ARTS

See-through sculpture: Naples Botanical Garden brings in class glass

Even before you reach the ticket window, the newest exhibition at the Naples Botanical Garden stops you. Or more accurately, tickles you. 

Hans Godo Fräbel's glass art is displayed on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples. The exhibition opened on October 1, and will be up until March 31, 2019.

Nearly a dozen frosted-glass, dunce-capped clowns wobble their way down a slippery borosilicate branch that sproings up from the entrance pond. In the same water bed, a glass jester rises from among the lily pads, about to deliver some sly truth from under the cover of a fool's livery.

All of them are glass.

More:Naples Botanical Garden creating new art exhibit, fall walk for visitors this season

"Reflections on Glass: Fräbel in the Garden" may be one of the botanical garden's most intriguing exhibitions because of its material. That also made it, as employees might attest, one of the most carefully installed. The huge cube of gleaming squares ("Longfellow Gravity") that seems ready to tumble lightly out of the Brazilian Garden is nearly 1,200 pounds of the same material that shatters when you drop it on the kitchen floor. 

Hans Godo FrŠbel's glass art is displayed on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples. The exhibition opened on October 1, and will be up until March 31, 2019.

Because of its chemical composition, however, it's more easily repaired — and resists heat and cold — better than your mother's crystal goblet.

East German-born artist Hans Godo Fräbel created the dozen large pieces and 10 more small works that will be at the garden all season. They're part of his inventory of lampwork or torchwork art that materializes from heating and shaping glass rods.

Fräbel's art has been all over the world, commissioned by museums, collected by queens (Elizabeth II) and heads of state. And hasn't it been featured in glossy magazine ads for vodka? Absolut-ly. 

His exhibition came to Naples Botanical Garden through serendipity and the fascination of its development director, Erin Wolfe Bell. 

"I had seen Fräbel's work years ago, in a botanical garden on the east coast of Florida where I grew up," Bell said, "and I was just captivated by how beautiful they were in a garden setting." Ten years after that show, she still hadn't forgotten it, she said.

Hurricane Irma forced the garden to spend last season scrambling to restore its cultivated areas rather than organizing shows for this year. So with fingers crossed, Wolfe approached the Fräbel Foundation, and found pieces could be available this season — if the Naples Botanical Garden was a good fit for it.

Hans Godo Fräbel's glass art is displayed on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples. The exhibition opened on October 1, and will be up until March 31, 2019.

Kevin Op De Ehze, its president, came down to inspect the gardens, take loads of photographs back and talk with the artist, who works in his Atlanta-area studio, about the potential. As a result, Naples Botanical Garden has pieces from a number of collections that show both Fräbel's sense of whimsy and an intense interest in nature.

The hapless characters astride colored glass orbs in the water garden ("Balancing Act") coax a smile and bit of sympathy. The floral additions are created, however, with detailed botanical perfection. Perhaps recalling the gardens in his hometown of Jena, Fräbel even created a special piece, a glass profusion of ghost orchids, for this exhibition.

It sits in one of a pair of cases flanking the gift shop that show off 10 of Fräbel's close-to-life-size glass orchids and other exotic plants.

"Some of these are in bloom in the garden now, and it's fun to see both the glass and the live ones," said Renée Waller, communications manager for the garden. She pointed out the sculpture of the pitcher plant, which is in full flower nearby.

Visitors can take a map from the ticket office that guides them to all the art, or enjoy the surprise of rounding a corner and discovering "Blue Calla Flare," a sphere of wavy glass blooms at the tip of an 8-foot-steel pole. 

Even without the map, no one will miss the 18-inch wingspan "Abstract Butterflies," a grouping of glass creatures that flutter over the garden's reflecting pool. They're an example of the sophistication Fräbel has brought to glass rod art. The colors have been layered over each other to give a mottled impression, with strong black lines as a finish for the veins.

Hans Godo Fräbel's glass art is displayed on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at the Naples Botanical Garden in Naples. The exhibition opened on October 1, and will be up until March 31, 2019.

"Very often we start with white," Op De Ehze said of the pieces. "Colors on top of white will come out strong, much brighter."

Flying over a mirror of water doubles their effect. This is the most water-centric exhibition of the ones Op De Ehze has sited, he said. He's particularly pleased with how  it has fit into the Naples Botanical Garden.

"I think everything looks stunning," he said.

The Fräbel Foundation is creating a color catalog for the show that Op De Ehze says he hopes will be ready by the end of October. This time, the foundation, rather than the garden, has its fingers crossed.

"We're always running, running, running at the beginning of a show," he said.

'Reflections on Glass:

Fräbel in the Garden'

What: Exhibition of glass art and glass botanicals by Hans Godo Fräbel

Where: Naples Botanical Garden, 4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples

When: Now through March 31; 9 a.m – 5 p.m. daily (opens at 8 a.m. Tuesdays)
Admission: $14.95, $9.95 ages 4-14 until Oct. 31; adult admission rises to $19.95 Nov. 1

Tickets: naplesgarden.org or at the ticket office

Fall Walk

What: Inaugural fall evening event in Naples Botanical Garden with lights, live music, and family surprises throughout the garden, including a pumpkin patch; costumes are encouraged, but without masks

When: 6-9 p.m. Oct. 26-28

Admission: $20 adults, $10 children ($10 adults, $5 children for members)

Tickets: naplesgarden.org or at the ticket office