Preston Singletary | Native American Tlingit Glass Artist Redefining Indigenous Art

Singletary’s art has become synonymous with the relationship between Tlingit culture 
and fine art. His glass sculptures deal with themes of Tlingit mythology and traditional 
designs, while also using music to shape his contemporary perspective of Native culture.


Singletary started blowing glass at the Glass Eye studios in Seattle, WA in 1982, where 
he grew up and continues to work and live. He developed his skills as a production glass 
maker and attended the Pilchuck Glass School. Singletary began working at the glass 
studio of Benjamin Moore, where he broadened his skills by assisting Dante Marioni, 
Richard Royal, Dan Dailey and Lino Tagliapietra. It was there where Singletary started to 
develop his own work. In 1993 he traveled for work to Sweden where he was influenced 
by Scandinavian design and met his future wife, Åsa Sandlund.


In 2000 Singletary received an honorary name from elder, Joe David (Nuu Chah Nulth) 
and in 2009 Singletary received an honorary doctorate degree from University of Puget 
Sound (Tacoma, WA). Forty years of glass making, creating music, and working together 
with elders has put him in a position of being a keeper of cultural knowledge, while 
forging new directions in new materials and concepts of Indigenous arts.


Now recognized internationally, Singletary’s works are included in the Museum of Fine 
Arts (Boston, MA), the Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA), the Ethnographic Museum 
(Stockholm, Sweden), The National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK) The British 
Museum (London, UK), The National Museum of The American Indian, Smithsonian 
Institution (Washington DC) as well as two solo exhibitions that toured multiple venues 
originating with the Museum of Glass (Tacoma, WA)