blown glass | Left: 17" x 8" x 8", Right: 23.5" x 7" x 7"

Boyd Sugiki has a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and a MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Inspired by his visits to Turkey in 2004 and 2005, Sugiki’s sculptural work is informed by architectural forms he saw during his travels. “A skyline and landscape layered with both ancient and modern buildings side by side provided a backdrop that captivated me to create this series of work”, notes Sugiki. He imagines his current body of work as buildings or structures, and their groupings to be modern urban landscapes. Each piece is made up of multiple parts that piece or fit together, to make a whole. For each piece Sugiki creates three separate blown glass elements to interlock with each other to form a single vessel. The interaction of the whole piece with the layering of forms creates something even larger akin to a skyline. Sugiki has taught at the Glass Furnace, Haystack, Kookmin University, Penland, Pilchuck, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pratt Fine Arts Center, Rhode Island School of Design, Toyama, and the University of Hawaii. Suguki just participated in the gallery’s teapots! exhibit and this will be his first sculptural group show in the gallery. Sugiki and his wife Lisa Zerkowitz taught at the Pittsburgh Glass Center at the end of May.