Italian Glassware Company Venini's Bold New Designer Collaborations

Venini —one of Venice’s most famous glassware companies—has a long history of collaborating with prominent designers, starting early on with modernist architects Carlo Scarpa and Gio Ponti, who helped shape the brand. Scarpa served as artistic director from 1932 until ‘47, and his creative legacy is kept alive today at the firm by artisans who continue to use his preferred glassblowing styles, including mezza filigrana, which produces a unique thin and clear filigree.

Venini’s new ArtLight and ArtGlass collections, released at this year’s Salone del Mobile, carry on the tradition of fruitful partnerships. ArtLight includes designs from Rome-based architects Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas, as well as Alberto Biagetti, while the ArtGlass line showcases sculptural creations by the likes of French designer Philippe Nigro.

In a modern twist, Alberto Biagetti reimagined the classic Edison bulb as transparent table, floor, suspension, and wall sconces. Each of the seven pieces in his “Edi” collection features a cluster of colored-glass sticks that cleverly represent the filament in a traditional lightbulb, though they’re actually much more modern LED lights. And designer Philippe Nigro, who has developed collections for French luxury brands Hermès, Ligne Roset, and Baccarat, captures a similar luminosity in his floating glass bowls for Venini. Called Altitude, the limited-edition creations were made using a "submerged" technique, where several colors of glass are blended with transparent glass to create objects that, like the rest of Venini’s new collaborations, light up delicately from within.

For more information about ArtLight and ArtGlass, visit veniniom/en .