Jeff Zimmerman’s Glass Creations Continue to Thrill and Inspire

April 6, 2025Those who know glass artist Jeff Zimmerman best for the vine-like chandeliers with blossoming handmade glass globes that he’s been making since around 2008 might be shocked to see what else he’s been up to in recent years when they open the pages of Jeff Zimmerman: Glass, Light, Space. Published by Monacelli in collaboration with R & Company, Zimmerman’s longtime gallery, the new monograph looks at his designs of the past decade through more than 200 color images. It also features essays by curator Glenn Adamson, interior designer Tony Ingrao and R & Company’s Zesty Meyers, who founded B Team, the 1990s radical performance-art group that included Zimmerman and helped launch both of their trailblazing careers in design. Zimmerman’s current show at R & Company, Metamorphosis, celebrates his influential career and features 30 new works.

One thing is abundantly clear: Zimmerman is a rock star of glass artists. While he has clearly mastered the ancient craft of glass blowing, his works transform the fragile material in radical ways. “From a technical point of view, they could have been made in Renaissance Venice,” writes Adamson. “Though the artisans of that time and place would likely be bewildered by his adventurous forms, they also would have seen much to recognize.” 

While Zimmerman largely makes light fixtures, wall installations and vessels, the book organizes his work into chapters according to aesthetic themes: Crumple, Pleat, Grow, Cluster, Sprawl and Multiply. These are not terms we usually associate with glass, but they make sense here. Zimmerman’s approach, after all, can be summed up as embracing unpredictability. While other glass artists might fight that natural and physical forces impede their perfection of their form, he harnesses them. The simultaneous imperfection and beauty of nature is everywhere. We see delicate biomorphic vessels sprouting glass geodes, layers of ribboned glass gathered like flower petals and droplets exploding like splashing liquid — to name a few examples. 

One of the best things about books like this is that they show private commissions normally hidden from public view. For Zimmerman, this is especially important, since he’s made so many site-specific works. In a conversation between Zimmerman and Brett Littman, former executive director of New York’s Noguchi Museum, we learn from the artist that he got his start making chandeliers when he received a commission from an art dealer. “It seemed like a natural progression to try and make sculpture on the ceiling because, in an art collector’s apartment, there is never much wall space left,” he says. To see these pieces in their formative habitats — spectacular rooms conceived by interior designers — is a special treat.