Pic by Jagan Negi

American artist Danny Lane is an affable man and it is evident the moment you meet him. He greets you like an old friend, insists that he loves India’s vibrancy and doesn’t seem to notice that your hand disappears in his much bigger one when he shakes it. He makes you feel at home in his ‘good friend’ Mike Knowles’ house. Despite Lane’s towering presence both physically and professionally — there’s a gentleness about him.

If you didn’t know it, there’s nothing in his behaviour to indicate that he’s THE Danny Lane whose sculptures and furniture are scattered around the world in museums and homes of the rich and famous. His installations are at once gigantic and fragile. His furniture can only be described as iconic. He turns everyday objects into artistic pieces, and blurs the line between art and functionality.

While he uses steel, aluminium, wood and stone, the 56-year old’s name is really synonymous with glass. This includes everything from plain glass used in an innovative manner to vividly coloured glass reminiscent of a beautiful painting. He says: “Mine’s a modern take on detailed crafts that date back 1,500 or 1,600 years. My work can be both tranquil and fluid.”

The London-based artist adds as he rolls a cigarette, “I have a funny desire to beautify. Art should enrich spiritually and emotionally. My intention is to elevate the soul.” A self-confessed tobacco junkie, he constantly puffs on customised OCB Slims Premium.

Lane alternates between creating functional furniture, sculpture and installations. He’s done different versions of the iconic Etruscan Chair, first designed in 1986 with broken-edged float glass. His buyers include iconic musicians Elton John and Mick Jagger.

Lane’s work includes breathtaking pieces in plain as well as brightly coloured glass. From top: Icarus Chandelier; Stacking Chair; Fresnel Keys Table, and (below) Etruscan Chair

In another work, the Fresnel Keys Table, Lane poured green glass, followed by blue glass in the cavity of a Fresnel Lens which is used in lighthouses. The Fresnel Lens was used to capture oblique light from a light source, allowing lighthouses to be visible over greater distances. When given the Lane treatment, the result is, of course breathtaking.

The ’90s saw Lane gravitate to large sculpture like the Reeling Walls or curved glass installations that can now be seen in Munich. The Balustrade, a stunning glass staircase at the Victoria & Albert Museum is another of his creations. Then there’s the awe inspiring Borealis, a structure made of thin glass strips that’s on view at the Renaissance Center, Detroit.

Currently Lane’s working on two large pieces for a San Francisco-based client — a 4,500kg layered glass sculpture that will be hung from the ceiling and a low table made of a specialty optical glass used in devices such as telescopes and eyeglasses. There’s also a boardroom table and reception lobby sculpture for energy-based company, RusHydro in Moscow.

“I have no formal training in glass, steel, wood and stone. I’m self-taught at the College of Hard Knocks,” he says with a laugh. He says, “If it can be described in words, there’s no need to create art,” he says. His intensity is apparent and he weighs each word.

Lane first came to India 15 years ago, when he was commissioned to create a sculpture for an industrialist’s family. Today, he’s discovering a country that’s tremendously changed. But this is true of London too, he says, where he has lived and worked since the 1980s.

His 10-day India visit was for a series of lectures and workshops organised by the Sushant School of Design, Gurgaon, of which Knowles is the dean. They’ve been buddies for 20 years ever since they first collaborated on a London home designed by Knowles for which Lane created the furniture.

Knowles, also a visiting professor at the University of the Arts, London, says: “Lane’s a perfectionist.” He recalls a time, when dissatisfied with glass etchings he’d done for a project, Lane destroyed the glass worth almost Rs 5 lakh, without charging the client.

Lane left America in 1975 for the UK to study and work with Patrick Reyntiens, a stained glass artist. He has a degree in painting from the Central School of Art and Design (Central St Martins College of Art & Design, London, now).

Though he’s spent most of his time in London since the ’80s, Lane has also lived in Illinois, Germany, New York City and Baltimore. Officially, he’s an American citizen, but insists that he has increasingly become a citizen of the world.

At his 17,000sqft studio near the BBC headquarters at White City in London, where six people, including his 27-year-old daughter Lauren work, innovative techniques are the order of the day. The result is extraordinary pieces. For instance, he used smashed glass to create the eclectic Caramel Sun table displayed at the Dilmos Museum in Milan, Italy.

The drama of the 37-piece Icarus chandelier suspended 16m high at a private collector’s home in London’s fashionable Mayfair district is no less. Hold your breath lest the fragile smoke patterns disperse as you exhale. Also mesmerising is The Threshold at the New Mint Museum in North Carolina. The 719 glass strips placed side-by-side create multiple illusions. “The images keep evolving,” says Lane.

What does he do when he isn’t making art for eternity? Lane says: “I love music — reggae, jazz, Hari Prasad Chaurasia — you name it.” He also loves the street action in cities like Delhi.

Lane’s about to meet friends. He takes a swig of gin and tonic and gestures to say that he will head off without changing. It’s all part of the same laidback approach and easygoing charm that is so much a part of him.