Spotlight: GLAS, PLEXI

The Italian-born and London-based designer builds her flexible systems using transparent components made by master Venetian glass artisans. For Marina Marques, the curator of GLAS, PLEXI in Venice, the collection's underlying logic channels the open-ended design principles of Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari, transforming rigid rules and repetition into an invitation to play. Many of the objects feature the unconventional combination of acrylic and hand-blown glass. The materials engage in a subtle dialogue, creating compositions that explore form, colour, spatial relationships, and light as an active, constitutive element of the work. Light passes through them, shaping their perception and allows the glass to exist as a self-sustaining, autonomous form, independent from external lighting or context conditions. The pieces are being presented both in a focused exhibition at the Art and Design Salon, while allowing viewers to also experience them in a personal, domestic context, as the installation extends into the adjacent Notting Hill Townhouse. At the same time, this presentation marks the final weekend of Carmine Ashes, Norwegian artist Ann Iren Buan’s first solo show in London. Petrobelli’s light objects are being presented alongside paintings and sculptures, exploring the interplay between art and design, where the atmospheric and emotional qualities of modular coloured glass meet those achieved by Buan’s use of pure pigments.