Simpson, a self-taught glass artist, trained as a ceramicist, and while it’s easy to throw an ugly pot, with glass, beauty is almost a given. Simpson combines breadth of imagination with generosity and technical savvy that makes his work something to marvel at. There are more than 100 works in this show, all nestled economically in one small gallery. It’s a bit intoxicating.
The cane work glimpsed in “Cane Vase’’ appears in a much more sophisticated and improvisatory form in the series Simpson is best known for. He crafts orbs of all sizes in multiple layers of solid glass in shifting tones, with bits of cane floating below and occasionally above the surface like schools of colorful fish or wildflowers in a field. The globes recall images of Earth seen from outer space (Simpson’s wife, Cady Coleman, is a NASA astronaut with two shuttle missions on her resume), but they also read like crystal balls and aquariums, or some combination thereof — you want to gaze into them, because they’re filled with light, glowing tones, and startling textures and adornments. Even the small ones feel vast in their intricacy.
The larger globes, weighing in at over 100 pounds, are among the largest pieces known to have been created with a blowpipe. Simpson works with a team to make them. “Megaplanet With Double Spiral,’’ just over a foot in diameter, resembles a vibrant ecosystem. Blue and black float at its core, sometimes stippled like a galaxy, sometimes coruscated like a mountain range. Over this luminous base flit clusters of striped or flower-like organisms. Along the outer perimeter, two spirals of white and yellow touch at the tails, like passing hurricanes.
