Marino Barovier 

Marino Barovier was born in Venice into one of the oldest families of Murano glassmakers. The glasswork produced by the Barovier family has been documented since the fifteenth century, and Barovier & Toso glassworks is still active today in Murano. In 1983, he joined his wife Marina in the study of the history of twentieth-century Murano glass. Marina and Marino Barovier have organized and curated monographic exhibitions on some of the most important designers of Murano glass, including Carlo Scarpa and Napoleone Martinuzzi, as well as Artisti Barovier and Ercole Barovier. In addition, they were the co-authors and editors of the catalogues of these exhibitions, further defining the production of Murano glassmakers during the twentieth century. This was a great contribution to the limited bibliographic material available at the time. In 1995, Marino Barovier was appointed by the City of Venice to curate the exhibition Glass at the Biennale, held at Ca’ Pesaro Museum on the occasion of the centennial of the Biennale. In 1996, Marino Barovier curated the exhibition The Murano Zoo, held at Palazzo Ducale in Venice. The exhibition included most of the glass animal sculptures made in Murano between 1920 and 1970. In 1996, he promoted the new Biennale of contemporary glass entitled Venezia Aperto Vetro. In 1997, Marino Barovier organized and curated the exhibition Carlo Scarpa: I Vetri di un architetto, held at Palazzo Martinengo Museum in Brescia. The accompanying anthology, also written by Barovier, entitled Carlo Scarpa: I Vetri di un architetto, is the most significant opus on the glass designed by Scarpa. In 1998, he organized and curated the exhibition La Verrerie Venitienne de Carlo Scarpa: 1926-1947, held at the Wielemans Huis in Brussels, Belgium. In 1998, he co-authored the book Sottsass Glass Works, a compilation of all the glassworks designed by Sottsass up to that time. In 1998, he authored the book Tagliapietra: a Venetian Glass Maestro, featuring the works of one of the most significant artists of contemporary glass in the world. In 1999, he organized and curated the exhibition Carlo Scarpa a Murano- Creation en Verre d’un Architect held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal, Canada, which featured works selected exclusively from the Olnick Spanu Collection. In 1999, he authored Il Vetro a Venezia: dal moderno al contemporaneo for publisher Federico Motta and subsequently published in three languages. The English version was titled Glass in Venice: from Modern to Contemporary. In the year 2000, he curated the exhibition Venetian Glass held at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. The exhibition displayed, for the first time in America, a large portion of the Olnick Spanu Collection. In addition, he compiled the historical research and supplied all the documentation for the accompanying catalogue Venetian Glass. In 2001, he curated the exhibition Murano: Vetri dalla Collezione Olnick Spanu held at Spazio Oberdan in Milan, and supplied all the documentation for the accompanying Italian language catalogue. In 2002, he curated the exhibition Vittorio Zecchin 1878-1947, Pittura , Vetro, Arti Decorative held at Palazzo Correr in Venice, and authored the book by the same title. Barovier is a consultant for the major auction houses and various glass collectors, and is curator of the glass collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia.