Designer
Fabio Fornasier
The Fornasier Glass Factory
The Fornasier Glass Factory was founded in Murano over 50 years ago, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit, talent and technical knowledge of the Master Glassmaker Luigi Fornasier, an esteemed expert in the working of Venetian chandeliers.
Maestro Fabio Fornasier is the son of glass art, and following the advice of his father Luigi he became a very young Master and added to his technical ability inherited from his father his innate curiosity, spent in the continuous search for different shapes, volumes, colors and finishes , sometimes experimental, designed to give life to unique works, extremely refined in their workmanship, rich in fluid harmony and always surprising for their originality.
Maestro Fabio Fornasier loves to define his works, not without a veil of irony, “Illuminating Works”.
His works, characterized by a unique and unmistakable style and already exhibited in museums, are proof of how it is possible to put traditional Murano craft techniques at the service of contemporary artistic creativity.
For Maestro Fabio Fornasier it is a lifestyle choice.
Fabio Fornasier
Fabio Fornasier, born in 1963, has known from childhood the culture and manual coordination of his father Luigi in glass-art, and learned it making it his own, and expresses it in art.
Talented in drawing since the times of the furnace with her father, he has an innate ease working with glass: a natural ability to transform and shape it into artistic lights, immediately showing an aptitude for difficult and complex techniques.
Tradition and innovation come together in the works of Fabio Fornasier, an eclectic personality who combines craftsmanship with fertile creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit that continuously takes him to evolving the existing into something new; to creating a perfect blend of art and functionality.
Always looking for new inspiration, Fabio Fornasier taught his philosophy in many schools of glass art and design of international importance.
A continuous process of training and experimentation made of travels and meetings with the contemporary art world, combined with inspirations that come from afar, forged the aesthetic eye of Fabio Fornasier, which led to the birth of the LU chandelier.
The desire to grow, take up the challenge and experiment, has over the years driven maestro Fornasier to take part in important international projects and exhibitions, winning prizes and finally conquering museum exhibitions.
Concept Design
LU Murano is a unique concept design at once revolutionary and traditional. Sinuous blown-glass shapes combined
in dynamic motion, as though ruffled by a light breeze.
A motion conceived for each individual piece, blown by the artist and fashioned by hand at extremely high temperatures. A veritable glass ikebana whose elements are assembled poetically, one by one: each chandelier is unique, entirely hand made, and makes a strong uncompromising statement, giving the room a distintive look.
In a range of colours, transparencies, translucencies and reflections, each chandelier is an exclusive work that
speaks of the artist’s creative act and personal research, transcending fashions or market demands.
An innovative
and contemporary design, made with the most traditional glass-working techniques, that blends elegantly with classical interiors and becomes a centrepiece of modern spaces.
Indeed, LU is a harmonious synthesis of innovation and tradition, of the skill of the craftsman and technological creativity. A work of art, a never-before-seen chandelier.
Exhibitions and Awards
There is at Murano, an island in the Venetian lagoon, a craft tradition the like of which is very hard to find anywhere else. For centuries master glassmakers have handed down their secrets from generation to generation to develop a history of great success while earning the appreciation of people all over the world.
The art of making the glass chandelier, designed to the most sophisticated and elegant standards is carried out using consummately honed technical skills and centuries’ old furnaces. These signature works decorate the palaces and halls of the international aristocracy and have never lost with the passage of time the particular minutiae of their delicate and decorative features. This is a most fertile environment for the craftsman but one that has also to operate in a market characterised by true originality that is itself beset by many difficulties.
In this market manual dexterity must seek new forms of expression and yet not lose of its own tradition. Innovation is needed for the creation of objects that are new and exciting but that remain faithful to the highest quality standards set by the heritage and history of the island. Fabio Fornasier is a child of the world of glass. Following in the footsteps of his father Luigi, he was very young to qualify as a master glassmaker and since that time has never ceased to search for new forms, colours, finishes and the best possible rendition of his works.
His production is highly individual and recognisable, standing out from that of other furnaces. He has harnessed the traditional artisan skills of Murano and put them to the service of contemporary artistic creativity to create chandeliers that are true installations. Their sinuous and elegant forms retain the typical mechanical structure to which all the glass parts are applied in ways that give life to completely new objects. His greatest masterpiece to date is called LU-Murano, a chandelier that is in constant transformation while remaining wholly itself, different from all the others, with a real personality of its own.
Fornasier has the curriculum of an established artist.
- 2019 Italy – Venice “Murano Sottovuoto al Florian” – Caffè Florian, Piazza San Marco, Venice
- 2013 Italy – Venice “ilLUsion” – Hotel Liassìdi Palace, Venezia
- 2008 Italy – Venice “LU(in)niverso –Venetian Institute of Sciences Letters and Arts – Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti
- 2008 Italy – Venice “Eros VS Thanatos” – Centrale Lounge
- 2007 Italy – Milan “Oriente” – Make Up Studio Diego Dalla Palma
- 2006 Italy – Brescia “VI” – Antica Cantina Fratta Berlucchi
- 2005 Italy – Venice “Schizzi DiVini” – Wine on canvas ft. Andrea Penzo – Galleria Imagina
- 2005 Italy – Venice “Inferno” – Centrale Lounge
- 2004 Italy – Padova “Not there – here” – Galleria Zero Karati
- 1999 Italy – Zurich “Screpoai” – Sela Gallery
- 1999 Italy – Venice “Artisti Emergenti” – Galleria San Nicolò
- 2022 Italy – Murano “The Italian Glass Weeks” – Fabio Fornasier Glass Studio
- 2022 Italy – Murano “Homo Faber in Città” – Venice
- 2018 Italy – Murano “The After” – The Venice Glass Week – Murano Gallery LUAB 4.0
- 2018 Italy – Murano “Lux Lumen” – GAS 2018 – Berengo Exhibition Space
- 2017 Italy – Murano “Light Blowing” – The Venice Glass Week – Murano Gallery LUAB 4.0
- 2016 Italy – Murano “Murano Oggi” – Murano Glass Museum
- 2016 Italy – Venezia “Design.ve”
- 2016 Italy – Villa dei Vescovi “Glass.Arte del Vetro Oggi” – Luvigliano di Torreglia (PD)
- 2012 China – Shanghai “Tradizione e Innovazione – L’Italia in Cina” Shanghai Italian Center – Triennale di Milano
- 2011 Latvia – Riga “Glasstress” – Art Museum Riga Bourse
- 2007 South Korea – Cheongju “Cheongju International Biennale”
- 2007 Italy – S.Vito al Tagliamento – “Vitraria”
- 2006 Italy – Venezia “10° Mostra Internazionale di Architettura” – Spezio CZ Biennale di Venezia
- 2005 Italy – S.Vito Tagliamento “Vitraria”
- 2004 Italy – S.Vito Tagliamento “Vitraria”
- 2004 Italy – Venice “Vetri nel Mondo oggi” – Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti
- 1998 Italy – Venice “Venezia Aperto Vetro” – Palazzo Ducale Venezia
- 1997 USA – Seattle “History of the World Gallery”
- 1997 France – La Riche “Salon International des Artistes Verriers”
- 1996 Italy – Venice “Venezia Aperto Vetro” – Murano Glass Museum
- Glass Museum – Murano, Italy -LU Murano Chandelier-
- Berengo Exhibition Space – Murano, Italy -VI Chandelier-
- Gerovassiliou Wine Museum – Epanomi, Greece -VI Chandelier-
- Philips Museum – Eindhoven, Netherlands -LU Murano Chandeliers-
- 2010 England Winner UK Lighting Design Awards of the year 2010
- 2007 South Korea – Cheongju “5th Cheongju International Competition” – Third place -VI Chandelier-
- 1996 Italy – Venezia “Venezia Aperto Vetro” – First prize in the youth section
- Denmark – Bornholm Bornholm Glas Keramiksojolen
- France – Vannes Le Chatel CERVAF
- England – London Royal College of Art
- Italy – Murano Scuola del Vetro Abate Zanetti
- Italy – Bolzano Vetroricerca
- Netherlands – Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academy
- USA – Washington DC Pilchuck Glass School
