NEW YORK, NY.- Laura de Santillanas solo exhibition, Moon. From Kyoto to New York., opened on Thursday April 18, and will be on view through May 24! For this show, de Santillana conceived a series of small format tablets in which metal leaf is incorporated or applied to the surface, suggesting the perception of the moon in a night sky. Within strict geometric forms exist dreamy worlds of jewel tones, shimmering hues, and translucent glass in a color range of deep blues, blue greys and silvery greys.
"The glass tablets are envelopes in which the light lives and refracts; there is the surface work, a skin. This light that is incorporated in the object becomes the body of the object. Light is not outside, it's inside, a liquid frame between the inside and the outside." - Laura de Santillana
"In last autumns exhibition in Kyoto, Lauras work was displayed together with kimonos and obi sashes in a traditional Japanese building, where it harmonized beautifully with the tatami mats and painted folding screens. Despite being glass, the light that passes through it is softened, as if it had passed through shōji screens. Her aesthetics are more Japanese than the Japanese themselves, her works unassuming and subtle. They allow us to realize that the moon seen from Venice and the moon seen from Kyoto are one and the same." - Shoko Aono, Director
Ippodo Gallery New York
Born in Venice. After Classical Studies, she enrolled in an architecture faculty. In 1975 she moved to New York, where she worked in the Vignelli Associates studio while attending the School of Visual Arts. From 1975 and for the next ten years, she designed lamps and objects for the family business. After the family's exit from the business, she founded Eos in 1986 together with her father, Ludovico, and brother, Alessandro, and contributed designs for lamps and objects for the new collections. After her father's death in 1989 and until 1993, she took over the running of Eos' new foundry on Murano as art director. From 1996 on, she started to exhibit her work in galleries.
She has a minimalistic approach to glass and uses her tablets as a canvas to explore possibilities. She was born in the Venini family, founder and owner of the eponymous factory in Murano. Long and frequent travels are of great inspiration for her artistic practice. "My studio is in my head, where my ideas are born in glass. The artwork is my diary." Santillana exhibits worldwide, recently in Yorkshire Sculpture Park in U.K. and MAK Vienna and her works are in museums both in Europe and the USA. She lives and works in Venice.