In Venice, Peter Kogler Translates His Digital Vocabulary Into Murano Glass

At Palazzo Barovier and Toso, on the Venetian island of Murano, a recent body of work by Austrian artist Peter Kogler is on view showcasing a new chapter of material exploration and experimentation. The show is part of the gallery’s ongoing initiative that sees internationally recognized artists invited to work with glass for the first time in their practices. Since the mid-1980s, Kogler has spent decades pioneering the field of computer-assisted art-making, and he has developed a singular visual language that includes such hallmarks as repeating tubes, ants, brains, and globes, with these motifs unleashed across multiple surfaces to create immersive, even hypnotic environments. These signature motifs are present now in Murano, come to life in glass. Peter Kogler working in front of a glass furnace. Courtesy of Galleria Barovier and Toso. The idea to unite Kogler’s practice with the centuries-old glassmaking tradition of Murano originated with Hans-Peter Wipplinger, director of Vienna’s Leopold Museum. “Kogler’s visual language of endlessly repeating tubes, creating infinite networks, felt like an unmistakable echo of filigrana, one of Murano’s oldest techniques, in which fine threads of glass are twisted and drawn into intricate line patterns,” said Rinaldo Invernizzi, president of Galleria Barovier and Toso. “We extended an invitation to Peter Kogler, and it is with great pride that Galleria Barovier and Toso now announces this exhibition, bringing his singular vision into dialogue with the glass of Murano for the very first time.” Peter Kogler, Untitled (Brain, small) (2025–26). Courtesy of Barovier and Toso. New to the medium, Kogler explored Barovier and Toso’s archives and encountered, for instance, checkered designs by Ercole Barovier, from the 1950s and ’60s. The Italian master applied a grid-like logic to his work, and Kogler paid homage through new pieces such as Untitled (Ercole) (2025–26). Working at the traditional glassmaking furnace produced further creative evolutions and discoveries. Glass when cold is precise and rigid, but when under heat becomes fluid and unpredictable. The process required Kogler to cede a degree of control to the glassmakers and their decades of accumulated expertise, as well as to the unwieldy, molten medium. The result is a body of work that is a true collaboration rather than direct translation of Kogler’s vision. Peter Kogler, Untitled (Ercole) (2025–26). Courtesy of Barovier and Toso. The works on view illustrate Kogler’s keen ability to move sculpture and functional object, integrating tubular forms, brains, and bugs to monumental light works—like the colossal Untitled (Brain) (2025), which hangs suspended over the gallery space among traditional Murano chandeliers—as well as intimately scaled vessels. Once again, Kogler has crafted an immersive, otherworldly experience utilizing his own contemporary vocabulary, but this time through the time-honored tradition of Venetian glass. “Peter Kogler” is on view at Galleria Barovier and Toso, Venice, through February 21, 2027.