Stefano Dalla Valentina

STEFANO DELLA VALENTINA was born in Murano in 1974. He joined the factory of his father Adriano when he was very young, carrying out various tasks, both in the forge and in the grinding department. Despite his work at the furnace, he never abandoned school and he graduated at the Institute of Art of Venice, obtaining the Master od Art diploma in 1991 and the Artistic Graduation Qualification in 1993. In 1991 he entered in his father’s furnace as a full-time designer, in charge of sketching his father’s artworks and, sometimes, helping him in the realization. Stefano attended painting, sculpture, engraving, and decoration courses at the Venice Academy of Arts, but he dropped off after only five months because he understood how glass and fire were able to give shape to his ideas in a way no other art techniques could. In 1997, he started his own production, at first choosing scratched gold and enamel as his favorite techniques, then moving on to the creation of vases and sculptures using the century-long Murano technique: “massello a mano volante”. Although he abandoned institutional studies, he never stopped learning and he attended many courses both in Italy and abroad, which allowed him to create artworks combining glass, wood, marble, and metal. At the same time, he kept working with father, Adriano, until his passing, learning how to master the techniques of blown-glass, filigree, and glass rods. Today his masterpieces are displayed in important events and many museums, including the Doges’ Palace in Venice, the cloister of Bramante in Rome, and multiple times in the Murano Glass Museum. His love for the sea and diving is the greatest inspiration for the creation of new works. Indeed, for many years he has been collaborating with the Natural History Museum of Venice as part of the International Underwater Photography competition: in 2014 he exhibited “Wreck with Sharks” and in 2015 he made a tribute to Jules Verne, a life-size diver diving suit. All of these allowed him to combine his greatest passions: sea, sharks, and glass, of course.