Peter Kogler Meets the Murano Tradition: the Austrian’s Digital Art Lands on Venetian Glass

Peter Kogler, the Austrian artist known for his digital art and repeated motifs of tubes, ants, brains and globes, is presenting a new body of work at Palazzo Barovier and Toso on the Venetian island of Murano. The exhibition, open through February 21, 2027, marks a new chapter in Kogler’s exploration of materials — he has been creating immersive environments with his signature visual language since the mid-1980s.

The idea of connecting Kogler’s contemporary practice with the centuries-old Murano glass tradition came from Hans-Peter Wipplinger, director of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. Rinaldo Invernizzi, president of Galleria Barovier and Toso, said Kogler’s visual language of endlessly repeated tubes, which create infinite networks, sounded like “an unmistakable echo of filigree, one of Murano’s oldest techniques, in which thin threads of glass are twisted and pulled into intricate line patterns.” “We invited Peter Kogler and it is with great pride that Galleria Barovier and Toso now announces this exhibition, bringing his unique vision into dialogue with Murano glass for the first time,” he added.

As a newcomer to the medium, Kogler explored the Barovier and Toso archives, where he discovered Ercole Barovier’s squared designs from the 1950s and 1960s, which used a grid logic. Kogler paid homage to this influence with new works such as “Untitled (Ercole)” (2025–26). Working with the traditional glass furnace brought other creative developments: while cold glass is precise, it becomes fluid and unpredictable when heated. This required Kogler to surrender control to experienced makers and the molten material itself — the resulting works are a true collaboration, not a direct translation of his initial vision.

The exhibition showcases Kogler’s ability to integrate his tubular forms, brains and insects into monumental light installations, such as the colossal “Untitled (Brain)” (2025), suspended above the gallery among traditional Murano chandeliers, as well as into vessels of intimate scale. This presentation continues Kogler’s creation of immersive experiences, now through the historic tradition of Venetian glass.

Source: Artnet News