Pac- Man Ghosts
4 works
Dylan Martinez Water Bag : F20 For Sale
Dylan Martinez
Water Bag : F20, 2026
Glass Sculptures - Hot Sculpted, Sandblasted, Acid Etched
12.5 x 6.25 x 4.25”
About this work
Dylan Martinez has established himself as one of the most technically accomplished glass artists working today, earning recognition for his ability to transform molten glass into objects that challenge perception and materiality. His work occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of craft mastery and conceptual inquiry, drawing collectors who appreciate both virtuosic execution and intellectual depth. Water Bag : F20 exemplifies Martinez's ongoing exploration of containment, fragility, and the tension between industrial familiarity and handmade precision. The piece belongs to his celebrated Water Bag series, in which the artist recreates the humble plastic water bag—an object associated with transience and disposability—in meticulously crafted glass. Through hot sculpting, sandblasting, and acid etching, Martinez achieves a surface quality that uncannily mimics the translucency and soft folds of plastic while asserting glass's inherent weight and permanence. The result is an object that hovers between trompe-l'oeil illusion and sculptural presence, inviting sustained examination. At 12.5 x 6.25 x 4.25 inches, this 2026 work demonstrates the intimate scale Martinez favors for the series, allowing the viewer to engage closely with the subtle gradations of opacity and the precise articulation of gathered form. Each piece in the Water Bag series requires considerable technical command, as the artist must manipulate glass at extreme temperatures while maintaining the casual, almost accidental appearance of a filled plastic bag. This deliberate contrast between laborious process and effortless effect speaks to broader themes of value, attention, and material culture that run throughout Martinez's practice. For acquisition inquiries regarding this work, please contact Guy Hepner.
Price on Application
Edition & Provenance
- Year
- 2026
- Medium
- Glass Sculptures - Hot Sculpted, Sandblasted, Acid Etched
More from this series
Related Reading
More series by Dylan Martinez
About the H20/sio2 Water Bags Series
Dylan Martinez makes glass sculptures of plastic bags filled with water. The bags are tied at the top, slightly misshapen from the weight of the water inside, and completely convincing. They are made entirely from hot-sculpted, sandblasted, and acid-etched glass, and they look nothing like it.
The work is built around a simple premise: glass and water share enough visual properties that, handled correctly, one can pass for the other. Martinez has spent years refining exactly how to do that. The surfaces on these pieces replicate the transparency of plastic, the stillness of water, and the way light moves through both. The series also includes Bubble Fish 15, a water bag with a skeleton fish suspended inside it. It extends the concept of the water bag beyond the container itself and introduces something that was once living into the illusion. It is among the more unusual works in his catalog.
About Dylan Martinez
Dylan Martinez is a contemporary glass artist based Washington State, USA. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Glass from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, where he studied broad field science with a minor in outdoor education. His path to glass began as a college elective that quickly became a lifelong pursuit.
Martinez works entirely in hot glass, hand-sculpting each piece without molds or casting. His practice centers on perception and illusion, drawing on the technique of Trompe L'oeil to create works that challenge what the eye believes to be true. He is best known for his water bag sculptures, objects that are indistinguishable from plastic bags filled with water, made entirely from molten glass shaped between 650 and 1150 degrees. The work is animated by his own experience of red-green colorblindness, which has given him a lifelong interest in how perception shapes reality.
He has trained with master glassmakers across the United States and completed a residency with Venetian glass masters in Murano, Italy. His most recent series introduces color for the first time in years, with sculptural works referencing water balloons and Pac-Man imagery that signal a move toward pop art territory.
Martinez's work is held in the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida and the Kelime Müzesi in Ankara, Turkey, among other public and private collections. He has exhibited across the US, Italy, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Taiwan, and has been featured in Interior Design Magazine, American Craft Magazine, Elle Decoration, Aesthetica, and Colossal.