Dominick Labino
American, 1910-1987

Composed of 33 cast panels and weighing approximately 1,000 pounds, Dominick Labino’s glass mural was designed and executed especially for the Toledo Museum of Art in 1969. In 1965 Labino retired as Vice-President and Director of Research at Toledo’s Johns-Mansville Fiber Glass, Inc. to pursue a second career as a studio glass artist. He contributed his valuable technical know-how to the 1962 Toledo Workshops, which spurred interest in glass as an artistic medium, helping to introduce and de-mystify this difficult material to many artists.

Labino brought his expertise as a technician to his glass art, using chemistry to experiment with color.  To make Vitrana, Labino cast molten glass into rectangular molds, inlaying different colors of glass free hand during the casting process to achieve the unique effects of each panel.

Glass panels, cast; steel framework, 1969
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dominick Labino, 1970.449
© 1969 Dominick Labino