Collecting – A Love Story: Glass from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection

Jeffrey Gibson (American, born 1972)
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, 2018
Glass beads, artificial sinew, wool, tin jingles, steel studs, on canvas over wood panel
40 × 64 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2019.17.4
Photograph by Pete Mauney

Stephen Paul Day (American, born 1954)
Double Little Red (detail), 2014
Cast glass
10 × 13 × 10 in.
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2016.20.4 a-c
Photography courtesy of the artist

Stanislav Libenský (Czech, 1921-2002)
Jaroslava Brychtová (Czech, 1924-2020)
Cube in Sphere, 1983
Cast glass
11 1/2 in. diameter
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 1992.18.27

Sibylle Peretti (German, born 1964)
Pearl Collectors Glass, oil and acrylic paint, monofilament
13 3/4 x 13 x 6 in. (girl)
13 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 7 in. (boy)
The Speed Art Museum, gift from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2009.7.4 a-b
Photography courtesy of Heller Gallery

Preston Singletary (American, born 1963)
Raven’s Other Form, 2017
Blown and sand-carved glass
18 3/4 × 10 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2018.10.15
Photograph courtesy of Traver Gallery

Micha Karlslund (Danish, born 1963)
Steffen Dam (Danish, born 1961)
The Structure of Everything, 2016
16 1/2 × 11 1/4 in.
Glass, screen-printed glass, enamel decals
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2018.10.13
Photograph courtesy of Heller Gallery

Karen LaMonte (American, born 1967)
Odoriko, 2013
Cast glass
53 7/8 × 30 × 17 3/8 in.
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2014.8.2
© Karen LaMonte. Photograph by Martin Polak.

Joyce J. Scott (American, born 1948)
Dizzy Girl, 2014-2016
Glass, glass beads, seed beads, thread
25 × 15 1/2 × 8 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum, partial and promised gift, Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2020.9
Photography courtesy of Peter Blum Gallery

Jeffrey Sarmiento (American, born 1974)
Bibliothek, 2008
Fused, enameled, and water-jet cut glass
50 3/8 x 23 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.
The Speed Art Museum, gift from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection 2009.7.1
Photograph courtesy of Bullseye Gallery

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Collecting – A Love Story: Glass from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection
February 6 – November 7, 2021

Engaged after a three-week courtship and married for 69 years, the late Leonard and Adele Leight were meant to be together. Their love for one another also embraced a love of artistic expression rendered in glass. Through decades of affectionate negotiation with one another—a requisite of any successful marriage—they built one of the country’s most significant collections of contemporary glass, proving once again that two heads are always better than one. Their collection has been generously gifted to the Speed over the past three decades.

Dedicated to the memory of Leonard and Adele, Collecting – A Love Story: Glass from the Adele and Leonard Leight Collection draws together over 60 works by over 50 artists to illustrate both the Leights’ shared lives as collectors and the stories of international contemporary glass embedded within their collection. Co-curated by Scott Erbes, the Speed’s Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, and widely exhibited artist and educator Norwood Viviano, this exhibition will use the breadth of the Leight Collection to examine the diverse practices of the artists represented. Some of the themes to be explored: issues of race and gender, perspectives on the human figure, conceptual considerations of the history of glass, and formalist explorations of the material.

Artists in the exhibition will include Dale Chihuly, Stephen Paul Day, Jeffrey Gibson, Karen LaMonte, Silvia Levenson, Sybille Peretti, Stephen Rolfe Powell, Judith Schaechter, Joyce J. Scott, Preston Singletary, Therman Statom, and Pamina Traylor as well as the artist-spouses Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libenský.

Support for this exhibition comes from:
Merrily Orsini and Rick Heath
Dr. John and Bonnie Seidman Roth

Support for contemporary exhibitions comes from:
Augusta and Gill Holland
Exhibition season sponsored by:
Cary Brown and Steven E. Epstein
Paul and Deborah Chellgren
Debra and Ronald Murphy