LUCIO ORSONI

"Think Mosaic"

Lucio Orsoni grew up with 6 older brothers, their raucous home and foundry nestled in the Cannaregio sestieri of Venice. The Orsoni family enclave was filled with beauty, from the enchanted garden lovingly tended by Lucio's mother to the alchemy of mosaic production, the fusion of silica and heat held a young Venetian in rapture. Sneaking out every chance he had, the 4-year-old Lucio would immerse himself the thousands of colors of smalti, entering the Color Library to discover floor to ceiling rows of glass, each with a story more vivid than a novel. There, Lucio was plunged into a tale, each color reflecting and absorbing light, creating a magic atmosphere that to this day fills his soul.

The glass became Lucio's solace and his inspiration. Using the small rectangle tesserae he would build impermanent structures, replacing pedestrian Lego blocks with brilliantly colored glass, in every hue imaginable.

On occasion, when allowed, Lucio would cautiously enter the furnace, absorbed in the crystalline sounds, graceful movement and subtle harmonies of the glass production. It was here that Lucio witnessed his father as wizard, inventing and giving birth to the infinite shades that colored the world of Orsoni.

Lucio watched in fascination as his father skillfully retrieved a small ball of glass from the bocca di fuoco, flattened it in to a perfect circle and with a thrust to the metal surface broke it into 2 exact semi-lunar shapes. Prior to thrusting it into the cool water bath, he brought the glass to his mouth. He gently blew to prepare the transition from furnace to liquid, and as he blew a low whistle escaped his lips. Without the whistle the colors would not be the same, from the mouth of the furnace to the mouth of his father, a resuscitation that gave life to glass.

Inheriting the rich tradition of mosaic production from four generations of Orsoni patrimony gave Lucio the skill and deep knowledge to continue the legacy started by his great grandfather in 1888. Unable to limit himself to the production of the luminous material, he began his journey as a fine artist interpreting the glass that was once molten into abstract mosaic geometry with precise cadence. Working exclusively in 24k gold, Lucio's penetrating mosaics have been exhibited internationally and reside in numerous private collections. His architectural installations range from a sublime private chapel to the abstracted mosaic waves of the Venetian lagoon that cocoons guests in a shower at Domus Orsoni.

Working instinctively, the colors of his new mosaics kept jealously in his mind, Lucio works from a black and white sketch to allow him the freedom to think mosaic. It is not until faced with the application of glass that color is allowed to emerge from imagination to surface. Without interference from painterly precedence his mosaics are the authentic culmination of the medium.

Creating custom gold mosaic tile for Trend, Lucio is working with his nephew Stefano Giambino, to discover new colored golds. By experimenting with the hand blown cartellina which protects the 24k gold, Lucio has created provocative new colors and textures. This new material fuels his continued exploration of mosaic, challenging his perceptions and inspiring new work. The new Trend golds penetrate more deeply, according to Lucio they are the color of light and the light of color.

Lucio has no personal preference for colors. He feels that color is always an opinion. It will change according to who looks at it, the moment in time that it is viewed, and the colors that are next to it. In reality, according to Lucio, color does not exist, instead he believes color exists only inside of us.

Lucio's true dream was to create a mosaic school in the Orsoni family home, and in 2004 the Master in Mosaic was offered as the first adventure in artitourismo. Students reside at Domus Orsoni in the heart of the foundry enclave. Originally it was Lucio's role to teach the students that arrived from all corners of the globe. However he soon discovered that instead he was learning and receiving more than he has giving. His years of artistic compositions had become a physical and intellectual labyrinth, mitigating the spontaneity and freshness that is so critical to creation. It was by watching and experiencing mosaic through the eyes of beginners that Lucio was liberated and his palette and andamento now exudes the raucous spirit of his childhood. He has introduced for the first time the colored enamels in saturated hues and his compositions have an improvisational quality that is the essence of thinking mosaic.