Ritsue Mishima
Sculpture of lights
Photo: Luhring Augustine
Japanese-born glass artist Ritsue Mishima has become known for her transparent, clear and unconventional glass objects. They materialize through Mishima’s intuitive and spontaneous approach, and then disappear into their surroundings as they collect, reflect, and amplify the ambient light.
Portrait of Ritsue Mishima
Born in Kyoto in 1962, Mishima moved to Venice, Italy in 1989, where she became enthralled by the glass created on the island of Murano. She began making her own
pieces, first traditional vases and then more abstract objects. Since then, she has learned the techniques of these Italian master craftsmen, working side by side to create delicate
expressions in transparent, colorless glass, which reflect and refract the light and color around them. Ritsue’s large, bold glass objects translate thousand-year-old craft tradition
into a universe tangible by her Japanese background. Mishima’s work vacillates between poetic and brutal, and attract attention for the technical perfection and visual emphasis.
Mishima often creates her works without a plan. Her abstract, organically inspired forms develop naturally, as she creates clay models simultaneously, while Venetian glassblowers create her pieces. Their collaboration is close and intuitive, allowing her to follow every single step of the production and see how the light passes through the glass.
Ritsue finds inspiration in nature, in the universe and the Venice Lagoon with its enchanting light.
Some of her objects resemble glistening fish scales or magnified microscopic sea
creatures. Others are inspired by sprouting seeds, weathered tree trunks, the full moon or twinkling galaxies.
Photo: Francesco Barasciutti
Photo: @pierremariegiraud
Photo:@thetwopercent
