H20/sio2 Water Bags
4 works
Dylan Martinez Clyde Pac-Man Ghost For Sale
Dylan Martinez
Clyde Pac-Man Ghost
Hand blown glass sculpture
6” high x 6.5” round
About this work
Dylan Martinez has established himself as a leading figure in contemporary glass sculpture, bridging the gap between fine craft and pop cultural commentary. Working from his Seattle-based studio, Martinez brings decades of technical expertise to his practice, having honed his skills under master glassblowers before developing his distinctive approach to transforming nostalgic imagery into collectible sculptural works. Clyde Pac-Man Ghost exemplifies Martinez's ongoing exploration of 1980s arcade aesthetics rendered in hand-blown glass. The piece depicts the orange ghost character from the seminal 1980 video game, a figure embedded in the collective memory of multiple generations. At six inches high and six and a half inches round, the sculpture achieves a presence that belies its modest dimensions, the translucent quality of the glass lending an ethereal dimension to a character originally conceived in flat pixels. Martinez's technical command is evident in the seamless color saturation and the precision of the form's curves and proportions. This work belongs to Martinez's celebrated series examining video game imagery, pieces that have found homes in collections focused on both contemporary craft and pop art movements. The series speaks to broader conversations in the art world regarding the elevation of popular culture artifacts and the boundaries between decorative arts and fine art practice. Martinez's glass works occupy a particular niche, appealing to collectors who appreciate material virtuosity alongside conceptual wit. Guy Hepner is pleased to offer this work to collectors seeking distinctive examples of contemporary glass sculpture with cultural resonance. For acquisition inquiries, please contact the gallery directly.
Price on Application
Edition & Provenance
- Medium
- Hand blown glass sculpture
More from this series
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More series by Dylan Martinez
About the Pac- Man Ghosts Series
Martinez built his reputation on making people question what they're looking at. Hand-blown glass, rendered in the unmistakable forms from the original arcade game. The shapes are simple, almost cartoonish, but that's what makes them work. Pac-Man has been part of visual culture for nearly fifty years. Martinez doesn't need to reinvent it. He just needs to bring it into the room in the right material, and glass does something to these forms that plastic or resin never could. They catch light. They have presence. They feel permanent in a way the original pixels never were.
This is also a series where color does the heavy lifting. After years working primarily in clear glass, the Ghosts are bold and direct. Red, pink, blue, orange. Each piece is its own thing but they're clearly in conversation with each other, which is part of why collectors tend to want more than one.
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.