Berengo Studio 1989

Berengo Studio was founded in 1989 by Adriano Berengo. Since its inception, its goal has been to introduce international contemporary artists to the world of glass so that they can work with master glassmakers to translate their art into the three-dimensional language of glass paste.

The artists who work with Berengo Studio do not typically work in this medium, but come from the world of fine arts, and it is for this reason that their approach to this new medium always leads to original, more liberal interpretations of the possibilities of this material.

This is why Berengo Studio represents one of the most innovative experiments in the use of glass to express the artistic demands of contemporaneity.

During the 1980s and 1990s, its founder Adriano Berengo invited the first artists (from northern Europe and Italy) to experiment with glass. Working with the master glassmakers, many of them began translating their generally pictorial works into glass sculptures.

Berengo Studio’s cultural plan endeavors to free glass from its simple functionality and from the largely decorative tradition of Murano, making it a dynamic material for works of contemporary art.

Over about twenty years, more than 200 international artists have come to the Berengo furnace to create glass works and to help bring to fruition this ambitious cultural project.

Today, Berengo Studio boasts numerous collectors around the world and over 11,000 international contacts, and has galleries located in Venice and Tokyo as well as on Murano.

In 2001, an old, abandoned furnace from the early twentieth-century on Murano was converted into an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary glass art.

Here are some artists who have collaborated with Berengo Studio:

Ai Weiwei, Vik Muniz, Tony Cragg, Jan Fabre, Kiki Smith, Monica Bonvicini, Karen LaMonte, Mat Collishaw, Loris Cecchini, Javier Pérez, Erwin Wurm, Fred Wilson, Joyce J. Scott, Tim Tate, Xavier Veilhan, Antonio Marras
Laure Prouvost, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Wim Delvoye, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Jaume Plensa, and many others.

This is not an exhaustive list, as Berengo Studio has collaborated with many other artists over the years.