Simone Crestani. Tensioni Sublimi

Under the direction of Roberta Calarota and Simonetta Vespa, Maggiore Design – Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M. hosts a solo show of the refined glass designer Simone Crestani. The event is included in the third edition of Bologna Design Week. With a series of previously unseen works specially created for the spaces in via D'Azeglio 15 – presented in the catalogue by Domitilla Dardi – Crestani demonstrates once again his great skills in working glass, exalting the balance, the lightness and the grace of the natural elements he is inspired by. From ethereal bubbles to refined bonsai, from majestic deers to crystal fishes, Crestani's creative universe comes to life as unique artistic artifacts and magnificent installations characterized by a sophisticated and elegant artistic research.

In the skilled hands of Simone Crestani the clean and pure glass is tranformed into a conceptual element of a real artistic language giving birth to poetic creations where transparency and lightness get palpable and real, without loosing their delicacy. Nature, and the aesthetic balance of its elements, is the infinitive source of inspiration for Crestani, who is fixing forever ethereal images in the fine grace of the glass, such as the soft movements of a branch moved by a gentle breeze – as with the beautiful Glass Bonsai series – the free running in the crystal air of bubbles chasing each other – with the perfect examples of the Bubble Consolle and the majestic chandeliers – the appearance in the clean water of fleeing sea creatures, the Delicious Fish series. When he makes bright and transparent the deer horns, he provides us with an almost fairy-tale vision, an appearance in a dream. A real world getting magical, where marvel rules and where we are caught by the artist's expressive fantasy.
Only a material like the glass, so fragile and lasting, can create images where there is a perfect fusion between precariousness and strength, between what is ephemeral and concrete. As eternal embroideries of frost, Crestani's works come out of the breath and make the air blow visible.
Despite his young age, Simone Crestani (Marostica, 1984) has already conquered the international design world thank to the skillful use of a particular glassblowing technique which he teaches, regularly invited as visiting professor, in prestigious academies and schools in Europe and United States. Pupil at the Massimo Lunardon's glass factory for nearly ten years, he opens his own “Atelier Crestani” in 2010 where he develops an original and more contemporary reinterpretation of the ancient craft of glass processing, for which Veneto boasts the most renowned and prestigious history in all Europe since ancient times. This technique allows Crestani to challenge the physical laws and therefore create large-scale objects in glass where also the details are curated and new and innovative dialogues with other materials, working the glass in a more sculptural way. The exhibitions and international recognitions are several. His lessons are requested from New York to Jerusalem. He has exhibited his work in Paris, in prestigious venue like the Grand Palais, in several cities in the United States, among which New York stands out again, and then also Cologne and Maastricht, without forgetting the recent invitation to the 4th Denizli Glass Biennial in Turkey. In Italy, we just mention one of the most recent exhibition in the suggestive setting of the Basilica Palladiana in Vicenza.

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