THE POOL NYC presents Tasso’s Game, a solo exhibition by Tristano di Robilant, a multifaceted artist who lives and works between Murano and Ripabianca, two places renowned for their glass and ceramic craftsmanship.
For the Milan exhibition, di Robilant showcases a collection of nine glass sculptures created in Murano at the Anfora furnace, along with a series of monotypes printed in Verona at the Berardinelli printmaking studio.
The exhibition’s title, Tasso’s Game, draws inspiration from Torquato Tasso’s life. The poet, in his wandering and tormented existence, sought refuge in the timeless stillness of a shaded cloister. Caught between his search for inner order and his longing for freedom, Tasso found solace in retreat—a space suspended between reality and imagination.
The verse “È lieta primavera”, from Rime d’amore, evokes an illusion of serenity and renewal, which is reflected in the delicacy and colors of di Robilant’s sculptures. Just as the poet longed for a place of peace and shadow, the artist’s works, despite their luminosity and lightness, carry a fragile soul, balanced between the visible and the invisible.
In this interplay of light and shadow, form and dissolution, the sculptures become what the artist himself describes as “emotional landscapes and imaginary architectures”. They emerge from a deep exploration of his inner world and an ongoing dialogue with the “double” that exists within us all. Each piece is a meditation on the nature of memory and imagination, an invitation to explore realms suspended between dream and reality.
Tristano’s sculptures are defined by harmonious yet enigmatic forms, floating in space, weightless and transparent. Glass is not merely a medium for him; it is a language in itself, capable of conveying transparency, fragility, and suspension. These elements are essential to understanding his artistic vision, which is built on a constant tension between the solidity of material and its apparent lightness.
Di Robilant’s creative process begins with an idea that quickly translates into a drawing—an instinctive, direct gesture that then takes three-dimensional form in the furnace. It is in this transformative moment, when fire animates the glass at its highest tension, that the artwork comes to life. The essence of his art lies in this balance between concept, form, and process, offering a unique sensory experience.
For over twenty years, the artist has collaborated with the Anfora furnace, first with master glassmake Andrea Zilio and now with Andrea Salvagno. This same artistic vision extends to the series of monotypes created in collaboration with the Berardinelli Art Printmaking Studio. These oil-based works on paper, derived from plexiglass matrices, evoke imaginary landscapes that mirror the fluidity of his glass forms. Once again, di Robilant’s focus on the construction of form and its relationship with space and light is evident—an homage to the lessons of architecture critic Reyner Banham, whom the artist studied under at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 TASSO’S GAME, THE POOL NYC, Milano
2024 Tristano di Robilant: Milestones, Robilant+Voena, New York, USA
2023 Poets, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London, UK
Beyond the Water, Venice Glass Week, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice
2022 Galassie Peculiari, Museo della Ceramica Ettore e Marco Levi, Mondovì
2020 The window speaks to me, Venice Glass Week, Venice, Italy
2019 Youth, Tristan Hoare, London, UK
2018 Tarquinia, The National Exemplar, New York, USA
Gioventù, MUSINF, Senigallia, Italy
2017 Evento di Luce, Venice Glass Week, Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo, ItalyGLASS (with Hanno Otten), Priska Pasquier, Cologne, Germany
2016 Tristano di Robilant, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA
Tristano di Robilant, L’immaginazione e il suo doppio, Intragallery, Naples, Italy
2015 Teste, Galleria Alessandra Bonomo, Rome, Italy
2014 Parapetto (with Enzo Cucchi), The National Exemplar, New York, USA
2013 Forms (with Justin Adian), The National Exemplar, New York, USA
2012 White River, Faggionato Fine Art, London, UK
2011 Galleria Bonomo, Bari, Italy
2010 Water-Point, Faggionato Fine Art, London, UK
2009 Vetro, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, Bari, Italy
2007 Tristano di Robilant, Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi, Rome, Italy
2006 Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2001 Sette sculture, Paolo Curti & Co., Milan, Italy
Tristano di Robilant, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, USA
1998 Lance Fung Gallery, New York, USA
1993 Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, USA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Oblique Magie del Tempo, Museo Archeologico di Santa Scolastica, Bari, Italy
José Angelino e Tristano di Robilant, Galleria Alessandra Bonomo, Rome, Italy
2022 Oro e Arzento, THE POOL NYC, Palazzo Cesari Marchesi, Venezia
2019 Botanica, Tristan Hoare, London, UK
Il mestiere delle arti, Museo Nazionale di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy
Venice Works, Beatrice Burati Anderson Art Space & Gallery, Venice, Italy
2018 Nuova terra antica, La Vallonea, Capalbio, Italy
2013 Ceramics, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2006 92nd Street Y Poets’ Theatre, New York, USA
2002 Welcome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
1996 XII Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte, Rome, Italy
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, USA
MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy
Museo del Vetro, Murano, Italy
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York, USA
Sol LeWitt Collection, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Maslow Collection, New York, USA
Hall Winery, Napa Valley, California, USA
Mark Getty Collection, Wormsley, Oxford, UK