At the Smithsonian, two glass shows highlight the medium?s variety, from the fanciful to the conceptual

The present is one in all two concurrent glass-centric exhibitions, giving the medium an outsize presence. “New Glass Now,” at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery, affords a worldwide, modern perspective. If “Murano” is earnest in its opulence, the strategy of “New Glass” is sensible, humorous and self-aware, as evidenced in Deborah Czeresko’s “Meat Chandelier,” a gaudy fixture composed of “sausages” that pokes enjoyable at poisonous masculinity within the glass-blowing world.