Larry Zgoda

Larry Zgoda creates original art in stained glass.  “Much of my art has resulted from a willingness to explore possibilities within the parameters of the stained/leaded glass format”.  This exploration has led to many conceptual and technical breakthroughs.  For over thirty years, Zgoda has explored a collection of materials and original techniques with which to articulate his creative inclinations.  These include: beveled wire and flashed glasses, crown glass, and Clovis Glass, a treatment in which the separate glass pieces have a scalloped edge.  Finding the availability of high quality stained glass jewels inadequate, he imports cut-polished, faceted crystals for his exclusive use.  As early as 1980, he pioneered experimental works with little or no color – Stainless Glass.  In 1993, he began creating architecturally inspired, stained glass sculptures called Architonomous Art Glass.  In 2000, the new millennium found ornamental, forged steel (wrought iron) armatures being used for their archaic beauty.  Today, he repurposes recycled hot-glass materials to expand his pallet of colors and textures. The potential of these materials and techniques, focused by Zgoda’s energy and imagination, is immense!

Larry Zgoda views stained glass as an architectural and ornamental art.  His designs are wed to the line, pattern, and color of the environments for which they are intended.  “An important thing about ornament is it’s being an extension of the pattern of the architecture while adding something extra.  This something extra includes the intuitive qualities of composition.  It has traits of beauty, vitality and the mystery of invention”.  The compositions are often a confluence of the geometric lines of architecture and the sinuous, organic lines of nature.  “My designs are generally simple and straightforward while still revealing subtle complexities”. The juxtaposition of glasses with different optical qualities makes visually exciting works.  “Genuine and permanent beauty in the built environment” is an original mantra which advocates beauty as a measure of value in human works both present and past.

Zgoda anticipates a renaissance of ornament in architecture.  Today, his focus is on exploring new visual possibilities, in which our ornamental vocabulary will flourish.  Monumentals are free-standing, architecturally inspired compositions in which Zgoda explores the potential for a new, ornamental, architectural language.

Website: www.larryzgodastudio.com