Caleb Nichols

Massachusettes, USA

Glass Artist

One of my many favorite things to do is take a small boat out on a calm, foggy day, without a compass. The sea is like glass, and I am totally surrounded by the gray light of fog. It is actually quite peaceful; a bit like being lost inside a big minimalist painting. Of course, the only way out is to keep going until you hit something.     

Caleb Nichols – Glass Artist!

Caleb Nichols is at an exciting stage: after some 20 years of working in glass, he has reached the point where his ideas, not technical virtuosity, come first. As a result, his work has grown in size to 30-inch sculptural pieces and his imagery has expanded. Still inspired by the moods and vastness of the ocean, he has lately been pushing his concepts a step further. “It’s interesting,” he explains “the wilder and more colorful I make these pieces, the more they invoke a sense of calm. A funny kind of inverse effect.”.

How would you describe your artistic style?

Caleb has discovered a new eloquence. “It’s taken me years,” he says “to make something simple and not have the urge to gussy it up.” Influenced by Japanese art, a quiet sensibility is poking through after years of experimenting in the studio. Like all other glass addicts, Nichols has done his share of obsessing on technique. In his quest to “build a better vocabulary,” he has mastered such standards as blowing, casting, annealing and fusing. He has even devised one of his own: smashing. “I blow these forms,” he states, “then hit them with a hammer.”

This leaves him with chunks of glass that become fog, froth, foam, waves, beach stones and boulders in his fused works. The technique, which allows him to work bigger without requiring assistance, gives his work its distinctively rough dynamics. Interestingly, the medium brought him to the subject. Even though he has gone to Penobscot Bay in Maine “all my life” and seeks out Winslow Homers in museums, and even though he loves to sail and drive power boats and spends hours contemplating the ocean, he enrolled in studio arts at Tulane University to draw live models, not seascapes. There he stumbled into glass, got hooked, and the medium’s parallels with water brought him back to the jagged coast of Maine and his New England roots. “I like to take the traditional idea of a seascape,” he explains, “and bring it into contemporary glass.”

–Lee Lawrence

I like to blow glass, hit it with a hammer, and make things!

A few pieces from Caleb Nichols’s gallery

Echo

Silhouette

More about Caleb Nichols

Shows & Exhibitions

 

Selected Exhibitions, Collections, and Awards

 

2015                    Burleson  LLP, Houston, Texas

2014                    Baylor,Scott,White Hospital,Waxatachee, Texas

2014                    Lockton Insurance Co, Dallas,Texas

2013                   Wyndemere Country Club,Wyndemere ,Florida

2012                   The Bennett Group, Chevy Chase, Maryland

2011                    The Venetian Macau, Macau, China

2010                    Fairmont Hotel, Southampton, Bermuda

2009                    Ruth Chris Steakhouse, Orlando, Florida

2009                    The Clare at Watertower, Chicago, Illinois

2008                    Gaylord National, Washington, D.C

2008                    Coast Galleries, Carmel, California

2007                    Westport Yachts, Seattle ,Washington

2006                    Saving Tiny Hearts Society, Chicago, Illinois

2006                    Cape Cod Hospital, Falmouth, Massachusetts

2005                    Panche Gallery, Mendocino, Ca

2004                       Philabaum Gallery, Tuscon, Arizona                                                       2002                     Hoypoloi, Walt Disney World ,Florida

2002                     Chalk Farm Gallery, London ,England

2002                     National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania

2001                     Glass Weekend, Wheaton Village, Wheaton, New Jersey

2001                     ‘Lino Tagliapietra e’ Amici’ , Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, Ma.

2000                       Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic ,Connecticut

2000                       Kittrell Riffkind Gallery  Dallas ,Texas

1999                       Goldsmith Gallery, Sitka,  Alaska

1999                       Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton  ,Rhode Island

1998                       Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida

1998                       Paramount Pictures/Star Trek, Hollywood , California

1998                       Dolphin Galleries, Maui, Hawaii

1998                       Pismo, Denver ,Colorado

1997                       WGBH, Boston, Massachusetts

  1. Eclipse Gallery, Bar Harbor ,Maine
  2. Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
  3. Gallery Dorita, Atlanta ,Georgia
  4. Barrucci Gallery, St. Louis ,Missouri
  5. Oppenheimer Funds, Boston ,Massachusetts
  6. Galleria of Sculpture, Palm Beach ,Florida
  7. Phoenix Rising Gallery, Seattle, Washington
  8. Merrill Chase Galleries, Chicago ,Illinois
  9. Metiers D’Art, Milan ,Italy
  10. The White House, Washington , D.C.
  11. Gotthelf’s Gallery, Vail,Colorado
  12. The Rachael Collection, Aspen ,Colorado
  13. North Haven Art Association, North Haven, Maine
  14. International Exhibition of Glass, Kanazawa ,Japan
  15. Coca-Cola, Atlanta ,Georgia
  16. Schwartzchild Award for Glass, Richmond ,Virginia

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