“Resting Head I”
After almost 300 years, Kosta Boda has undoubtedly mastered the art of glass. For centuries, the Swedish heritage brand has deftly combined tradition and innovation, producing glassware firmly rooted within Scandinavian design principles. But at the center of Kosta Boda’s contemporary success is Bertil Vallien. Now, the 88-year-old artist has come all the way from Sweden to Brooklyn for his latest solo exhibition, offering us a glimpse into his decades-long practice.
Staged at Robert Lehman Gallery, Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art gathers 35 works by Vallien, each exploring his experimental approach to glass production, his technical diligence, and imaginative subject matter. Throughout his 64-year career, he has popularized black glass; perfected the modern method of glass sand-casting, earning him an international reputation as the “father of a lost technique;” and, above all else, challenged the limits of what glass can be, both as a medium and as a craft. That range is effectively captured in the exhibition, spanning everything from transparent boats and disembodied heads, to surreal sculptures and colorful vases.
“Glass has a quality that is truly exceptional,” Vallien has said. “No other material can fascinate in the same way, create such optical effects, or evoke reflections on both permanence and impermanence.”
In Starman, Vallien’s reverence for glass shines through with incredible clarity. Perhaps nothing embodies this better than his Resting Head series, which, as its title suggests, consists of glass heads with contemplative, if not unsettling, expressions. Such faces have become something of a specialty for Vallien, becoming a regular motif but one that’s still flexible enough for the artist to bend depending on his mood. Resting Head I, for instance, entombs a head within an egg-like form, its facial features barely visible through the frosty glass. His Azur sculptures, on the other hand, bear a remarkable transparency without sacrificing their striking, blue color palettes. Comparing these works only reveals Vallien’s fluency within the medium—in other words, he’s able to perform many different feats all at once.
“Vallien has been dancing with the gods of glass since 1963, when he began working at Åfors Glassworks,” Douglas Heller, a consultant for the exhibition, notes. “There, he was granted the rare freedom to move fluidly between roles—as a designer for industrial production and as an independent studio artist. In the decades that followed, Vallien reshaped the landscape of the glass world.”
For Vallien, that landscape is one of myth and magic. Featured in Starman is the Idun’s Magical Apples series, a testament to the artist’s interest in storytelling. These works not only reference Sweden’s national fruit, but the apple as an origin point—biblical or not—within the cycle of life. Beyond that, Idun is a Norse goddess whose magical apples are said to grant eternal youth, yet another play on mythological tradition. The Ships series is similarly grand, conjuring images of Norse ships sailing the high seas toward the unknown.
“Even after all these years, it’s still just as exciting to open the annealing oven and witness the glowing, dangerous molten glass transform into ice and cold,” Vallien once remarked. That excitement is palpable in this dazzling exhibition, not to mention in Vallien’s enduring partnership with Kosta Boda.
Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art will be on view at Robert Lehman Gallery in Brooklyn through June 7, 2026.
In Starman, New Yorkers can explore Bertil Vallien’s 64-year career in glass art and his enduring collaboration with Swedish heritage brand Kosta Boda, whose history spans nearly 300 years.
A glass sculpture produced for Kosta Boda
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
A glass vase produced for Kosta Boda
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
“Equilibrium”
On view at Robert Lehman Gallery in Brooklyn, the exhibition gathers 35 works by the 88-year-old artist, offering an expansive glimpse into his innovative practice.
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
A glass sculpture produced for Kosta Boda
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
Installation view of “Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art” at Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn, NY. (Photo: Hanna Grankvist)
Exhibition Information:
Bertil Vallien
Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art
April 3–June 7, 2026
Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass
647 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Bertil Vallien: Website | Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Cultural Counsel.
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