Form Portfolios Brings the “Maestro of Murano” to 3daysofdesign

This year, Murano glassmaker Carlo Nason will turn 90 years old. Though the artisan is not yet a household name, his command of traditional techniques and his application of them in unexpected and artful ways have long transformed a craft known more for quality than experimentation. To honor his contributions, the design firm Form Portfolios brought a selection of works from the aptly named “maestro of Murano” to Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign for an exhibition entitled “Illuminari.”

Form Portfolios—which is based in Providence, Rhode Island, and also has a creative studio in Copenhagen—isn’t a traditional collectible design gallery. “We are focused on elevating the legacy of the designer,” founder and CEO Mark Masiello tells Surface. “There’s nothing in the Carlo Nason exhibition that is for sale. We’re not showcasing our latest novelties; we’re showcasing the designer.”

Over the course of his fifty-year career, Nason, who was born into one of Venice’s oldest glassmaking families, designed more than 1,000 pieces. His works are held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Museum of Glass in Murano, and more. For the retrospective Form Portfolios mined his home, his former factory, and his personal archives with the Studio del Vetro at Fondazione Cini in Venice. “We’ve also been to collectors’ archives,” Masiello adds. “We’ve been gathering and curating, and we have created this exhibit not just of his pieces but to tell you about who he was.”

Nason experimented with form, shapes, and layers in glassmaking. This is evidenced by pieces including his jellyfish-like layered opal blown glass and the fronds of his large LT320 floor lamp. Though he was born into the rarefied world of glassmaking, “he kind of rebelled against what Murano glass was known for, and pushed the envelope of what it could be,” Masiello says.

Form Portfolios hosted “Illuminari” in the same space as their groundbreaking Jens Quistgaard exhibition last year, which featured hundreds of artifacts from the archives and collectors. In contrast to the famed Danish designer, Nason represents the aesthetic values of another nation. “We want to help globalize the exhibitions at 3daysofdesign,” Masiello concludes. “Carlo Nason is a secret treasure. He’s known in Italy, but not necessarily known globally. This design fair is becoming more global—including in the audience of people that are attending. We thought it would be special to bring this Murano Maestro to them.”