Betty Woodman art lights the way at Chelsea House.

Members of the real estate industry celebrated their love of the arts recently when Betty Woodman, a world-renowned artist who is currently featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, unveiled her original hand-formed glass chandelier at Chelsea House. The lobby of the 64-unit luxury condominium project developed by The Clarett Group is ground breaking in showing this extraordinary Woodman piece.

"As a significant member of Chelsea's prominent art community, Betty's spectacular work will now be a permanent fixture for Chelsea House residents to enjoy," said Veronica Hackett, Managing Partner of The Clarett Group.

Chelsea House, located on 130 West 19th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, is a 14-story building featuring an artistically inspired facade of clear and fritted glass, ex-posed concrete and stylized window mullions. Designed by award-winning architect Randy Gerner of GKV Architects, the property brings a combination of sophisticated and modern homes to Chelsea, one of Manhattan's most sought-after residential neighborhoods.

The Chelsea House chandelier is one of a series of sculptures as chandeliers, realized at CIRVA in Marseille, France, and created from glass platters with fired gold decorations; a welded, painted aluminum frame; and light. The result is a work of art that reflects both color and light--creating a breathtaking atmosphere to welcome residents and guests to the building.

Internationally recognized as one of today's most important artists, Betty Woodman began her career in the 1950's as a production potter with the aim of creating beautiful objects to enhance everyday life. The vase is her most salient subject, but she has worked in a range of media, including lacquer paint on earthenware, glass, porcelain, bronze, prints and drawings.

Woodman studied ceramics at The School for American Craftsmen at Alfred University in Alfred, New York, from 1948-1950.

She has received many honors including a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the Bellagio Study Center, Bellagio, Italy, 1995; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1980 and 1986; and a Fullbright-Hays Scholarship to Florence Italy, 1966. Woodman began teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1979, and was made Professor Emeritus in 1998.

Throughout her career, Woodman has had numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries internationally. Currently, "The Art of Betty Woodman," is a feature exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and since 1983, Woodman has shown regularly at Max Protetch Gallery, also in New York. In addition, Woodman's work has frequently been included in group exhibitions since 1968 and is part of more than fifty public collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts; the International Ceramic Museum in Faenza, Italy; and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France; just to name a few. Woodman's much anticipated monograph, "Betty Woodman," was recently published by The Monacelli Press and includes written essays by Janet Koplos, Barry Schwabsky, and Arthur Danto.