Glass is Dead

A Grateful Pipe Exhibition at The Chambers Project 

31st January 2026

Opening reception 5pm

GRASS VALLEY, CA

The Chambers Project is hosting an eye-widening exhibit of glass pipes curated by the master glass-blower artist Banjo, who has gathered masterpieces from the glass ateliers of the corners of the United States, in a collection of fifty years of innovation. 

Grateful Dead connection

Banjo has titled the show ‘Glass is Dead’ as a nod to the origins of modern glass pipes on the Grateful Dead parking lots, where late 20th century hippies enjoyed a flourishing market scene of tie-die, hemp necklaces, crystals, burritos, and batiks as they followed the band around the United States. There, pipes began their evolution when Bob Snodgrass became the first blower to make intricate works within the context of the cannabis subculture, elevating the value of pipes as a collectible art form. 

Snodgrass is held in high esteem by collectors and regarded with deep respect by other blowers because he introduced novel techniques to pipe-making, fuming gold, and silver to get a spectrum of color into the glass, and trapping them beneath new layers to create patterns and fields of blue and color that would change beneath the light. The art has become a family business, Bob’s daughter Virginia Snodgrass and her husband Jonathan Gietl are both talented blowers, too, and Banjo has chosen some of their finest work for the show. 

Innovations in glass blowing

Each of the artists brings their own innovation to the exhibit. Banjo is famous for his pioneering of colored borosilicate lab glass to create vibrant and surprising extravaganzas more like fantastic sculptures than smoking implements. His homage to the great psychedelic poster designer Rick Griffin is the star of the show, with fantastically intricate twists and spirals of bright primary colors forming the wave, the surfing eyes and the radiant sun and fetish of the famed ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ Hawaiian Aoxomoxoa. 

Early East-coast pipe-maker Jerry Kelly works in Murrine glass – master of the technique of making colorful patterns that stretch and shimmer in beautiful complex surfaces. His important contribution to the art is to bring these sophisticated patterns to the modern cannabis pipe – a surprising new form of fine glass blowing.

Mike Gong is another major Grateful Dead glass blower, and fan of the band. He uses an implosion technique to make his large ‘acid-eater’ marbles by sucking square blotter shaped snips into the glass to appear on the tongues of psychedelically scrambled faces filling the glass.

Hugh Selkin was Snodgrass’ first apprentice, beginning his work in the early 1990s, and becoming a standard-bearer for the modern glass pipe community. Best known for his ‘millefiori’ work, a technique of combining cut sections of cane into fields of patterns, and often including the skull imagery of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Steal Your Face,’ his pipe work has the naïve innocence of outsider art that is an important part of the American tradition of modern art.

Banjo said it was hard to narrow down the artists for the show, but he realized these artists were especially significant to the evolving history of the art of glass pipes. He says, “These artists are doing what I consider the work of keeping the art of glass alive. Keeping the love of glass alive, keeping their fan groups interest alive. It all folds fully into the idea of ‘Glass is Dead,’ because all glass pipes emerge from the Dead – there’s no disagreement there – even people who can’t stand the band agree that the scene would not exist without Snodgrass, who formulated the glass pipe on the Grateful Dead lots.”

Art by: Bob Snodgrass, J. Kelly, Hugh, Mike Gong, Karma Glass, Niko, Lil Bear, ESP, Jenkins, Dan Hoffman, Ginny Snodgrass, Jonathan Gietl, Rose Roads, Justin Carter, WJC

For more information contact The Chambers Project  at 15307770330

The Chambers Project Announces The Opening of Dyein Man Tie Dyes-Harry Hart “DEAD TO THE CORE” 

GRASS VALLEY, CA

NEWS FROM THE CHAMBERS PROJECT

Dead to the Core 

A new psychedelic installation of cutting-edge tie-dye by artist Harry Hart at The Chambers Project in Grass Valley, California

27th September

Opening reception 6.00 – 11.00pm

Copyright free content.

Tie-dye has come a long way since the turned-on and tuned-in 1960s. Harry Hart’s intricate and subtle patterns take the ancient art to a new level of complexity and scale in an amazing exhibit of cutting-edge art at the Chambers Project. 

Pioneering owner and curator Brian Chambers has succeeded in establishing the Chambers Project as the heart and soul of an astonishing flood of creative work created by historic and contemporary psychedelic artists. He promises his internationally famed gallery will be covered in “…head to toe tie-dye. Tie-dye is a favorite medium at The Chambers Project and over the years we have done countless limited-edition tie-dyed shirts. The response has always been very strong. With Harry and I sharing the same Southern roots and love of Grateful Dead culture this is a prime opportunity to elevate the medium to a higher level. ‘Dead to the Core’ is our first all tie-dyed show, and it’s definitely something I’m looking forward to exploring more in the future.”

The show is a refreshing acknowledgement of the cultural significance of resistance dyeing, which has ancient roots in Asian and African cultures, and is an outsider product of contemporary bohemian culture. Hart said, “I find myself gravitating to shibori, an ancient Japanese technique of binding fabric and submerging it in indigo vats. I’ve blended the shibori technique with approaches other people take, and combining the two gives me a look that stands out… I’ve taken a long time to fight the current and develop my own sense of style.” To achieve new levels of sophistication and subtlety he uses different weights of fishing line, artificial sinews, and bowstrings, lending to his work intricate complexity. Hart said tying and dyeing fabric is a unique art form, because unlike painting or sculpture which allow the artist to constantly make changes as they work, he never knows exactly what the finished piece will look like for days as he works toward completing a major piece. “It’s such an interesting thing, to not see anything you’re doing until the very end result,” he said. His skill determines the outcome, but there is always a degree of chance in the work.

Hart is sharing the opening night celebration of his show by presenting collaborative works from internationally acclaimed psychedelic artists Colin Prahl and Damon Soule, who will collaborate with Hart, and the innovative Scott Youngberg, who has brought figurative representation to resistance dyeing techniques. Artists Prahl and Soule will be painting over some of Hart’s pre-prepared works stretched on barred wooden frames like canvases, creating unprecedented collaborative mixed media images of pigment and dye. 

“Collaboration has always been the foundation of The Chambers Project,” said Chambers, who supports the Furtherrr psychedelic art collective in their production of huge and extraordinary psychedelic paintings, created during live performances at festivals and at his gallery openings. Enthusiastic about the idea, Hart added, “I’m excited to bring all sorts of mixed media collaborations under one roof.” 

At the opening, some of his largest dyes will be lit under LED lights smoothly shifting through the color spectrum, giving them an unusual sense of life and movement. “It’s going to give people a feeling I don’t think has been captured before,” he said, “I’m definitely not the first person to come across using RGB LED’s to transition pigments from one color spectrum to the other, but there’s innovation in the way I’ve created pieces of art with intention for light.”

Chambers sees Hart’s exhibit as a lead-in to the spectacular exhibit of art and artifacts of the Grateful Dead he is opening in December. The band frequently performed live sets in front of tie-dyed backdrops created by Courtenay Pollock. Chambers commented, “While tie-dye has been around far longer than the Grateful Dead, I feel it was the band’s culture and community that put the countercultural and underground spotlight on it. Harry Hart’s show felt like a proper way to lead into our ‘60 Years of the Grateful Dead’ retrospective exhibit in December, when we will further examine many more of the creative fractals that exploded through the culture of the Grateful Dead.”

Honoring his predecessor in pop-culture, Hart said, “Who knows what Courtenay would have been doing with the accessibility to the things that I have. I think that a lot of the difference is just the time and the place that we are. I have had massive inspiration from people like him.”

For more information contact: 

The Chambers Project

627 East Main St.

Grass Valley, California 95945

Phone: (530) 777-0330

 Images available on request

A convergence of senses awaits.

An international psych-funk unit—fresh off global stages—slips into town for a one-night-only sonic transmission.

No bill. No setlist. Just pure groove for those tuned in.

No spoilers. Just show up.

It’s not a party — it’s a portal.

We’re celebrating two visionary exhibitions with a night of immersive sound and surreal spectacle.

Featuring:

    •    A top secret mystery performance by an international touring sensation — one night only, off the record, and not to be missed.

    •    A mesmerizing optical illusion exhibition

    •    A sacred showcase of Wirikuta (Huichol) bead and yarn art, honoring their deep spiritual connection to the peyote cactus.

All stitched together under one cosmic canopy.

Let the frequencies guide you.

Doors open at 8. Stay tuned, stay curious.

Hailing from a country where psychedelia barely scratched the surface, BALTHVS (pronounced ball + thus) have managed to carve up a beautiful relaxing tapestry of psychedelic sounds along with deep ‘in the pocket’ grooves, intertwined with global rhythms and melodies from Africa, Turkey, South America and beyond. The trio made up of Balthazar (Guitar), Johanna (Bass) and Santiago (Drums) explore the limits of funk, disco, dream pop, vaporwave and world music while enveloping everything with their innate psychedelic essence.

Find BAlTHVS music at their official website balthvs.com/music/

A new exhibit titled “Optidelical” to open at The Chambers Project

The Chambers Project’s new exhibit Optidelical exhibits new work by contemporary psychedelic artists, firmly placing them into the mind-bending story of optical art – these are bright paintings and drawings that juggle illusion and sensory play, and seduce viewers like delicious treats asking to be eaten. 

The history of Op-Art is important to curator Brian Chambers, who explains, “It arrived right at the same time as psychedelics,” but he is most interested in how it has evolved in the present. Early Op-Art paintings made by Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley in the 1950s and 60s were designed using surprising flat patterns of two-dimensional shapes, using geometry and color clashes to create images that seemed to vibrate, shimmer, and move. Since then, a new generation of artists inspired by those pioneering images have morphed new op-art into sensual three-dimensional forms that seem to wiggle away from the constraints of their predecessors. 

This is not the Op-Art of the past. Chambers continues, “My first foray into new Op-art was when Mars-1 created his ‘Infinite Tapestry,’ in 2010 – that had a very strong impact on me, and that image has become synonymous with my brand and style.” A complex composition of soft concavity and convexity, it set Chambers’ interest in motion. Intrigued, Chambers wanted to shape an exhibit revealing the bright and dramatic evolution he had noticed as painters expanded the boundaries of optical illusion and advanced into unknown territory. Chambers said, “Op-Art has become even more complex. The art of the past was basic, but it has evolved in a more abstract way, and the technical abilities of the artists are unique. I haven’t seen other galleries doing an Op show for a very long time. I think it will get a great response. Optical illusions tie in well with the psychedelic aesthetic, so it’s cohesive with my practice in curation.” New creative dialogues between the artists are building the history of the work. Oliver Vernon’s ‘Billow’ is a swelling feast of monochrome forms, a delectable development of Mars-1’s painting. In it, lava eruptions of molten material retain their patterns, punctuated by occasional hard-edged reminders that these strange forms are not natural, that these are the products of imagination, that this is an exercise in voluptuous and sensory pleasure. 

“Finding the paintings has been a great exercise,” says Chambers, “and it’s been an exciting way to encourage artists to do something I think they’re really good at. Oliver Vernon’s piece is mind-blowing, Damon Soule’s is amazing, everybody is creating top-tier, mind-bending material. Mear-One has never done an Op piece before, and he’s coming up with something especially exciting. I’m also working with some new artists who I’m excited to bring into the fold.” Among them is Candace Thatcher, whose bright sculpture is a shimmering and chromatic topography of swoops and valleys rendered in rainbow colors, breaking away from the sharp and angle edged customs of early Op-Art into an organic morphology of softness and reflection. Jen Stark’s dramatic crater painting is an alien’s map painted in either the pop and clash of street graffiti color, or the hues of comic book graphics. It is an entry point, and a gateway to another dimension. Maximino Rezza’s mandala, the contemporary descendent of Huichol peyote thread paintings from Northern Mexico, is a reminder of the parallel paths taken by new American Op-Art and the native tradition of journeying to other realities using art as an intermediary in a sacramental and visionary context. In Rezza’s work the traditions meet and synthesize, birthing a new form that combines the best of both worlds.

At the afterparty following the opening reception at a local venue, Mear-One and Colin Prahl will paint a live collaborative image – this is a psychedelic spectacle worth watching as illusory images emerge from the clever brushes of these highly skilled painters.

“The show will definitely make your eyes wobble!” said Chambers, with a friendly chuckle.

Featured artists:

Vibrata Chromodoris, Ricardo Chavarria, Oliver Vernon, Melanie Farris, Mear One, Maximino Rezza, Mars-1, Mark Dean Veca, Kelsey Brookes, Justin Lovato, Jen Stark, Darel Carey, Damon Soule, Colin Prahl, Candace Thatcher, and Blake Foster.

April 19th Bicycle Day Afterparty at “The Bodhi Hive”

Following the exhibition opening there will be a Bicycle Day Party celebrating the first intentional LSD trip experienced by Albert Hoffman in 1943. Music will be provided by DJ Qbert, The Gaslamp Killer, Goopsteppa, Maria Tambien, and ETHNO (Jeff Franca of Thievery Corporation). Elixart will be on hand providing a full bar, and Mapu Empanadas will serve delicious food.