Venetian-born artist Massimo Micheluzzi has had a lifelong love affair with glass, turning the classic material into dynamic contemporary art over the years. London gallery Willer is celebrating this bond with a summertime exposé of 25 of his vessels.
Starting his story with the likes of master glassmakers Venini back in the 1990s, he has since been experimenting with his own handmade, complex techniques. Often drawing on the sought after intricacy of mosaics that appear on floors across the cathedrals, old housing and courtyards of Italy, he produces this effect on his voluptuous vessels. But while we may presume these would look archaic and dated, Micheluzzi applies a refined modernism.
‘There’s a form of alchemy involved in working with this material and countless secrets to be discovered,’ Micheluzzi explains. ‘My work recalls the atmosphere of Venice, the lagoon, the silvery waterways and the cloudy skies. I use glass to convey a feeling of motion.’ This romance resonates throughout the Willer collections, which are all painstakingly created in his studio – from the wondrous curves and ripples of his transparent ’Iridescent’ collection to the abstract terrazzo pattern sculptures in the newest ’Mosaico’ collection.
Micheluzzi also offers up the the key to a lasting (and successful) relationship with the material: ‘If you truly love glass, and really try to understand its needs, it will reveal its infinite creative possibility a bit at a time. My mission is to elicit more confidence from the material, hoping that slowly it will reveal its secrets to me.’
