"The murrina, a tradition of Venetian glass art, becomes an artistic process in the work, going beyond its own exceptional nature to become a language, a break from the decorative process that have come to life in history."
Scala Contarini Del Bovolo
Antonio Dei Rossi - Contemporary Figurative Murrine
In the unique setting of the Scala Contarini del Bovolo, during The Venice Glass Week, the opening of Antonio Dei Rossi - Contemporary Figurative Murrine - until October 12 - who is the last maestro glassmaker engaged by the noble and traditional art of the murrina. On show are the artist's latest creations together with some of his most iconic masterpieces, presented to highlight the intertwined pattern between art and design. Antonio Dei Rossi's concept is applied to the murrina as a simple tool or a decorative item set in a precious metal frame, or exposed as art installation or a conceptual piece of art.
Polifemo - 2023
The Venetian born artist lives between Treviso and his studio on the island of Burano. Glass is the main material of his work. Since he was a child he followed his father, Mario Dei Rossi's work in the furnace and in 1999 began to realize his first works in murrina treasuring the experience and trade secrets inherited from him. After having taken possession of the technique, Antonio Dei Rossi decides to praise the murrina, and goes beyond the usual conclusion of the operational process by conceiving original design works and jewels that enhanced it, or artistic ways that intensified its uniqueness. His work - murrina - is no longer an end in itself, rather it becomes a vehicle, a means of artistic and conceptual development.
Antonio Dei Rossi
"The art of murrina is a precious technique of
Venetian glass culture
and I proudly remain one of the last heirs to this great tradition."
Thousands of glass filaments are combined to compose a design - like the pixels that build an image - in thickness. Subsequently the obtained composition is melted and pulled so that the image is reduced to a spectacular miniature: an operation that I have been performing in Berengo furnaces for years. The rod bearing the images cut in order to obtain a limited seventeen series of miniatures, each to be considered a unique work due to the slight variations that the processing and passages between but to the states of the matter confer.
Lombata - 2018
Lumache - 2021
The technical complexity of the murrina in Bug is used to give life to the installation. Its various defects or unfinished parts transform into metaphor: it is an unfinished process a partial gestation. The work is cruel. It highlights the interruption of a long and difficult process of creation and the subsequent alienation that springs from such a disruption. The cynical communication is amplified by the vicious liquid that surrounds the bodies, bringing back an organic value to the operation. The murrina, a tradition of Venetian glass art, becomes an artistic process in the work, going beyond its own exceptional nature to become a language, a break from the decorative process that have come to life in history. The artist’s work forges thought as well as matter with a continuous exchange between conceptional value and artisan virtuosity.
Bug - 2019
Reliquia - relic - which from a religious and abstract aura becomes earthly, is loaded with sin and sweat and expresses itself in the ambiguity of the readings - the fetish collar in leather with steel studs replaces the representation of celestial radiation. The heart of the work - the murrina - inside the small glass case is supported by a silver cross, which is again an allusion between function and symbolic representation, ambiguous where the essence is placed at the centre.
Reliquia - 2023
Coltelli - earings - 2019
Hidden Jewel of Venice
Scala Contarini Del Bovolo
Text Source - Thanks To
The Venice Glass Week
Berengo - 30 Years in Glass - a cura di Adriano Berengo
Published by - Electra