Tacoma Art Museum’s Glimmering Gone

Talk about ambitious art projects. Glimmering Gone, at Tacoma’s Museum of Glass, pairs two esteemed artists working on different continents. Sweden’s Ingalena Klenell makes lacy landscapes of glass that resemble icicles, snowflakes and the thin crust that forms on puddles in winter. America’s Beth Lipman creates dead birds, intricate breastplate necklaces and wreaths of glass so solid they appear to be ceramic. The two worked together—across an ocean and several time zones—to craft the three contiguous installations comprising Glimmering Gone: “Memento,” featuring shoes, teapots and instruments made of impossibly thin, clear glass; “Landscape,” which walks viewers through organic stalagmites and tree canopies of glass; and “Artifacts,” in which sandblasted, fractured glass components (a teddy bear, a change purse, an old oil can) have been embedded in the walls. The result is a shimmering vision of kiln-formed, blown and sculpted glass that leaves viewers hoping the glimmering is never gone. 10/23­–09/06/2011. Times and prices vary. Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock St., Tacoma; 253.284.4750; museumofglass.org.