Artist Statement
Marvin Lipofsky’s use of glass as a gestural artistic material helped to reinvent a centuries-old craft tradition as a Modernist art form.  His sculptures crystallize a lifetime of travel and material investigation, as well as the sumptuous colors of the natural landscape, the visceral forms of the body, and the alchemical processes of manipulating blown glass.  As an artist, educator, and inveterate traveler, Lipofsky has been an inspirational force throughout the international glass community for more than four decades.

Nowhere has Lipfosky's influence been greater than in the Bay Area.  After earning his MS and MFA in 1964 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison under the tutelage of Harvey Littleton, Lipofsky initiated glass programs at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland in 1967 where he served as chair until 1987.  Throughout decades of travel, Berkeley, California has been a consistent point of return for the artist, helping to establish the Bay Area as one of the preeminent centers of studio glass production.  His work can be found in over 90 collections worldwide.