I grew up in Venice, with glass around me at all times. Glass is the material that I found most suitable for translating my thoughts into a physical piece. - Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda.

PATERSON ZEVI is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition: Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda’s first solo show in London. The exhibition comprises a selection of five new glass sculptures, also known as vessels, each of which are unique and were made for the occasion of this exhibition.

With this most recent body of work, Marcantonio (b. 1991, Venice) has explored and mastered his process creating forms with reclaimed cotissi, a technique he has been experimenting with in Murano (Venice) since 2016. The word cotissi originates from the Muranese dialect, used to describe the leftover fragments from previous firings in this world-famous centre of glass-blowing. Installed as singular works, the sculptures are dispersed throughout PATERSON ZEVI’s Mayfair space where they reflect and react to the changing light throughout the day. Fused together to create the vessels, the cotissi fragments create a shifting surface formation which is both entirely abstract and yet highly evocative. These gestural exteriors reference a myriad of sources within the natural world; bringing to mind a rocky landscape, a lunar terrain or the ocean floor. This undulating exterior is in sharp contrast with the vessel’s interior, which is smooth and glossy, revealing the surprising thickness of these glass structures. The pieces are differentiated not only by their varying topographies, but also by the artist’s carefully selected palette of colours. These range from bright jewel-like tones to subtle monochromes. This sensitivity to colour, combined with the visceral surfaces and bold compositions of the vessels, lie at the heart of Marcantonio’s highly intuitive practice.

Marcantonio began to centre his innovative technique around the cotissi - his ‘raw materials’ - as both a celebration of colour and a desire to reinvent and recycle elements of glass production. The imaginative and resourceful approach he developed around the cotissi is part of his broader focus on, and concern for, sustainability. After eight centuries of glassmaking, the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the current energy crisis, have threatened Murano’s historic furnaces, forcing many to close down. By reutilising unwanted glass, the artist gives new meaning to materials while exploring more sustainable techniques within Murano’s illustrious history. Thus, the artist addresses tradition while also presenting an image of the future; resolutely challenging the core of glassmaking as he presents these unmistakeably contemporary sculptures.

Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda lives and works in Venice, Italy. His work has been included in museum group exhibitions including The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection, Le Stanze del Vetro, Venice (2021); Vitrea, Triennale Milano, Milan (2021); MURANO OGGI. Emozioni di Vetro, Glass Museum in Murano, Venice (2017); and in gallery exhibitions including ALMA ZEVI in Venice and New York City (2017, 2018, 2020); and David Gill Gallery, London (2017). Alongside his artistic practice, Marcantonio Brandolini d’Adda runs the Venetian glass company LagunaB, founded by his mother Marie Brandolini d’Adda in 1994. As part of its mission, LagunaB co-founded AUTONOMA, an international exchange programme with the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, USA. AUTONOMA is also a founding partner of the VITAL carbon sequestration project in the Venetian lagoon.

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