This book pays tribute to glass artist Yoichi Ohira (1946-2022) and to Vetreria Anfora in Murano, with its master blowers Livio Serena and Andrea Zilio and the master grinder Giacomo Barbini. All of them have created hundreds of unique pieces together with this formidable glass artist.
Beside the texts by Rosa Barovier Mentasti, Barry Friedman, Federico Zanini and Francesca Giubilei, the book boasts seminal works by Ohira and recently found documents, such as an archive of master Barbini with grinding workings, testifying to the creativity and dedication of this artist who was able to unite two cultures: the Japanese one and the Venetian glass tradition, bringing about a synthesis and an evolution of the highest quality.

Federico Zanini
Born in Mantua in 1977, he graduated from the University of Ca’ Foscari in Venice in Literature and Philosophy – historical-artistic specialization – with a thesis on “The Body in Francis Bacon’s Art and in the Literary Oeuvre by Antonin Artaud”, supervised by professor Umberto Galimberti. He has been committing himself to painting for many years. He is an antiques dealer, scholar and collector of modern and contemporary Venetian glass. He lives and works in Venice.

Sommario

Introduction
Federico Zanini

Yoichi Ohira: an Artist and a Friend
Rosa Barovier Mentasti

Some Thoughts about Yoichi
Barry Friedman

Yoichi Ohira, Artist of the Studio Glass in Venice
Federico Zanini

Yoichi Ohira’s Fabulous Nineties in Venice
Francesca Giubilei

Drawings by Yoichi Ohira

Selected Artworks from Private Collections

Barbini Archive

Biography