Crystal Chain Gang

Crystal Chain Gang is New Zealand’s leading fine art cast glass collective. The pseudonym includes a team of master glass artists throughout New Zealand and Australia, lead by Martinborough based duo Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams. Crystal Chain Gang specialises in working with the transformative material of lead crystal, creating astonishing, ethereal, glass-based hanging sculptures and chandeliers.

In 2007, Williams and Dennison received a Creative New Zealand grant to take up residency at the Wheaton Glass Centre in the United States, where they developed the pressed-glass technique that Crystal Chain Gang is now renowned for in its richly textured chandeliers.

Working within and across the fields of art, design and craft, their practice encompasses their imaginative take on the world; creating objects that are both local and other-worldly, contemporary and nostalgic, playful and nuanced, and surprising the viewer with innovative experiences in the medium of glass. Each artwork nods to history, whether it’s an 18th century Eastern palace or an object from New Zealand’s colonial history, yet remains strongly grounded in the present day.

Crystal Chain Gang has won numerous awards and fellowships. Their objects are housed in major collections including the Ebeltoft Museum in Denmark, the Museum of Glass in the United States and New Zealand’s Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui and Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.