Miles Van Rensselaer

Miles Van Rensselaer is a NYC-area sculptor who equally admires and indicts this mind-bending, hyper-developing, virtual era in which we live. From an artistic family (painter grandmother/jeweler sister), Miles drew, sculpted, built, and destroyed (i.e. homemade explosives) any number of artistic creations from the onset.

Miles received his Bachelor’s from Kenyon College (double-majoring in Sculpture & Poetry), studied glass at Penland School of Craft and Bucks County Community College, and learned the Indonesian language, mask making/woodcarving in Java and Bali. Having traveled, lived, and carved among indigenous cultures of the world, Miles strives to create works that recognize, celebrate, and pay homage to these noble and (all-too-often) vanishing ways of life, and the profound impact they’ve had upon his.

Miles began exhibiting professionally in 1999 and had his first NYC solo show at Heller Gallery in 2005. His work can now be found in galleries, private residences worldwide, and several public collections, including the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia and the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China. Honors include being the only American invited to Japan’s triennial International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa (w/Perfect Girl in 2013-14) and numerous invites to show at SOFA Chicago, Art Palm Beach, and Art Miami (most notably w/4 x 6’ slumped & carved glass heads Maori Moko from 2009 to 2015.) Miles has been invited as an Artist-in-Residence at Pilchuck, a Visiting Artist at Alfred University, and a Rosenberg Resident at Salem State University. He’s received Merit Scholarships from UrbanGlass and the Pittsburgh Glass Center, 2 Niche Awards, 3 Contemporary Glass Philadelphia Grants, and numerous regional awards.

Miles demonstrates his experimental glass/metal working techniques regularly (e.g. at the Glass Art Society Conference, SOFA Chicago, UrbanGlass, GoggleWorks, Crefeld School, etc.), works out of his NW NJ studio residence (a marble quarry warehouse- turned-sculpture studio on the Delaware River 65 miles west of NYC) and welcomes visitors. Recent experimental work includes 4 life-size figures featuring intricate flame-worked glass hair for a solo show at Habatat Galleries Florida.