"When I hear music it translates into colour", Toots Zynsky.
Zynsky's signature technique, 'filets-de verre' (fused and thermoformed glass threads), is an evolving animal fed by the inspirations of music, dance, and art. 'Painting' with coloured glass filaments, she then coaxes, folds, pinches and caresses these semi-molten compositions into luminous sculptural gestures. The end result, belying the traditional concept of glass as a transparent and fragile medium, quickens with an almost animate vigour of shimmering colour and form.
Recognised internationally as an innovator and an accomplished colourist, her personal alchemy emerged at The Rhode Island School of Design in the early 1970s. In the years since, Zynsky's mastery of the medium frees her to orchestrate the heat fused glass threads to absorb light and hold it glowing captive. "In an age in which the relevance of beauty to art is widely questioned, Zynsky's work is uncompromisingly beautiful" Arthur C. Danto, critic.
Toots Zynsky was one of the founding members of both the Pilchuck Glass Center and the 2nd New York Experimental Glass Workshop. In 1985 she became the first contemporary glass artist to have a piece directly commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. Zynsky is the 2015 recipient of the Smithsonian Institution Visionary Award. Her work is represented in numerous museums and private collections around the world. They include: The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, NYC, The Smithsonian Institution, and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Liluli Chinai Museum, Shanghai.