Tasso’s Game (light indigo) (2023). Blown glass
Tristano di Robilant (b. 1964, London) is an Italian-American artist, currently living and working in Rome and London. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he was particularly impacted by the lectures of the architectural critic and historian Reyner Banham (1922-1988).
Some of the artist’s initial encounters with sculpting were with his godfather, Cy Twombly, from whom he ‘learned how to pour plaster into hollows dug out from the sand, revealing small sand coated sculptures.’ Over the years, he started experimenting with various materials, including ceramic, bronze, aluminium and Murano glass. Di Robilant is now most recognised for his sculptures in ceramic and glass, but the artist also works in a variety of other media, including drawing, photography and writing.
Di Robilant's sculptures exquisitely balance fragile geometric shapes, colours and their interaction with light. Cones, spheres and other harmonious forms juxtapose and intertwine. Their translucent and irregular surfaces are capable of surprising and mesmerising the viewer. The titles are often inspired by literary and philosophical influences, such as Dante Alighieri, Albert Camus, and Giordano Bruno. Di Robilant's cryptic sculptures in glass refer to intangible landscapes, as fragile as clouds, offering an invitation to oneiric and elegant visions.
Di Robilant has recently had institutional solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California (2016), the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice (2017), and Musinf in Senigallia, Italy (2018). His work is in private and public collections across Europe and the United States, including the Sol LeWitt Collection in Hartford, Connecticut, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, the MAXXI Museum in Rome, and the Museo del Vetro in Murano. A large-scale public sculpture was installed at Parco dell’Infanzia (with Louise Bourgeois and Giovanni Rizzoli) in Origgio, Milan, in 2016. In 2020, di Robilant received the Special Recognition Prize by Bonham’s for Venice Glass Week.
We are delighted to present di Robilant's second solo exhibition at our gallery in Autumn 2023, exploring a new body of work, comprising both glass and ceramic sculptures. Poets will continue in Fiztroy Square between 28th September and 27th October 2023.
A series of di Robilant's glass sculpture are currently on show at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan in Venice, as part of Venice Glass Week 2023, clsing on 17th September.