Gary Zack (Born 1950) American, Cobalt and Orange Gilt Art Glass Vase.  Ruffled edge, with abstract shapes across the exterior. Signed on the bottom. 

Size: 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.

Gary Zack was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950. In his youth he found difficulty focusing on conventional classes and was drawn more and more to art, fascinated (even obsessed) with color. He spent much of his twenties teaching himself how to work with glass, eventually opening his own studio in Saratoga, New York called Pane in the Glass. His stained glass work demonstrated masterful uses of color in all his designs, from sparse, contemporary, Mondrian-style compositions to lush, figurative installations. Although he turned down the opportunity to take a five-year apprenticeship at Steuben Glass Studio in Corning, his growing interest in hot glass led him to open Symmetry Gallery in 1990. It soon incorporated glassblowing demonstrations and classes, but in the early 2000s difficulties with his kilns led him to shut down the studio and to focus more on other media, particularly working with oils and acrylics in abstract two dimensional pieces. Today he continues to paint and travel around the New England area, lecturing at and attending conventions, festivals, and exhibitions, and his early glasswork has become highly sought after by collectors.