Ed Kirshner of Oakland, California, was born in New York City in 1940. He studied architecture and sculpture at Cornell University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Oskar Kokoschka School in Austria.
After thirty years of developing and financing affordable housing, he returned to study art at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, as well as at Pilchuck Glass School, The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, and North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland. His glass and plasma sculptures have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
His work is represented in the Corning Museum’s 25 Years of New Glass Review. His sculptures are in such permanent collections as the diRosa Fine Arts Preserve in Napa, CA and the Swiss National Science Center, near Zurich. Ed has taught in the US, Europe, and Asia and has been on the faculties of The Crucible in Oakland and the Glass Furnace in Turkey. He also holds a five year Fulbright international teaching fellowship. He served on the Boards of the Museum of Neon Art in LA (MONA) and is on the Board of the Glass Art Society (GAS).
To produce the dynamic light effects in his glass vessels, he ionizes rare gasses with electronic Tesla coils. Many variables such as gas mixture and pressure along with glass vessel geometry have to be very finely tuned to create these often mesmerizing effects. It’s mostly Alchemy.
Ed Kirshner ‘s artwork gallery
