R E V I E W E D
V e n ic e .
3 V is io n s
in G la s s
Barry Friedman Ltd.
New York,
NY
Oct. 29,2009-Feb. 13,2010
barryfriedmanltd.com
By Lilly Wei
Three Murano-based artists
amp up color and light and
explore form.
Left:
Cristiano Bianchin
2 M a s k s
, 2001,
crocheted hemp, glass,
105 x 11 x 10 in.
“Venice. 3 Visions in Glass” featuring
Cristiano Bianchin, Yoichi Ohira and Laura
de Santillana (who have shown together a
number of times) offers viewers a profusion
of innovative forms and gorgeous colors.
All three hail from Venice and work on
Murano, the fabled center of European fine
glass production. Although Bianchin, Ohira
and de Santillana are primarily glass artists,
this expansive touring exhibition presents
their highly esteemed and technically superb
work as art rather than decorative objects
and celebrates the extraordinary range
of their resolutions. Glass, while long cher-
ished by collectors, has only recently been
accepted as a medium for fine art as more
and more contemporary artists in every
genre (many invited to Murano to produce
their projects in collaboration with master
glassmakers) embrace it, seduced by its
enormous expressive potential.
One of the most striking characteristics
of Cristiano Bianchin’s (b. 1963, Venice)
production is the almost inhuman perfec-
tion of his smooth cold-worked surfaces
and his sleight-of-eye finesse as glass, in
his hands, assumes the appearance, say,
of onyx, carnelian and marble. His elegant
vessels—designated “urns” in a recent series
in regal hues—glow with an interior light
while others are more opaque but equally
arresting, often topped by tiny finials
or primitive figurines and are greatly influ-
enced by African as well as Native Ameri-
can art. A t times, his pieces are partially
swaddled in crocheted hemp, a signature
combination of adamant glass and pliant
organic fibers. Bianchin’s vessels recall
canopic jars, reliquaries and other ritual
objects, as do his smaller implements and
abstract constructions—the latter often
evoking fertility figurines. Also included
are two woven hemp masks hung high
on a wall, a double line of crystalline tears
falling to the floor from the empty eye
openings.
Siletizio,
2000, an effigy of woven
hemp (the artist says it’s of himself) lying
on a pallet surrounded by objects, offers
a tableau of multiple readings, including
that of the artist as a passive vehicle until
animated by creative forces.
Yoichi Ohira (b. 1946, Japan) has lived
in Venice for over 35 years and also com-
bines cultural legacies, in his case, that of
traditional Japanese vessels with Venetian
color and techniques. While his glass-
works remain essentially objects, rarely
030 american craft apr/may io
Photos © Barry Friedman Ltd.
