Periodically, Ken Saunders Gallery mounts a show of artists working in neon—glass benders as they prefer to be called. This year’s show, “Local Neon 2025,” includes works by John E. Bannon, Jacob Fishman, Zoelle Nagib, Carolina Pereira de Almeida, and Michael Young. Ken Saunders Gallery is in a modestly renovated, light manufacturing building that houses artist studios, design practices, exhibition spaces, and a variety of other small businesses. This is a small show of eight works in a small space. The gallery’s atmosphere is somewhat makeshift and very unpretentious—dramatically different than its upscale and enormous across-the-street neighbor Grey Gallery. But this modesty allows one to get comfortably familiar with the work.

        The first work to catch your eye upon entering the gallery is Colors by Jacob Fishman. This large wall piece consists of the word “colors” rendered in neon in 11 different hues. It is noticeably sculptural with segments protruding out into space. It is what would have been known in the nineteenth century as a masterwork—a work showing off the technical expertise of the maker. It is lyrical as well as colorful and makes onlookers forget that it is neon glass. The overall effect feels like writing with pure color and light. There is also a small, sculptural piece by Fishman called Earth Map. Its four segments are separated by textured but transparent glass beads—again a demonstration of technical expertise. Fishman is known for being the fabricator of Bruce Nauman’s replica neon pieces for museum exhibitions. (Large neon pieces do not travel well and are highly subject to breakage, therefore works are replicated on site, destroyed at the end of an exhibition, and rebuilt at the next showing.)

        Next to Colors is a small sculpture that incorporates neon.  Next to Fishman’s work, The Spells We Cast by Zoelle Nagib offers a different take on the medium. Nagib’s piece is a basket of perforated metal which props up an oval mirror that is framed by a thin white neon tube. In the center hangs a fuzzy ball with an “eye” facing the mirror. The neon is part of its charm. Nagib’s work is consistently playful; her other piece in this show is a spiral in white neon that spells out “Where would we be if not right here?” She comes from the Fishman glass bending family, being Fishman’s daughter and now heads Lightwriters Neon, the family company that has been in business for more than 40 years. While not as exuberant as her father’s, her work is more playful.

        In the corner behind Nagib’s basket piece is Michael Young’s winged piece, Bank—a large pair of metal wings with purple and red neon illuminating them from the inside. Young is noted for sculptures that incorporate neon as part of their formal composition. In this sense, he is not a true glass bender like Fishman (or Nagib). He uses neon like pigment, depending on its colored lights to complement his sculptures.

        On a wall by themselves are two pieces by John E. Bannon. Each titled Life Is In Between, they are a pair of identical rectangular shapes with a water drop shape at the top and a splash form rising from the bottom. The left one is red; the right is blue. The artist describes the identical composition of both pieces as a “graphic neon drop of water symbolizing birth, life, and death.” Both are flat wall pieces with no technical embellishments—the most abstract works in the show. In 2021, Bannon caused a bit of a sensation by showing a large three-dimensional neon piece at Saunders’s Neon and Light Museum called Live and Breathe. When viewed from one direction it appeared to be the top of a head, but when seen from one another angle, it appeared as a female nude. That work physically took up more space than is available in Saunders’s present gallery, and its tour de force was not as a piece of glass bending, but as a piece of exquisite three-dimensional geometry. Nothing as exuberant happens in the two works in this show.

        The last piece in the show was a tapestry embellished with a single oval of neon by Carolina Pereira de Almeida. Her Disguised Wish is an abstract tufted rug in blue, black, and red that is accented by an oval of red neon that glows so brightly that it photographs as white with a red halo. In this piece, neon functions as part of the abstract composition, much like how the neon element works in Young’s wings. This is a strategy Pereira has used in other works—always employing a simple minimal stroke of neon to enliven the composition. Does that make her a glass bender or a multimedia artist—or both?

        We once saw neon signs in nearly every small shop, declaring what was for sale or whether it was open for business. Now, those devices have been replaced by LED signs, often with animation. Neon now has largely become an art medium. It often carries a certain amount of nostalgia, but it can be as conceptually up to date as the glass bender desires. This casual and comfortable show of eight works gives us a snapshot of what is going on in the glass bending world today—at least in Chicago.

Michel Ségard is the Editor in Chief of the New Art Examiner and a former adjunct assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been a published art critic for more than 45 years and is also the author of numerous exhibition catalog essays.