Here’s an exhibition to handle with care: Delvis (Un)Limited tests the limits of glass

'I never thought the word fragile had negative connotations,' says the curator Valentina Ciuffi, founder of the creative practice Studio Vedèt and the mind behind ‘The Romance of Fragility’, the latest exhibition by Delvis (Un)Limited, debuting during Milan Design Week 2026. Bringing together the work of six designers and design studios – Familiar Form, Serim Kwack, Johan Pertl, Inderjeet Sandhu, Tino Seubert and Maria Tyakina – the show explores the formal limits of glass. 'To me, something that is fragile is something you take care of,' Ciuffi adds. 'It’s something that requires attention.'

Discover Delvis (Un)Limited at Milan Design Week

For the exhibition, Ciuffi selected works with a deliberately broad material expression, from pieces that resemble robust materials such as stone to others that engage more directly with the industrial language of glass.

Prague-based Johan Pertl, for instance, draws on the slow processes of natural land formations. His ‘Erosion’ side table takes cues from the decay of coastlines, with translucent, pink-tinged glass cascading from a white marble plinth, like water gradually wearing away rock. 'It looks as if it comes from another planet,' Ciuffi notes.

Elsewhere, glass becomes a vessel for memory. Familiar Form – founded by Myeonga Seo and Marie Kolářová – revisits the vanishing tradition of Bohemian cut glass, once a staple in Czech homes. Working with craftspeople from the Šumava mountains, the duo repurpose leftover sheet glass into a series of nesting vases, hand-cutting traditional patterns using a diamond grindstone.

The exhibition also pushes beyond functional typologies. The work of Korean designer Serim Kwack, Ciuffi says, 'is like a painting, or a wall hanging'. Using found industrial glass panes, Kwack creates subtle imprints of everyday objects – headphones, keyboards and other domestic items – resulting in ghostly traces suspended within the surface.

For Ciuffi, glass is more than a material defined by transparency and perceived delicacy. It becomes a lens through which to examine our relationship with collectible design itself. 'A lot of the time, collectible design objects are treated as if they’re fragile, even if they’re not,' she says. 'They attract this certain attitude of care about them.'

According to Ciuffi, this project marks the beginning of a broader research into fragility. 'I’d like to work with other materials, like paper, or explore the idea of balance and equilibrium,' she continues. 'But it’s always the same questions: how do we take care of these objects? And how do they inhabit our homes?'

Opening on 21 April 2026, the exhibition features a set design by Space Caviar, a longtime collaborator of Studio Vedèt. The Via Fatebenefratelli showroom will be transformed with glass bricks, creating a material dialogue with the works on display.

Delvis (Un)Limited is at Via Fatebenefratelli 9, 20121 Milano, 10am – 7pm, 21-26 April 2026