummate balance; his process is defined by precision but his ideas spring from a more organic creative flow. He simultaneously
embodies the seriousness of an expert technician, the perspicacity of the artist as social commentator, and the levity of a humorist. Combining different glass-making techniques like blowing, hot-working, lampworking, mosaic and pâte -de-verre, Dailey harmonizes the substantial with the ethereal and shows off glass’ potential for nuance. In his illuminated sculptures (something he first experimented with as a graduate student at RISD), he couples the industrial skills he learned making glass lamps at the Venini factory in Murano, Italy with an amusing lightness. His iconic individual busts, also technical feats, are composed of a series of clever clues and whimsical double entendres, all in service of the story each character tells.
