From Venice to Boca Raton: U.S. Premiere of Glasstress

Some of the world's leading contemporary artists are invited to breathe new life into centuries-old glassmaking in Venice ― maestros of glassblowing from the legendary Berengo Studio residency help artists manifest their visions. Among the 34 artists: Ai Weiwei, Fred Wilson, Joyce J. Scott, Jimmie Durham, Ugo Rondinone,  Fiona Banner, Vik Muniz, Monica Bonvicini, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Laure Prouvost, Renate Bertlmann, Thomas Schütte, Loris Gréaud, and Erwin Wurm.

“There is every reason this year to have a worldview,” says Irvin Lippman, the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s Executive  Director, as South Florida boldly ushers in the new year with the national premiere of Glasstress Boca Raton. “Three  years in the making, the effort serves as an important reassurance that art is an essential and enduring part of humanity.”  This exhibit is a tribute to the resilience of Venice’s people who survived floods that swept the city.  Most of these glass products have never been seen elsewhere and were handpicked by Kathleen Goncharov, the Museum’s Senior Curator who traveled to Italy in 2019.

The 34 artists in this new, never seen edition of  Glasstress were all invited by Adriano Berengo - the founder of Glasstress - to  work alongside his  master glass artisans at the  Berengo Studio on the island of Murano in the  Venetian lagoon. With incredible energy, the Studio has brought a new vision on how to stimulate today’s leading artists into thinking how the medium of glass can be made into dramatic and provocative works of  contemporary art. Artists collaborated remotely via Zoom with their glass artisan partners after their initial on-site work at the studio in Venice. While most of these artists never worked with glass, their recent experiences demonstrate that it can be used as a form of creative expression.

 According to one of the artists during a video interview about her time at Glasstress, “Glass is a fascinating material to me because it’s a mix between fragility, but at the same time you need the strength of the craftsman who has all this time to be able to manipulate it, and you also don’t know how exactly it’s going to come out.

Adriano Bereno adds more to this idea. “This concept of transformation has always held an affinity with glass, a medium which – as  the name Glasstress suggests – exists in a state of constant tension. Life needs tension, it needs energy, and a vibrant  exchange of ideas.”

The exhibition presents 34 new works that explore some of today’s pressing subjects. The Boca Raton Museum of Art has dedicated more than 6,500 square feet  of exhibition space to this collection. A fully illustrated catalog is also available.

The mission of Glasstress is to restore the visibility and reputation of Murano glass, after decades of closures of ancient,  centuries-old glass furnaces. Instead of creating decorative objects with glass, these artists are invited to create original  works, often on a massive scale. They collaborate with glass masters whose expertise has been developed over generations  in Venice.   

The results are breathtaking. The first installation visitors to the Museum will encounter is Sala Longhi by Fred Wilson. He created this series at Berengo Studio after the Biennale exhibited his work about Black residents of Venice from the  Renaissance to the present. This installation features an ornate white chandelier with 29 glass panels that mirror 18th-century Venetian artist Pietro Longhi’s paintings. Instead of canvases, Wilson shows the viewer only the whites of the eyes  of his Black subjects through cutouts in black reflective glass.  

Sala Longhi, Fred Wilson (2011). Glass and wood.

“We have brought Glasstress to countries around the world for ten  years, seeking to expand and enliven international awareness of the variety and richness of contemporary artists using glass  in their creative practices,” adds Adriano Berengo. “In the past, its place in the art world might have seemed uncertain. But  now in this latest edition of Glasstress, one thing we know for certain: glass endures. Life  is fragile, just as glass is fragile, yet in this fragility there is also strength.” It is in this spirit of experimentation that Glasstress Boca Raton explores the limitless potential of glassblowing.

View stunning images from cities around the world that have hosted previous Glasstress exhibitions at this link:   glasstress.org/my-product_category/glasstress-world.