Chihuly Collection
$22/ Free for Morean Members
10:00 AM - 05:00 PM, every day through Sep 21, 2025.
On View: June 28 – September 21
The Chihuly Collection
720 Central Avenue
Each summer at the Chihuly Collection, we highlight the work of an artist who creates and/or teaches at the Morean Glass Studio. The purpose of this exhibition series is to demonstrate that extraordinary glass art is made not only in the Pacific Northwest (where Dale Chihuly is from) but also right here in our backyard. This year’s featured Morean Glass Studio artist is Dan Alexander, who, along with Chihuly, is inspired by the rhythms and intricacies of the natural world.
Dan has been affiliated with the Morean since 2022 when he was brought on to assist with teaching workshops, conducting public glassblowing demonstrations, and educating museum guests about the history of glass and the artists’ creative process. During this time, he has also utilized the Morean’s studio to create his signature product lines and one-of-a-kind works of art.
Dan states, “my work investigates the intersection of pattern, sculpture, and form through the transformative medium of glass. Inspired by organic structures, historical artifacts, architectural motifs, global textiles, and the textures discovered in nature discovered during my international travels, I reinterpret the environments around me with a focus on the hidden elegance of repetition and the quiet power of small, overlooked details.
“Glass, with its fluidity, translucence, and ability to capture both light and movement, becomes a conduit for these explorations. The repetition of intricate lines, the layering of colors, and the subtle variations across a surface become meditations on time, labor, and the invisible forces that shape our world. My work seeks to blur the line between the organic and the constructed, inviting viewers to see the familiar anew—as if peering into a tide pool, a tapestry, or a ruin, and discovering an unexpected universe within.
“Ultimately, my practice is an ongoing dialogue between observation and transformation—a way to honor the details that often go unnoticed, and to celebrate the beauty found in the act of accumulation, rhythm, nature, architecture and creating.”
