American Studio Glass: A Survey of the Movement
May 15 - August 24, 2003

Dominick Labino
Emergence Series
Blown glass; Veiled technique
1974 5.75 x 8.5 x 2.5

Dominick Labino (1910 – 1987)

Dominick Labino graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1932. He was an artist, engineer, and inventor, who infused artistic vision with scientific knowledge. Labino spent over forty years in the glass industry. He is responsible for sixty patents in the U.S. and hundreds in foreign countries, and is particularly remembered for his development of glass fibers, glass papers, and furnace designs. In 1962, he and Harvey Littleton conducted workshops at the Toledo Art Museum that they hoped would transform glass making from an industrial medium to a medium for art. Their collaboration resulted in practices and technologies that made it possible for individual artists to work with glass in small, non-industrial studios, and this gave rise to The Studio Glass Movement. After retiring from his position as Vice President and Research Director at the Johns-Manville Fiber Glass Corporation in 1963, Labino pursued his own art at his studio in Grand Rapids, OH. Because of Labino’s seminal role, his work has been included in most historic Studio Glass exhibitions. One-man shows include the Corning Museum’s Dominick Labino – A Retrospective Exhibition, 1964-1969, and Dominick Labino, Decade of Glass Craftsmanship, 1964-1974, which opened at the Pilkington Glass Museum and traveled to other venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Toledo Museum of Art. Labino’s work is featured in collections of over sixty museums worldwide ranging from Washington, D.C. to Washington State in the United States, and Europe and Asia.

Back to 2003 Exhibitions