On the occasion of the 18th Architecture Biennale and the Venice Glass Week, FAI – Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano hosted the exhibition “Massimo Micheluzzi at the Olivetti Store” in Venice’s historic Olivetti showroom in Piazza San Marco. Curated by Cristina Beltrami, the exhibition presents 44 vases created using opus sectile and blown-glass mosaic techniques, blending Murano tradition with contemporary innovation.

Micheluzzi’s works engage in dialogue with Carlo Scarpa’s architectural design of the Olivetti Store, sharing references such as Byzantine mosaics and the interplay of light, silence, and color, while the historic Olivetti typewriters on display establish a conversation between art, design, and technology.

Designed by Scarpa between 1957 and 1958, the Olivetti Store is a landmark of modern architecture, renowned for its mosaic floor, eye-shaped windows, hidden stone door, and warm integrated lighting. Every detail reflects Scarpa’s vision and the mastery of Venetian craftsmanship.

A bilingual catalogue (Italian/English), edited by Cristina Beltrami and published by Grafiche Veneziane, accompanies the exhibition.

In the evocative atrium of Palazzo Loredan, one of Venice’s most iconic spaces, Massimo Micheluzzi, winner of the Premio Glass in Venice 2019, presented an exhibition as part of The Venice Glass Week. The show featured a selection of glass works that interacted elegantly with their surroundings, enriched by the marble busts of the Panteon Veneto.

For this occasion, Micheluzzi showcased his Opus sectile series, blown-glass mosaics created in 2019 that renew the Murano tradition with a contemporary vision. Distinguished by complex techniques, the works blend the classical language of glass with a modern imprint, featuring geometric patterns that recall Byzantine mosaics and Venetian terrazzo.

The exhibition highlighted Micheluzzi’s ability to merge tradition and innovation in a dialogue between past and present. The historic setting of Palazzo Loredan amplified this message, creating a unique atmosphere where the luminosity and delicacy of glass resonated with the city’s centuries-old history, an extraordinary fusion of art, history, and design.

In 2017, the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice hosted a solo exhibition by Massimo Micheluzzi, conceived by Fabio Achilli and curated by Giulio Alessandri, as part of the first edition of The Venice Glass Week. The exhibition, featuring new works created specifically for the event, was titled "Solve et Coagula", reflecting the artist's approach of blending tradition and innovation by deconstructing and reconstructing glass into forms that interact with one another.

The show, which presented around 90 new glass creations, was a tribute to the ancient Venetian glass-making tradition, crafted using Murano's traditional techniques but reinterpreted in a contemporary key.

The works were displayed in the historic Sale De Maria, where the original furnishings of the De Maria family and the Gothic windows created a captivating contrast with the purity of the glass sculptures, exploring the interplay between transparency and opacity.

A central feature of the exhibition was two large stained-glass windows, Collezione I Moderna and Collezione II Antiqua, placed in front of two ogival windows in the rooms of the Giudecca building. Micheluzzi used pieces of broken glass, donated by antiquarians and friends, fusing them with modern glass to create works with a powerful visual and symbolic impact.

This exhibition, marking Micheluzzi's first solo show in Venice, celebrated the ability of glass to reinvent itself while maintaining its centuries-old vitality, demonstrating how the glass-making tradition can continue to evolve through a modern and international language.