5 Things We Learned... Graham Caldwell
I met Graham Caldwell in 2012 while sourcing artists to commission for Tiffany and Co.’s Prague store. As luck would have it, Graham had studied glass-making in the Czech Republic so his training and passion for glass made him an excellent choice for the store’s unique design. He created an incredible sculpture of interconnected, iridescent glass that celebrated Tiffany’s aesthetic as well as Czech craftsmanship. Graham’s works combine blown glass, steel, epoxy, mirrors, and other materials. They playfully reflect and distort their surrounding environments to create almost hypnotic effects.
Graham has had solo shows at Martos Gallery in NY; G Fine Art, The Millennium Arts Center, and Addison Ripley Fine Art in Washington DC; Bank in Los Angeles; Circuit 12 in Dallas; and Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in CA. Collections include Arlington County, VA Public Art Permanent Collection, Arsenal Montreal, ART in Embassies, U.S. Department of State, Permanent Acquisition for US Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia and Kyiv.
Here are 5 Things We Learned about Graham.
What made you...you?
I try to remember that I am made up of a teeming population of cells, microorganisms, and strange unseen organs and convoluted passageways. I am somehow granted the power of movement, language and memory. The world outside of me is vast, interconnected and shockingly terrible and beautiful. I often take all of this for granted, but I still sometimes find myself in a state of wonder that there is so much out there to be perceived, and that the capability of perception itself exists.
When are you happiest?
When I make something that surprises me. Also, when my dog Laddie wakes me up by flopping onto his back and sticking all four legs in the air until he gets chest scratches.
Would you rather have a muse or be a muse?
I would rather be a muse, and have what I create be muse-worthy.
Who do you admire?
Zora Neale Hurston; Rudolph and Leopold Blaschka who made glass models of plants, botanical diseases, and sea creatures; Hilma af Klint; Paul Thek; Timothy Morton; Margrethe Vestager; my wife Melissa Farris
What is important?
Light, air, water, gravity and some very specific underlying mathematic ratios like pi and the fibonacci sequence. I think creating is in itself important, ushering new things into existence. Also sleep. Sleep is profoundly important.
Check out more of Graham’s work here.
Images from left to right: Studio Portrait of Graham Caldwell by Jason Falchook; Polychrome Triptych detail, 2015, iridescent glass and epoxy - a version was created for the Tiffany and Co. store in Prague in 2012, 42x116x14 inches; Untitled (Loop Eye Lenses), 2015, solid glass and steel, 18x13x12 inches; Blown and solid glass specimens arrayed on black velvet; Compound Eye, 2008, mirrors, steel and hardware, 92x96x50 inches; Splosion, 2009, blown glass and steel, 28x42x5 inches
