Ben Greene-Colonnese: New Work, Opening July 26

About 10 years ago, glass artist Ben Greene-Colonnese hiked to the cliffs of Rumbling Bald Mountain in Lake Lure. As the trail reached its pinnacle, Greene-Colonnese was greeted by “an ancient granite monolith surrounded by massive eroded boulders that had tumbled down the mountainside and been carved by the experience.” He was gobsmacked. These stones were more beautiful than anything he had ever studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. “Soon,” says Greene-Colonnese, “I began to see the entire natural world around me as sculpture and slowly began trying to incorporate this idea into my own work.” This solstitial season, the artist will bring a collection of his sculptures to the North Carolina Glass Center in the River Arts District. According to the nonprofit art center, this new body of work fuses cast glass with natural stone and driftwood. What results “evokes a sense of awe and wonder, highlighting the dual nature of glass — fluid and responsive when hot, fragile and reflective when cold.” In return, viewers are invited to “contemplate the harmonious blend of nature and human artistry, celebrating the intricate dance between the primal and the crafted.”