Acqua di Murano, 2022
Venice Glass Week Glass Hub, Palazzo Loredan
Acqua di Murano...a morphology of Murano past and present reflects into the future. Fundamental to Murano’s survival are acts...acts of creation, repetition, collaboration, mastering, 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 now defunct, are merged, morph and metabolize into a new life, a new alchemy, an elixir for Murano...a drop of water….survival.pture’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. Positioned under a classic chandelier, Genninger’s sculpture joins the conversation about Venice’s own dialectical nature-geologically a place of submerged islands in a lagoon aesthetically a site of endless imagination-its fragile ecological status and future.
Re-Cultivating, 2021
Venice Glass Week Glass Hub, Palazzo Loredan
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 a dialectical one: its making is a dynamic, athletic exercise in the pursuit of freezing motion. Genninger’s elegant disruption of this iconic and ubiquitous arts 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. Positioned under a classic chandelier, Genninger’s sculpture joins the conversation about Venice’s own dialectical nature-geologically a place of submerged islands in a lagoon aesthetically a site of endless imagination-its fragile ecological status and future.
Revitalize, 2020
Venice Glass Week, Genninger Studio
“Revitalize” is a project by Leslie Ann Genninger and Michele Benzoni created for The Venice Glass Week 2020, which 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 Glass factory, today abandoned, an element reminiscent of an atom or a microbe, an unknown virus, a bomb, an abstract flower, a star... a form of primordial life. It's birth is unclear and shape impossible to ignore. The spark of a rebirth and revitalization of silent reflecting elements, giving meaning to the present.
Conteria Necklaces, 2020
Venice Glass Week, Genninger Studio
For The Venice Glass Week 2020, Leslie Ann Genninger presents a unique collection of jewelry and objects dedicated to Murano Glass and its sophisticated blowing techniques with a focus on the "Conteria" beads, which date back to the 15th Century. Her fascination began over 30 years ago when she visited Murano for the first time and discovered ancient storage buildings packed to capacity with stacked wooden crates of these minute beads in an infinite number of shapes, colors and styles. Each object and piece of jewelry in this special collection contains a kaleidoscope of Murano's history viewed through the blown "Conteria Windows”.
Frammenti di Riflessi, 2019
Venice Glass Week Hub, Palazzo Loredan
Leslie Ann Genninger presents a unique body of work using mirror elements from the archives of Glass Master Guido Barbini showcasing an alchemy of patinas and textures created from his 500 year old family history of silver mirroring techniques. Leslie captures the fragments of this inherited passion and links the past to the present where the observer is reflected in her two-dimensional works to exponential dimensions, created by each iconic element and their surroundings in Palazzo Loredan.
Vetri Maledetti, 2018
Venice Glass Week, Genninger Studio
A unique collection of seven Murano glass compositions constructed from a collage of antique Murano glass forms and objects combined with an inscription of a Venetian Proverb, entitled “Vetri Male-Detti”. The Venetian proverbs, inscribed on heavy black iridescent spheres, are poetic in their Venetian language, universal in their meaning, yet juxtapose with the delicate fragile transparent glass pieces created by past generations of some of the great Murano Glass Masters. With these “Vetri Male-Detti” Leslie creates a unique dialogue of a universal dilemma: noble heritages and fading traditions of generations past become a defunct force against an omnipotent technological future.
"Zucaro in boca, veleno in cuor"
Sweet words in the mouth, poison in the heart
"Chi no risccia no rosega"
Those who do not risk do not win
"Consegi de dona o i scota o no i val gnente"
Woman's advice either burns or has no value
"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
"Passion orba rason"
Passion blinds reason
"Niora e Madona no xé mai in bona"
Daughter-in-laws and mother-in-laws never get along
Each sculpture is inscribed with an ancient Venetian Proverb or “detto” which is both universal and relevant in its message, and unique in caricature and personality