MONTGOMERY.- The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts opened the exhibit Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass, 1985-Present through February 4, 2007. Richard Jolley's first museum overview, Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass featuring his outstanding figurative sculpture from the early 1980s through today was curated by Richard Gruber, Director, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of new Orleans and Stephan Wicks, Curator, Knoxville Museum of Art. As perhaps America's foremost figurative sculptor of glass, Jolley has moved purposefully through various series, beginning with busts that have an emphasis on line and are often referred to as 3 dimensional drawings. The work evolves to include ever more descriptive images in a larger and larger format, culminating for the time in his triumphant "Totem Series"; wherein Jolley created a narrative that explores subjects ranging from comparisons of contemporary and classic beauty to Americana. Often reaching seven feet, the totems are a symphony of expressive, figurative elements that include heads, torsos, birds, and animals in explosive combinations of color and form. The totems allowed Jolley to create a complete narrative dialog within his work. Concluding the exhibition are Jolley's latest exploration in mixed media that consist of 3-dimensional illusionistic wall installations with thickly layered surfaces that reveal a universe inhabited by symbolic, enigmatic animal, and human forms. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition with essays by critic Robert C. Morgan and J. Richard Gruber, Director of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.