H20/sio2 Water Bags
4 works
Dylan Martinez Water Bag: Swedish Fish For Sale
Dylan Martinez
Water Bag: Swedish Fish
Hand-blown glass sculpture
13 x 6.25 x 4.5 in Size varies slightly
Edition
Signed and numbered
About this work
Contemporary artist Dylan Martinez continues to expand his celebrated Water Bag sculptures with the introduction of the Swedish Fish series, the newest edition within his ongoing body of handblown glass works. Known for transforming familiar, disposable objects into meticulously crafted sculptures, Martinez has built a distinctive practice centered on illusion, nostalgia, and the surprising potential of glass. With the release of Swedish Fish, the artist introduces a playful new visual element to the series, capturing one of the most recognizable candies of childhood suspended inside his signature glass water bags. Martinez’s Water Bag works have become widely recognized for their uncanny realism. At first glance, they appear to be simple plastic bags partially filled with water, the kind often used to transport small fish from pet stores or fairs. On closer inspection, however, the viewer discovers that the seemingly fragile bag is actually solid glass, painstakingly handblown and sculpted to replicate the delicate folds, creases, and tension of thin plastic. The illusion is so convincing that many viewers initially question whether the object is truly glass. This moment of visual confusion is central to Martinez’s artistic intention, prompting viewers to reconsider assumptions about material and form. The Swedish Fish edition introduces a vibrant new element into this familiar format. Inside each water bag, bright red fish-shaped candies appear to float effortlessly within the glass environment. The playful imagery instantly evokes childhood memories, tapping into a shared cultural nostalgia surrounding one of the most recognizable candies in popular culture. The fish forms provide a striking visual contrast against the transparency of the glass, creating a sense of movement and buoyancy within the sculpture.
$5,000
Edition & Provenance
- Medium
- Hand-blown glass sculpture
- Edition
- Signed and numbered
More from this series
More series by Dylan Martinez
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. The candy sits at the bottom the way it would if you'd actually dropped a handful in. Red, suspended, completely still.
Each piece is hot sculpted, sandblasted, and acid etched by hand. The process is the same as his water bag work, but the subject does something different. The water bag alone is about illusion and material. The Swedish Fish inside it are about memory. The technique is more demanding than it looks. Getting the candy forms to read correctly inside the illusion of water, inside the illusion of plastic, requires everything he has built over years of practice.
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.