Glass, that fragile but resilient material, has usually been relegated to the decorative arts, but recently, in conjunction with the Berengo Studio in Murano, Italy, world-renowned contemporary artists have been taking their shot using glass as their medium to create new works of art.
Introducing internationally renowned artists to the master glassmakers of Italy is an effort to push artistic boundaries and keep alive the tradition of glass art. Showcasing these works is the third iteration of Glasstress Boca Raton 2025, which opened in late April at the Boca Raton Museum of Art and runs through Oct. 12.
The first two exhibits took place in 2016 and 2021.
“‘Surprise’ is the word that best defines this exhibition,” says Ena Heller, executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
“Each iteration of Glasstress is a unique project, including different artists and new works,” she says. “The artists push the boundaries of materials and techniques, often surprising us with their scale, textures, unexpected iconography and expansive symbolism.”
Nearly 40 works by 24 artists from 20 countries are featured in the exhibition. Many of these artists, including Swedish artist Lap-See Lam, Austrian artist Erwin Wurm, and French artist Laure Prouvost, have represented their nations at the prestigious Venice Biennale.
Prouvost, winner of the prestigious Turner Prize, has since collaborated regularly with Berengo’s artisans in Murano. Her installation of aquatic birds situated in a tropical landscape is her homage to our endangered natural environment.
These artists, along with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, Irish artist Sean Scully and Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, all have their works on display at the museum as part of the exhibit.
Heller notes that a distinctive feature of this edition is the integration of glass with other media such as marble, woven fabric, metal, etc., within the same work — all of which continues to redefine the possibilities of contemporary glass art, ensuring the art form remains relevant.
With a mission to restore the visibility and reputation of Murano glass, after decades of closures of centuries-old glass furnaces and cheaper knockoffs, Glasstress artists are invited to create original works, often on a large scale.
Launched in 2009 as a collateral event at the Venice Biennale, Glasstress invites artists to collaborate with master glassmakers in Venice, whose expertise has been honed over generations.
“Glasstress is a collaborative process that shatters the hierarchy between, art, decoration and craft,” the museum says in its accompanying narrative.
The interchange between the master glass makers with contemporary artists allows the master glass makers to expand their craft by improvising new methods to help artists realize contemporary ideas. The artists also benefit by expressing themselves in a new medium and creating new and innovative works in glass.
For the exhibit, curator Kathleen Goncharov and the museum commissioned Fort Lauderdale-based artist Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga, who uses the moniker José Alvarez (D.O.P.A), whose large and brightly colored floral mural hangs in the museum lobby, to create his first work in glass collaborating with Berengo glass makers.
The work, titled Echoes of Silence in the Galactic Garden, is a radiantly colored psychedelic feast in a complex floral pattern adorned with gold embellishments. It combines the artist’s love of astrophysics with his own personal garden.
Born in Venezuela, Alvarez is known for collage, performance, video works and paintings influenced by science, spirituality and mysticism. He collaborated remotely via Zoom with the artisans in Venice.
He sent his intricate design for them to translate into glass and says the artisans did a phenomenal job in following his specifications.
“I flipped out,” he says. “It was so amazing.”
Having never worked in glass before, he says to see his work produced in this medium is wonderful. He’s grateful to Goncharov for giving him this opportunity and says it has ignited new ideas for future projects at the Berengo Studio.
He has donated this piece to the museum to use in future fundraising campaigns.
In addition to Alvarez’s vibrant glass work, at the entry visitors are greeted by another striking piece: Sean Scully’s Venice Stack, an 8-foot-tall, multi-colored glass tower. Also on display are a selection of vividly colored urns by German artist Thomas Schütte, whose work was the subject of a 2024 retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
MacArthur fellow Campos-Pons created a 2021 mobile series titled, The Rise of the Butterflies, dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matter movement. Her 2023 stabile titled Reservoir of Love evokes both human tears and butterfly wings.
Collaborating with Berengo Studio, Campos-Pons used traditional mouth blown glass-making techniques to craft each piece. The mobiles carry a variety of symbols, including butterflies, glass pieces shaped like tears and water drops, and blue and white evil eyes.
Another highlight in the exhibition is the 2021 White Chandelier, a monumental glass chandelier by Ai Weiwei, crafted in the style of an 18th-century Venetian Baroque chandelier, adorned with flowers, foliage and climbing vines.
Having spent 81 days in prison in 2011 for his anti-government activities in China, the artist, who now lives in Europe, incorporates symbols from his protest works into his later works, including this chandelier. If you look closely through the ornate and curlicue tendrils, you will discern glass handcuffs representing his imprisonment, a fist with a raised middle finger and small crabs, symbolizing censorship by the Chinese government.
Also on display are Weiwei’s 2024 Vases in Five Colors, in which the artist comments on Western society’s infatuation with capitalism. Using traditional Chinese-style vases, the artist embellishes them with the universally recognized and iconic Coca-Cola logo. Using a series of vivid colors (although no red), the artist proffers his views on consumerism, mass production and marketing, economic systems and societal values.
A few large-scale pieces dominate the exhibit. Fiona Banner’s Work 2 is a glass scaffold resembling those used by construction workers. Mexican surrealist Pedro Friedeberg’s Tarot Kindergarten is an 8-by-8-foot mirrored glass mural featuring tarot card characters and occult symbols. Iranian artist Fariba Ferdosi’s Nido/Corona is a 59-inch glass crown of thorns.
Belgian artist Laurent Reypens’s 2024 painting, Carta Mundi, depicting a series of vases, hangs besides “Dancing with the Light,” his inverted glass vase sculptures set on brass legs — giving the illusion of movement as if they are scurrying away.
There is even a short 5-minute video, titled Howling at the Moon, (2022) created by Swedish artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg using a surreal language of dreams, fantasy and fairy tales. A companion piece by Djurberg is a glass sculpture titled Wolf in Coat.
As a metaphor for life, glass is both delicate and durable — evolving from a molten liquid state, existing in flux and tension and ultimately transforming itself into a new solid form.
“Unlike the past and the present, what comes next for our world presents itself as constant possibility, always transforming as we move forward in time,” says Adriano Berengo, founder of the Berengo Studio, in a prepared statement.
“This concept of transformation has always held an affinity with glass, a medium which — as the name Glasstress suggests — exists in a state of constant tension. Life needs tension, it needs energy, and a vibrant exchange of ideas,” he says.
If you go
WHAT: Glasstress
WHEN: Running through Sunday, Oct. 12
Adults: $16; seniors (ages 65+): $12; groups: $10; high school students (under 18): free; children under 15: free.
WHERE: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
INFORMATION: Visit bocamuseum.org or call (561) 392-2500.