VENEZIA
Art Glass
Scarti Redux, 2023
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week Glass 2023
Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Palazzo Loredan VGW Hub
A botanical regrowth....a hybrid species...Scarti Redux, illuminates the dialogue for Murano's survival and revival. Scarti is essential to the precision of the most important Murano blowing techniques. Yet, for centuries, they have been discarded as waste, creating landfills and extending the boundaries of Murano. Leslie reutilizes these precious mineral inlaid waste elements to illuminate Murano's treasured history and much-needed renewal.
Acqua di Murano, 2022
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week 2022
Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Palazzo Loredan VGW Hub
​Acqua di Murano...a morphology of Murano past and present reflects into the future. Fundamental to Murano's survival are acts of creation, repetition, collaboration, mastery, listening, watching, and collecting, each essential to the other, like water to an island. Found objects from the past created by Masters unknown whose purpose is now defunct are merged, morphed, and metabolized into a new life, a new alchemy, an elixir for Murano... a drop of water...survival.
Re-Cultivating, 2021
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week 2021
Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Palazzo Loredan VGW Hub
A vehicle for and vessel of light, the chandelier is the most emblematic representative of Murano Glass art. The very nature of Murano glass is dialectical: its making is a dynamic, athletic exercise in the pursuit of freezing motion. Genninger’s elegant disruption of this iconic and ubiquitous art object engages us in a dialogue about balancing static and dynamic natures. The sculpture’s botanical elements speak to the “fixing” or capturing of untamable nature, the original chandelier’s leaves, and other elements literally blossoming in this reimagined composition.
Revitalize, 2020
Leslie Ann Genninger
& Michele Benzoni
Venice Glass Week 2020
Genninger Studio, Venice, Italy
"Revitalize" is a project by Leslie Ann Genninger and Michele Benzoni that juxtaposes antique and contemporary Murano Glass elements into unfamiliar compositions, creating a dialogue between the past and present. "Revitalize" begins with a microbe, a vintage orb of spiked blown glass, discovered in an attic's defunct corner of a prestigious Murano Chandelier factory, an element reminiscent of an atom or a microbe, an unknown virus, a bomb, an abstract flower, a star...a form of primordial life. Its birth and shape are impossible to ignore, yet it revitalizes silent reflecting elements and gives meaning to Murano's current challenge and much-needed rebirth.
Conteria Necklaces, 2020
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week 2020
Genninger Studio Venice, Italy
This unique collection of necklaces created by the artist reveals a history of Murano viewed through the blown "Conteria Windows." The origin of these tiny "Conteria" beads dates back to the 15th Century. Genninger's fascination with the conteria began over 35 years ago when she visited Murano for the first time and discovered ancient caches of these beads in 600-year-old warehouses, where stacks of ancient wooden crates overflowed with beads in a kaleidoscope of shapes, colors, and styles.
Frammenti di Riflessi, 2019
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week 2019
Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Palazzo Loredan VGW Hub
This unique body of work uses antique mirror elements from the archives of a 500-year-old defunct Murano mirror factory, where the sophisticated alchemy of patinas and textures were created using liquid silver with mercury and salts. Leslie's installation captures the fragments of this historic and inherited artisianal passion, and links the past to the present where the observer is exponential reflected in the surroundings of the nobel rooms of the 600 year old Palazzo Loredan.
Vetri Maledetti, 2018
Leslie Ann Genninger
Venice Glass Week 2018
Genninger Studio Venice, Italy
"Vetri Male-Detti" are Murano glass totems composed of antique Murano Glass chandelier elements that state a universal truth through Venetian Proverbs inscribed on black iridescent spheres. Animated by the proverbs, each character is juxtaposed with the delicate, fragile artisanal glass. With "Vetri Male-Detti," Genninger creates a unique dialogue of a universal dilemma: noble heritages and fading artesian histories become defunct forces against an omnipotent technological future.
"Zucaro in boca, veleno in cuor"
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"Sweet words in the mouth, poison in the heart"
"Chi no risccia no rosega"
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"Those who do not risk do not win"
"Passion orba rason"
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"Passion blinds reason"​
"L'amor no xé fato solo de amor"
"Love is not made only of love"
"L'oro bon no ciapa macia"
"Pure gold does not
stain"
"Niora e Madona no xé mai in bona"
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"Daughter-in-laws and mother-in-laws never get along"
"Consegi de dona o i scota o no i val gnente"
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"Woman's advice either burns or has no value"