Handle with care: Dale Chihuly artist team moves new exhibit onto Biltmore Estate

ASHEVILLE - Famed American artist Dale Chihuly’s collection has come to Asheville, and all hands are on deck to prepare the special exhibition, “Chihuly at Biltmore,” ahead of the March 25 public debut at Biltmore Estate.

On March 20, Biltmore and Chihuly Studio's teams offered a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the extensive installation process of “Chihuly at Biltmore,” running from March 25-Jan. 5 at Amherst at Deerpark on the historic estate of George Vanderbilt.

Travis Tatham, Biltmore’s director of destination entertainment and events, said the exhibition will allow guests to view an array of Chihuly’s techniques and works from his 60-year career.

“Chihuly is a world-renowned glass artist and has been one of the leaders in setting the standard for glass,” Tatham said.

Installation collaboration

Chihuly, revered for his large-scale architectural installations and revolutionizing the studio glass movement, has art pieces in more than 200 museum collections worldwide. “Chihuly at Biltmore” will feature various art styles and never-before-seen original works.

In 2018, Biltmore hosted an outdoor exhibit of the artist’s work on the lawn of Biltmore House, throughout the gardens and Antler Hill Village.

“Chihuly at Biltmore,” a museum-style exhibition, has allowed the artist’s team to bring items to the estate they couldn’t before. The new, specially curated exhibition will be unique and completely different from what was seen previously.

Kaley Ellis, Chihuly’s project manager for exhibitions said “Chihuly at Biltmore” has been more than a year in the making, and the seven-gallery exhibit has been built from the ground up at Amherst.

“The walls have been created for this exhibition and we’ve been working for more than a week now and we have several days left to go, so it’s about a two-week process,” Ellis said.

Seven members from Chihuly’s team and a rotating team of three staff members from Biltmore have been involved in the exhibition’s set-up.

“It’s multiple galleries and a mixture of large-scale works and pedestal works and drawings, so you get a great glimpse of Chihuly’s career from those early days where he started with that series works with the baskets and cylinders to then moving into larger-scale sculptures that are site-specific and you’ll see a number of examples of those here,” Ellis said.

The main exhibition will be inside Amherst with a few additional pieces spread across the estate, including outside Biltmore House and Antler Hill Village and Chihuly’s “Iris Gold and Garnet Chandelier” from the estate’s permanent collection, which is currently featured in Biltmore Winery.

Curating a collection

Leading up to opening day, multiple team members worked to install a large-scale drawing panel-by-panel to cover a gallery wall.

Pieces from the artist’s soft cylinder series, created from about 2011 to 2015, will be displayed on pedestals.

Ellis said a newly composed piece for Biltmore will include a piece featuring neodymium reeds and neon on Sycamore logs sourced from the estate with the assistance of Biltmore’s horticulture team.

Ellis, who’s worked on Dale Chihuly’s team for nine years, said the curation process began with a series of technical drawings that illustrated what elements were needed, which was communicated with Biltmore’s team.

Chihuly was integral to the exhibit curation from the early design phases.

“We have an exhibition team that does a preliminary site visit and then all of those images from that organization, whether it’s a garden or a museum, all of those images come back, and the team sits down with Dale to understand what he envisions for the space,” Ellis said.

Tatham said several Biltmore staff visited Chihuly’s studio to intentionally select pieces that vastly differed from the 2018 exhibit.

Ellis said the packing process begins a year out and the pieces were transported from Seattle to Asheville. Artworks arrived in four 53-foot trailers, unloaded and staged in the gallery and across the estate.

“One of my favorite parts about working with the exhibitions is first and foremost the teams that we’re working with,” Ellis said. “Biltmore is a great example—they’re fantastic—and there’s this love of the artwork and they’re incredibly supportive. You get such great energy around the exhibition. And then the fact that it never feels the same. You’re constantly changing what’s on view.”

Follow the Citizen Times for opening day coverage of “Chihuly at Biltmore.”

Chihuly at Biltmore

Where: Biltmore Estate, 1 Lodge St., Asheville.

When: March 25-Jan. 5.

Info: For tickets, visit biltmore.com. Day passes or annual membership passes are required to access the estate's grounds. Biltmore’s spring annual pass sale runs through April 30 for an annual pass discounted to $209 (regular price $299) for a savings of $90.

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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Artist Dale Chihuly, Biltmore teams give rare look at exhibit setup