Photograph by Joe Kramm.
Jeff Zimmerman was raised at one of the studio craft movement’s sacred sites—his parents worked at Anderson Ranch, the celebrated arts residency program in Colorado. He went on to study glassblowing, with stints at the Pilchuck Glass School and the Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques (CIRVA), in Marseilles, and was a member of the B Team, an experimental glass art and performance troupe (founded in 1991 by Zesty Meyers, including Evan Snyderman among its members; they are today the principals of R & Company).
This long itinerary left Zimmerman with astounding skills and an imaginative freedom to match. It is exciting to watch glassblowing live, but that energy rarely translates into finished objects. Not so in Zimmerman’s case. He allows his vessels to teeter on the edge of total collapse, twisting and crumpling them, then somehow just. . . stops. Preserved in a vertiginous state, they can be further embellished with mirroring, color, and etching, which raise the surfaces to otherworldly perfection.
Galaxy Cluster illuminated sculpture with blue hand-blown glass plates. Designed and made by Jeff Zimmerman, USA, 2020.
107" L x 31" W x 9" H
271.8cm L x 78.7cm W x 22.9cm H
HL2229
