James Mongrain

Jeff Zimmerman is a contemporary sculptor whose primary medium is glass. He often makes use of the vessel form, creating pieces with mirrored, sometimes colorful surfaces and billowy forms that suggest movement.

Zimmerman grew up at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, where he lived with his mother, a painter, and his stepfather, a sculptor. He enrolled at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1988 planning to major in anthropology, but a glassblowing class inspired him to change course. He switched to the BFA program at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee, spending hise summers working as an apprentice at Pilchuck Glass School, in Washington State, where he observed the studio practices of Lino Tagliapietra and Pino Signoretto . After completing his studies, he worked as a master glassblower at CIRVA, the International Center of Research on Glass and Visual Arts, in Marseille, France.

In 1994, Zimmerman became part of the B Team, an avant-garde glassblowing collaborative founded by Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman of R & Company gallery, which now represents Zimmerman’s work. The group conducted glassblowing-related performances at colleges and universities and exhibited its work at the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York.

Zimmerman’s first solo exhibition was the 1999 “Anthropology Museum of the Future,” at UrbanGlass’s Robert Lehman Gallery. He has gained wide acclaim for his series of “Crumpled” vessels, which resemble deflated jars with reflective surfaces that gradually fade into opaque hues. The effect is surreal and dazzling. Using the most enchanting property of glass — its malleability at high temperatures — the sculptor breathes new life into an ancient form, the container.

Zimmerman’s work has been exhibited in New York at Sean Kelly Gallery, the Museum of Arts and Design and the Brooklyn Museum; and in Paris at Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery It can also be found in the permanent collections of the Boghossian Foundation, in Belgium, and in the Corning Museum of Glass, in New York.

Chandeliers — simple in form, inspired by candelabras and originally made of wood or iron — first made an appearance in early churches. For those wealthy enough to afford them for their homes in the medieval period, a chandelier's suspended lights likely exuded imminent danger, as lit candles served as the light source for fixtures of the era. Things have thankfully changed since then, and antique and vintage chandeliers and pendant lights are popular in many interiors today.

While gas lighting during the late 18th century represented an upgrade for chandeliers — and gas lamps would long inspire Danish architect and pioneering modernist lighting designer Poul Henningsen — it would eventually be replaced with the familiar electric lighting of today.

The key difference between a pendant light and a chandelier is that a pendant incorporates only a single bulb into its design. Don’t mistake this for simplicity, however. An Art Deco–styled homage to Sputnik from Murano glass artisans Giovanni Dalla Fina (note: there is more than one lighting fixture that shares its name with the iconic mid-century-era satellite — see Gino Sarfatti’s design too), with handcrafted decorative elements supported by a chrome frame, is just one stunning example of the elaborate engineering that can be incorporated into every component of a chandelier.

Chandeliers have evolved over time, but their classic elegance has remained unchanged. Not only will the right chandelier prove impressive in a given room, but it can also offer a certain sense of practicality. These fixtures can easily illuminate an entire space, while their elevated position prevents them from creating glare or straining one’s eyes. Certain materials, like glass, can complement naturally lit settings without stealing the show. Brass, on the other hand, can introduce an alluring, warm glow. While LEDs have earned a bad reputation for their perceived harsh bluish lights and a loss of brightness over their life span, the right design choices can help harness their lighting potential and create the perfect mood. A careful approach to lighting can transform your room into a peaceful and cozy nook, ideal for napping, reading or working.

For midsize spaces, a wall light or sconce can pull the room together and get the lighting job done. Perforated steel rings underneath five bands of handspun aluminum support a rich diffusion of light within Alvar Aalto's Beehive pendant light, but if you’re looking to brighten a more modest room, perhaps a minimalist solution is what you’re after. The mid-century modern furniture designer Charlotte Perriand devised her CP-1 wall lamps in the 1960s, in which a repositioning of sheet-metal plates can redirect light as needed.

The versatility and variability of these lighting staples mean that, when it comes to finding something like the perfect chandelier, you’ll never be left hanging. From the whimsical — like the work of Beau & Bien’s Sylvie Maréchal, frequently inspired by her dreams — to the classic beauty of Paul Ferrante's fixtures, there is a style for every room. With designs for pendant lights and chandeliers across eras, colors and materials, you’ll never run out of options to explore on 1stDibs.