Mary Ann "Toots" Zynsky Bacca Mizimah Signed Red Hand-Blown Glass Filet-de-Verre Bowl

Artist: Mary Ann "Toots" Zynsky
Title: Bacca Mizimah
Medium: Hand-Blown Glass
Dimensions:  6.625" x 12.625" x 7"
Date: c. 2000-2010
Inscription: Signed "Z" on the bottom
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity from Modern Artifact

"Bacca Mizimah" exemplifies Mary Ann "Toots" Zynsky's mature sculptural language and her innovative use of glass as a medium of visual density, color, and surface rhythm. The work presents an open, vessel-like form with undulating contours that suggest organic growth, simultaneously evoking botanical structures, textile folds, and geological formations. Its asymmetrical lip and softly swelling body encourage close viewing, as subtle shifts in curvature activate the surrounding light and space.

Central to the work is Zynsky's iconic filet-de-verre (filetti) technique, in which thousands of fine, hand-pulled glass threads are layered and fused to build the form. Rather than emphasizing traditional blown-glass transparency, Zynsky uses this method to create opacity, striation, and chromatic vibration. The rich red surface is composed of countless linear filaments, producing a tactile visual effect that recalls woven fabric while remaining unmistakably sculptural. The technique foregrounds process and materiality, transforming the vessel from a functional archetype into a purely optical and spatial experience.

Zynsky's practice has long challenged distinctions between craft, sculpture, and design, and "Bacca Mizimah" reflects her sustained investigation into color as structure rather than surface. The work's title, suggestive rather than descriptive, reinforces its conceptual openness, allowing form, color, and light to operate as primary agents of meaning.

Executed circa 2000-2010, "Bacca Mizimah" is a hand-blown glass sculpture measuring 6 5/8 inches high by 12 5/8 inches long by 7 inches deep. The work is signed "Z" on the underside and is accompanied by a Gallery Certificate of Authenticity from Modern Artifact.

About Mary Anne "Toots" Zynsky

Mary Anne Toots Zynsky (b. 1951) is an American artist internationally recognized for her pioneering contributions to contemporary glass art, particularly through her development of filetti—fine, hand-pulled glass threads—used to construct sculptural vessels of remarkable complexity and visual depth. Working at the intersection of craft, sculpture, and design, Zynsky has played a critical role in expanding the material and conceptual possibilities of glass in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Zynsky was educated at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied ceramics before turning decisively to glass. She was an early participant in the American Studio Glass movement, working at Pilchuck Glass School in its formative years and collaborating with influential figures who were redefining glass as a serious medium for contemporary art. Dissatisfied with the limitations of traditional blown glass, Zynsky developed her own technique of fusing thousands of colored glass filaments over kiln-formed structures, allowing for unprecedented control over pattern, color modulation, and form.

Her signature vessels are characterized by rhythmic striations, optical vibration, and sensuous contours, often drawing comparisons to textiles, geological formations, and organic growth. Although functional forms serve as a point of departure, Zynsky's works are resolutely sculptural, emphasizing visual perception, surface tension, and material density over utility. Color is central to her practice, with intricate chromatic layering producing both harmony and visual dissonance.

Mary Anne "Toots" Zynsky's work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and is included in numerous public and private collections, including major institutions devoted to contemporary art and design. Through her technical innovation and sustained investigation of glass as a sculptural medium, Zynsky occupies a foundational position in the history of contemporary glass, bridging the legacy of studio craft with the formal ambitions of modern and postmodern sculpture.