TONY CRAGG. SILICON DIOXIDE Murano Glass Museum

Inaugurated in the presence of the artist, the exhibition, curated by Berengo Studio in collaboration with Musei Civici di Venezia, retraces the most significant stages of the English sculptor's career, starting with his assemblages, large-scale historical works in which groups of objects are juxtaposed and superimposed. Alongside these important pieces from the past, there are several more... Show more

Inaugurated in the presence of the artist, the exhibition, curated by Berengo Studio in collaboration with Musei Civici di Venezia, retraces the most significant stages of the English sculptor's career, starting with his assemblages, large-scale historical works in which groups of objects are juxtaposed and superimposed. Alongside these important pieces from the past, there are several more recent works, some of which have just been completed, which show Cragg's new curiosity for the various effects of coloured glass and reflect, with expressive twists, the research path undertaken by the artist in recent years on the concept of fluidity of the material glass. The exhibition is also enriched by a series of drawings, etchings and watercolours that help us to immerse ourselves in the artist's creative universe.

In the exhibition concept, the sculptures that Cragg began to produce in 2009, when he began working with Berengo Studio in Murano, take on particular importance. In a surprising evolution from the large assemblages of the 1990s, the blown glass sculptures have allowed Cragg to access a new dimension of the material. No longer bound to the traditional found forms of bottles and other classical objects, in these more recent works he has been able to explore the possibilities of manipulating matter in the molten state. This ductility has seen him "choreograph" elaborate and original compositions in the kiln, which have emerged organically, and from his mind have slipped into the hands of the masters to be moulded into a new physical presence, one that resists the stasis of sculpture and instead manages to capture the movement and energy of a single moment.

The artist's investigation, which stems from a need for ontological exploration of matter and the need to investigate the relationships that regulate the dynamic energy of materials, results in works that manage to balance the inner and outer balance of forms. Cragg's works reflect on the complexity of physis, reconciling a total understanding of the organic nature of reality with an acceptance of its less intelligible characteristics. It is not by chance, therefore, that glass becomes one of his main elements of inspiration: glass is the crucible in which the organic mechanisms and the free potential of the form that trans-forms, that goes beyond itself to become something else, are fused, broken and recomposed. It is no coincidence, then, that this exhibition is called Silicon Dioxide, because it is precisely that silicon dioxide from which glass is born that contains within itself not only a necessary chemical-organic structure, but also the creative spark of matter ready to express itself as a new form, a new work of art.