H20/sio2 Water Bags
4 works
Dylan Martinez BF 10 (Skeleton Fish) For Sale
Dylan Martinez
BF 10 (Skeleton Fish), 2026
Glass Sculptures - Hot Sculpted, Sandblasted, Acid Etched
11 x 6 x 4.25
About this work
Dylan Martinez has established himself as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary glass sculpture, earning recognition for his technically demanding approach to the medium and his ability to transform molten glass into objects of profound emotional resonance. His work occupies a distinctive position within the studio glass movement, bridging the gap between fine art and material virtuosity. BF 10 (Skeleton Fish) exemplifies Martinez's signature exploration of mortality, natural forms, and the paradoxical beauty found in decay. The sculpture presents a skeletal fish rendered with exacting anatomical precision, its translucent bones and delicate vertebrae captured in glass through a multilayered process of hot sculpting, sandblasting, and acid etching. This combination of techniques produces a surface that shifts between polished clarity and frosted opacity, evoking both the fragility of organic matter and the permanence of fossil remains. At eleven inches in length, the work possesses an intimate scale that invites close examination, rewarding the viewer with subtle textural variations and an interplay of light that animates the form from within. Martinez's treatment of the fish skeleton transcends mere representation, functioning as a meditation on transformation and the persistent beauty of structural form long after life has departed. The acid-etched surfaces introduce a weathered quality suggestive of specimens discovered rather than created, lending the piece an almost archaeological character. For further information on availability and acquisition, please contact Guy Hepner directly.
$5,000
Edition & Provenance
- Year
- 2026
- Medium
- Glass Sculptures - Hot Sculpted, Sandblasted, Acid Etched
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About the Swedish Fish Water Bags Series
The Swedish Fish Water Bags take everything Martinez does with his water bag sculptures and add one more thing to disbelieve. A plastic bag, filled with water, tied at the top and completely convincing in glass. Then, inside it, Swedish Fish candy. The forms sit at the bottom the way loose candy would if you'd actually dropped a handful in — red, suspended, and completely still.
Each piece is hot-sculpted, sandblasted, and acid-etched by hand, the same process Martinez developed for his original H2O/SiO2 water bags, the series that first brought him international attention and a place in collections including the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. That earlier body of work asked a single question: can glass convincingly pass for a water-filled plastic bag? Swedish Fish Water Bags adds a second layer. The bag alone is about illusion and material — the transparency, the trapped air, the slight give of a tied neck. The candy inside is about memory, the specific reddish translucency and soft-edged shape of something most people haven't thought about since childhood.
Getting both illusions to hold at once is more demanding than it looks. The candy has to read correctly through the "water," which itself has to read correctly as it would through real plastic, all while the piece is worked from solid, hot glass rather than assembled from separate elements. It is Martinez's most recent iteration of the water bag concept, presented as a numbered, ongoing series and shown in a dedicated viewing room at Square One Gallery, "Swedish Fish Water Bags — The Newest Iteration of the Water Bag Series."
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.