Internationally acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly returns to the Atlanta Botanical Garden in April for an encore exhibition of his work, in a setting that has doubled in size since his blockbuster 2004 show.
Chihuly in the Garden will run April 30-Oct. 30 and include 21 installations. The artist’s kaleidoscopic colored glass can be seen by day or at night. Some of Chihuly’s installations are being created specifically for the Midtown garden, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.
The 2004 Chihuly in the Garden installation was one of the Garden’s earliest fine-art exhibitions; they’re now a summertime tradition. The inaugural event drew 375,000 visitors — a record then, doubling Garden attendance that year and pushing Garden memberships to what was then an all-time high.
The new exhibition will be spread throughout the Garden, including the Fuqua Conservatory and Fuqua Orchid Center. The vibrant artwork will float in pools, hang in the air and be interspersed with plantings.
Look for a chartreuse hornet chandelier suspended from the Canopy Walk, hovering over bright purple reeds that rise from the forest floor. Nearby, a 30-foot-tall saffron tower will stand sentinel at the Water Mirror pool.
Chihuly, 74, is credited with revolutionizing the studio glass movement and elevating the medium from craft to fine art. His work is part of more than 200 museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York.
Major exhibitions include Chihuly Over Venice (1995-96), Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem (1999), Garden Cycle (2001–present), de Young Museum in San Francisco (2008), the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (2011), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond (2012) and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2013.)
The Garden will offer extended evening hours for the Chihuly show. Cocktails will be available at cash bars, and guests can dine at the new Linton’s in the Garden restaurant opening this spring.
