Through November 22, 2026, Glasstress is bringing new creative energy to Venice, across Palazzo Ca’ Tron on the Grand Canal and the Berengo Art Space Foundation in Murano. More than sixty international artists, including Marina Abramović, Sean Scully, Tony Cragg, and Ai Weiwei, have been invited to engage with the art of glassmaking through collaborations with the master glassmakers of Berengo Studio. Among them is David Eley, whose Watermark project intertwines his glass portraits with the history of the Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua.
Watermark: When Glass Captures the Light of Venice
Conceived by British artist and craftsman David Eley, Watermark was created at the invitation of Adriano Berengo, founder of Berengo Studio, the Murano workshop where contemporary artists and master glassmakers work together to bring new ideas and artistic languages to life in glass.
It was here that Eley created the sculptural portraits for Watermark: noses belonging to figures who, in Eley’s vision, tell the story of contemporary Venice through their work and personal histories, embodying the spirit of the city. Made from Murano glass, these noses capture something inherently fleeting: the changing light of the lagoon, the ephemeral quality of a moment, and the visual essence of Venice. In casting these portraits in glass, Eley has found a way to capture the transient and translucent in solid form, in his words, to “make the ephemeral immortal.”
Leoni Velvet, Between Silk and Glass
Among the figures selected for this first suite of Venetian nose portraits, alongside Arrigo Cipriani and Adriano Berengo himself, are Rodolfo and Alberto Bevilacqua, respectively president and CEO of Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua.
Their profiles thus become part of a singular map of Venice: not a map of its calli and small squares, but one of the people who, through their work, have shaped and continue to shape the city’s history.
David Eley and Rodolfo Bevilacqua
Each nose in the series rests on a base that preserves Bevilacqua’s textile heritage: impressed into the material is the design of Leoni silk velvet, the ancient motif featuring two Byzantine lions protecting the Tree of Life, a design that has long been associated with the history of the Tessitura and has also become its symbol.
Leoni Handwoven Soprarizzo Velvet, Blue
To capture its texture, Eley turned to photogrammetry in collaboration with Pangolin Editions. The texture of the velvet, digitally recorded down to its smallest raised details, was transformed into a three-dimensional mold and then rendered in two materials: dark green glass, cast in Murano at Berengo Studio, and bronze, lost-wax cast at the Pangolin Bronze Foundry in England.
This is a dialogue Eley has been pursuing for some time. In Bevilacqua’s history, he recognizes a thread that runs through and connects centuries of Venetian history. And in this encounter between silk velvet, glass, and bronze, he found a way to bring into his work the same meticulous attention to detail, respect for tradition, and use of the finest materials that he admires in the atelier.
The Nose as a Reflection of Excellence
Throughout history and literature, the nose has often been more than a physical feature: the absurd protagonist of Gogol’s story, later adapted by Shostakovich into an opera, it has for centuries been associated with character, wit, and discernment. This tradition gave rise to the expression “to have a good nose,” referring to the instinct that allows us to recognize what is authentic and excellent. It is the principle behind A Good Nose, the name Eley gives to his exploration of the nose: not simply a feature of the face, but a metaphor for the instinct that allows us to recognize quality, character, and excellence.
Projects by D. Eley – “A Good Nose” Image Gallery
It is precisely this criterion that guided Eley in selecting the subjects for Watermark: people who, through their work, have contributed to making Venice unique. In Bevilacqua, the artist recognized a fully realized expression of this idea: an atelier that, among the threads of its nineteenth-century handlooms, preserves the same attention to materials, the same respect for tradition, and the same pursuit of the highest quality that, for Eley, define Venetian excellence.
Watermark at Glasstress
Glasstress 2026, which features David Eley’s Watermark installation,can be visited from July 12 through November 22 at Palazzo Ca’ Tron on the Grand Canal and the Berengo Art Space Foundation in Murano.
