Murano is hosting a new chapter in the encounter between contemporary art and glassmaking tradition with Fabrizio Plessi’s exhibition Perdersi in un bicchier d’acqua (Lost in a Glass of Water), on view from Nov. 23, 2025 to June 21, 2026 at the Barovier&Toso ARTE gallery, in the Sala dell’Acqua of Palazzo Barovier&Toso. The exhibition represents Plessi’s first major experience with Murano glass, a material the artist tackles with the intention of exploring its pure artistic essence, beyond its usual practical function. Barovier&Toso ARTE gallery, known for inviting prestigious artists with little or no previous experience in glass, accepted the invitation of Plessi, who is internationally recognized for his ability to integrate natural elements and electronic media. The artist returns to the fundamental archetypes of glassmaking, particularly the bottle and the glass, to develop works that testify to the expressive depth of seemingly simple forms. The title of the exhibition, an Italian expression that describes the paradox of getting lost in something small and seemingly marginal, summarizes Plessi’s artistic philosophy: emotional complexity can emerge from the most basic forms, if reinterpreted through an artistic language capable of transforming them.
The exhibition route begins in the bar space that anticipates the gallery. Here Plessi presents reinterpretations of classic glass archetypes, bottles and glasses, transformed into autonomous sculptures. The works, solidified through the movement of water, lose their original functionality and take on a fluid and dynamic dimension. Turbulence, a recurring stylistic feature of the artist, becomes visual matter. Alongside the glass, drawings show the genesis of the forms, constituting documents of the creative process and paying homage to the historic Barovier&Toso glassworks, the oldest in the world, whose origins date back to 1295. The encounter between artistic vision and craftsmanship thus emerges in full force.
The journey continues in the Sala dell’Acqua, where a monumental ring installation dialogues with four historic chandeliers by Barovier&Toso. The work integrates images and sounds of water, evoking the symbolic fusion between the liquid element, which characterizes Plessi’s poetics, and the fire of the Murano furnaces. It is a metaphor for the blending of inspiration and technique, of contemporary art and centuries-old tradition. Concluding the exhibition is the perfume bottle Movement of the Soul, which recalls the geometries of the ring and the turbulent shapes of the sculptures. The work represents the synthesis of the collaboration between Plessi and the gallery, combining craftsmanship and multi-sensory language and confirming the quest for transformation and beauty that characterizes the artist’s work. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that includes a critical essay by Bruno Corà, art historian and president of the Burri Foundation, and an interview with the artist curated by Barovier&Toso ARTE.
“Although a native of Reggio Emilia, Plessi, by vocation, by choice, by physical empathy and by poetic destiny, is the most Venetian of artists known,” writes Bruno Corà in his essay Fabrizio Plessi: drawings and turbulent glass. “No one ignores the Masters of the distant past, much less those of the near past, but among those we have encountered in the last half century and living, he is unrivaled. Especially since in the course of his life he has exalted and celebrated water and light, but also matter in all its forms, primary elements of life on the planet and the history of Venice. In the long artistic career that distinguishes him among European and international masters, Plessi is credited with having employed - without submitting to orthodoxies and prescriptions - the most advanced technology but also all kinds of materials. If Burri’s work is emblematic since he dared to produce painting, form, space and balance by making use of materials often considered obsolete or extra-pictorial, Plessi, similarly, introduced in his works, along with fluid materials, stone, wood, metal and above all technology and electronics, considered ’foreign’ to traditional aesthetics, while in reality they announced the birth of a new epochal sensibility.”
The volume offers an in-depth look at Plessi’s creative process and the relationship between contemporary art and the glassmaking tradition. The initiative opens with a press preview on Nov. 21 at 5 p.m., followed by an invitation-only cocktail reception at the artist’s studio at 7 p.m. The exhibition will be open daily, Monday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Palazzo Barovier&Toso, Fondamenta Manin 1/D, in Murano.
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| Fabrizio Plessi explores Murano glass with exhibition "Getting Lost in a Glass of Water" |
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