Residency at Corning Museum of Glass - Simone Crestani

"Born in 1984 in Marostica, in the region of Venice, Simone Crestani started working glass at the age of 15 at the Massimo's Lunardon glass factory. After an apprenticeship that lasted 10 years, he opened his own studio. There, Crestani continues to work and is dedicated to research and innovation. An introspective and self-taught artist, Crestani has put together all of the lessons he’s learned and the experience he’s gained, to break away from the traditional glassmaking of Murano. In fact, Crestani now works borosilicate glass with a special technique of flameworking that he calls the “Hollow Sculpture” technique. Crestani is appreciated worldwide for his development and use of this technique. This particular way of working allows him to create large-scale objects in glass with fine details.
Inspired by the never-ending variety of the natural world, the shapes of animals and plants magically come to life-even in their tiniest details-in a celebration of lightness and transparency. Crestani’s creativity combines the quality of the design and craftsmanship to the uniqueness of plastic and artistic production, giving birth to exclusive sculptural pieces.
Crestani’s technique, together with his personal style and sophisticated poetics, allow him to create an interaction where glass overcomes its purely material dimension and becomes a fine and studied artistic language-a pure, silent, and crystalline conceptual element.
In both the plastic arts and in the world of Italian design, Crestani is regarded as a young luminary with a compelling and diverse body of work. Other than exhibiting in some of the most important initiatives related to the glass and art world, he is also regularly invited as a visiting artist and instructor by prestigious art academies and glass schools all over the world."