Created during Davide Salvadore’s intensive week-long 2014 artist residency at Ignite Glass Studios, this one-of-a-kind work from Salvadore’s Ancella series represents a rare collaboration between the acclaimed Venetian glass maestro and a ten-person team of Ignite glassmakers.

The sculpture rises in a tall, fluid turquoise form, dividing into two gently tapering arms that frame an elongated central opening. Its lower body is enveloped in a richly patterned field of multicolored murrine, where turquoise, coral red, violet, black and pale blue shift and stretch through the movement of molten glass. The visual density of its patterned base contrasts with the clarity and upward movement of the upper form, giving the sculpture both substantial presence and a sense of lift.

Ignite invited Salvadore from Murano to Chicago and produced the residency as an intensive period of glassmaking, technical exchange and creative collaboration. Conceived and realized over the course of that week, this Ancella became the residency’s central culminating work, uniting Salvadore’s Murano glassmaking heritage with the collective skill and technical capabilities of Ignite’s hot-shop team.

Artist: Davide Salvadore in collaboration with the Ignite Glass Studios team
Series: Ancella
Date: 2014
Medium: Handblown and hot-sculpted glass with multicolored murrine
Dimensions: 34″ x 14″ x 5″
Edition: Unique work