STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- Schantz Galleries will be presenting forty works by Maestro Lino Tagliapietra, featuring his most recent innovations in glass. Tagliapietra, who will be at the opening event on Friday July 12, will introduce two of his newest innovations: Secret Garden (Laguna), a large installation of individually blown glass leaves in jewel-like aquatic colors inspired by Venice’s hidden parks, displayed as a group across the wall as if scattered by a gentle breeze; and Aurora, an LED illuminated glass panel, suggestive of the soft shimmer of the northern lights in the night sky.

The title of this exhibition, Visionary honors Tagliapietra as an artist of foresight and imagination who transcends his thinking mind to embrace his intuition and access the mysterious and the beautiful. He sees and visualizes the unseen. He dares to experiment, demonstrating humility and vulnerability because he is not afraid of failure. Michelangelo said that “the greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim to low and achieving our mark.” Well into his 80s, Lino Tagliapietra continues to push himself and his medium, endlessly shifting his mark in a way that leads the viewer beyond the expected and into the uncharted and profound.

For Lino, to love glass is also to love life, to embrace the harmonious elements of life that are so uniquely reflected in glass, and to communicate this reverence through beautiful works of art. For Lino, the key to continuing to transform new forms, ideas, and techniques after more than seventy years is to “listen to the intuition and make space for the imagination, and then...you must do it.” This good message has many applications. Glass art has been forever changed by Tagliapietra’s contributions to the field. As his audience, we are enlivened anew by his ability to visualize and capture the ineffable essence of the creative spirit.

Schantz Galleries is a destination for those seeking contemporary art by premier artists working in the medium of glass. Located at 3 Elm St. in Stockbridge, Mass., the gallery has established itself as one of the leading contemporary art glass galleries.