American artist Toots Zynsky showcases 20 glass sculptures at the Liuli China Museum in Shanghai.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Zynsky says that when she used to hear music she would translate it to glass, and music of different genres and styles have formed her most important source of inspiration.

Chang says the colors and forms in her work embody not only music, but dance and poetry as well.

Chen Xiejun, a former director of the Shanghai Museum, says that the exhibition offers unprecedented visual, sensual and audio experiences.

"Glass is hard as a material, and yet I see infinite tenderness in the flow of threads and textures in Zynsky's art," says Chen.

Zynsky was born in 1951, and graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1973.

She was one of a group of pioneering artists studying with Dale Chihuly, who made studio glass a worldwide phenomenon.

The glass art of Zynsky can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, among other celebrated institutions.

She was the first contemporary glass artist to have her work "directly acquired by MoMA", and she subsequently had two more pieces commissioned by MoMA.

Recalling her fascination with China, Zynsky spoke at the opening of the exhibition about how a neighbor once asked her and her brother jokingly if they wanted to "dig to China" when they were digging a hole in their garden and how her mother had to explain the globe's shape and how it would be easier to take a flight to China.

"Since then I was curious about China and what other nations' cultures and lives are like," says the artist.

If you go

Dance of the Aurora: Glass Art by Toots Zynsky

10 am-5 pm, Tuesday-Sunday, through June 1. Liuli China Museum, 25 Taikang Road, Xuhui district, Shanghai. 021-6467-2268. Admission: 20 yuan.