Glasstress Makes Its American Debut 2/14

By: Kelsey Denette Jan. 18, 2012

Glasstress, the exhibition project organized by glass impresario Adriano Berengo for the past two Venice Biennales-each time making waves in the lagoon city-is to have its American debut at the Museum of Arts and Design on February 14th. Running through June 10, 2012, Glasstress New York: New Art from the Venice Biennale will present nearly two dozen works culled from the Venetian editions, along with work never before exhibited.

A breakfast reception for press will be held on February 15, 2012, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, with remarks by the exhibition's organizers: Holly Hotchner, MAD's Nanette L. Laitman Director, David McFadden, MAD's William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, and Adriano Berengo of Venice Projects.

Berengo calls Glasstress "a new, visionary manifesto for glass and art." His commission of leading contemporary artists and designers from around the globe, unpracticed in glass, to create works in this medium, has proved an aesthetic game changer. Lacking preconceptions, these creators have produced art works that are as inventive as they are provocative. Glasstress has become, as Berengo puts it, "an artistic platform for creating synergies between local traditions and global culture; between contemporary business, art, and handicraft; between different cultures and artistic disciplines."

With the first Glasstress exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale, Berengo says his intention was "to demonstrate that glass was 'the ideal means with which to translate contemporary expression.'" To this end, he presented a diverse collection of works in glass by 45 International Artists of the recent past and present, including Arman, Louise Bourgeois, Tony Cragg, Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, and Chen Zhen.

For the second exhibition at last summer's Venice Biennale, he took as a theme the complex relationship between art, design, and architecture in this era that has supposedly moved "beyond modernism." The 20 site-specific sculptures and installations, most of them specially commissioned for the event, asked what made an object formally conditioned by its function a work of art? Did a work need to refer only to itself to respond to the spirit of the times? Such inquiries called into question the notion of "art for art's sake," which was at the crux of so many twentieth-century avant-gardes.

Berengo believes Venice is the place to ask such questions, as it is where Murano glass was born and glass innovation remains vital. Glasstress, he says, is "not the fruit of tradition, it is what modern Murano artisans can do with glass, learning new roads and visions. It is art for glass."

Invention in glass is an important theme for the Museum of Arts and Design, according to Holly Hotchner. "2012 is the 50th anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement. And since that movement's beginnings, this institution has been a champion of forward-looking art glass. So what better way for us to celebrate than by introducing American audiences to the latest creative currents in this marvelous fluid medium?"

David McFadden concurred: "The wide-ranging vision and diversity of approaches in the Glasstress exhibitions galvanized us to bring this important project to the U.S. MAD's exhibition will include Jan Fabre's witty installation of amethyst-hued, blown-glass pigeons, along with their glass droppings; Kiki Smith's cast glass frogs; and Javier Pérez's ornate, scarlet-colored, Murano glass chandelier, which after it was completed, Pérez smashed-the ruin replete with its shards becoming the artwork."

"Having this exhibition come to New York has long been my dream," says Berengo. "I am excited for Americans to see the enormous artistic potential of this medium, which while ancient in origin has never seemed more contemporary."

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