Christopher Ries
Encyclopedia
Biography
Ries was born in Columbus, OhioColumbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
and grew up on a farm. He attended The Ohio State University, where he earned a BFA in glass and ceramics. He later went on to earn an MFA while serving as an assistant to Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...
, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, who is responsible for founding the modern American studio glass movement.
After experimenting with glassblowing
Glassblowing
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...
, Ries began working in the classical reductive technique, beginning with a large block of optical glass and reducing and shaping it to the desired form. His larger sculptures can begin as blocks of glass weighing over 4,000 pounds, and the process of reducing and polishing can take as much as a year.
His piece Opus, displayed in Port Columbus International Airport
Port Columbus International Airport
Port Columbus International Airport , commonly shortened to Port Columbus, is a Class C international airport located east of downtown Columbus, Ohio, USA. It is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also oversees operations at Rickenbacker International Airport and Bolton Field...
in Columbus, Ohio, is the world's largest monolithic
Single crystal
A single crystal or monocrystalline solid is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries...
glass sculpture. It weighs nearly 1,500 pounds and was sculpted from a 3,000 pound block of glass.
Ries's sculptures are noted for the changing internal optical patterns he creates and for their technical proficiency. The glass he uses is clear lead-crystal cast, of the sort typically used for fiber-optic
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
cables. This glass is among the best transmitters of the visible portion of the spectrum
Spectrum
A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...
, and that fact accounts for the optical illusion
Optical illusion
An optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source...
s Ries is able to create.
His works have won several awards and are exhibited in major collections and museums in the United States, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, including the Corning Museum of Glass, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the National Heisey Glass Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Tampa Museum of Art.
Since 1986, he has been artist-in-residence at Schott Glass Technologies in Duryea, Pennsylvania
Duryea, Pennsylvania
Duryea is a borough in the Greater Pittston area of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA, nine miles south of Scranton on the Lackawanna River. Duryea was incorporated as a borough in 1891. Coal mining and the manufacture of silk were the chief industries in the early years of its existence. The...
. He lives with his four children Banks, Chase, Catherine, and Caroline and his wife Colleen in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania
Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania
Tunkhannock is a borough in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, 31 miles northwest of Wilkes-Barre. In the past, lumbering was carried on extensively. The chief industry was tanning and there were spool and tub factories, furnaces and machine shops, stave and planing mills, and witch hazel distilleries....
.
Awards and Honors
Ries has received various awards and honors throughout his career:- 2010 Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree, Misericordia University, Dallas, PA
- 2005 Artist as Hero, National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
- Distinguished Artist Award, University of the ArtsUniversity of the Arts (Philadelphia)The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...
, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
- 1990 Ohioana Citation for Distinguished Service to Ohio in the Field of Art
- 1978-79 Aid to Individual Artists Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council
- 1974-75 Leo Yassenoff Scholarship
United States
- PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
- National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia
- Everhart MuseumEverhart MuseumThe Everhart Museum is a non-profit art and natural history museum located in Nay Aug Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1908 by Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart, a local medical doctor and skilled taxidermist. Many of the specimens in the museum's extensive ornithological collection came...
, Scranton
- OhioOhioOhio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
- Riverside Medical Hospital, ColumbusColumbus, OhioColumbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
- Columbus AirportColumbus AirportColumbus Airport may refer to:Airports with commercial airline service:*Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, United States *Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, United States...
, ColumbusColumbus, OhioColumbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
- Riverside Medical Hospital, Columbus
- New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
- Wilford Gallery, Santa FeSanta Fe, New MexicoSanta Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
- Wilford Gallery, Santa Fe