Lilla Tabasso's Hyperrealistic Murano Glass Captures Botanical Decay

Milan-based artist Lilla Tabasso presents hyperrealistic Murano glass sculptures of decaying flowers at Fondazione Dries Van Noten's inaugural exhibition 'The Only True Protest Is Beauty' in Venice. The installation, featuring wildflowers, stems, and roots meticulously sculpted from glass, appears as a living garden until close inspection reveals the illusion. Tabasso, who studied biology, focuses on flowers at the end of their life cycle—a tulip bowing, a bruised petal, a drying leaf—using the centuries-old lampworking technique to immortalize impermanence. She taught herself the craft after facing barriers in the male-dominated Murano glassmaking tradition. Her works, including 'Uncultivated Garden, Zolla Tulipani' (2025), are part of the foundation's opening exhibition at Palazzo Pisani Moretta, which features over 200 works celebrating craftsmanship. The sculptures evoke vanitas imagery, asking viewers to confront environmental uncertainty and disconnection from nature. Tabasso's practice transforms inherited techniques into emotional portraits of natural processes, blending scientific observation with artistic expression.