Laura de Santillana Italian, 1955-2019

Born in Venice in 1955, Laura de Santillana went on to study classics and architecture. In 1975 she moved to New York, working with the Vignelli associates studio while attending the school of visual arts and then working for a publishing company designing art books.
 
From 1975 on, she designed objects and lamps for the family business, Venini, and worked on new products alongside her father Ludovico.
 
In 1986, Laura, with her brother and father, founded EOS. She designed objects and lamps until her father's death in 1989, where she became art director of EOS until 1993, running the new foundry on Murano overseeing the collections.
 
In 1989 Laura made her first visit to India, which became a yearly pilgrimage. In 1993 her first solo exhibit was in Seattle. Following a commission to design a kaiseki range in glass, she went to Japan for the first of many times. There she worked with Japanese lacquer master Suzuki Mutsumi, creating tea ceremony ware. Follow exhibits in Kyoto and Tokyo.
 
In 1999 she exhibited in New York and Paris, showing her signature flat forms for the first time, with a solo show at the Museo Correr, Venice in 2001. From 2004 she started working in Pietrasanta in alabaster and marble. In 2009, Laura's first residency at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, producing large-scale works exhibited at the 53rd Venice art biennale. In New York, three visions in glass continued to American and European museums for over two years.

Furthermore, Her residency in Tacoma with her brother Alessandro resulted in the Scapes exhibition in 2012. The following year she worked again in Seattle producing the extensive flat works, subsequently exhibited in Paris. Begins a new project in the Czech republic, experimenting with new fusing techniques.
 
Major recent museum shows are:
Exhibition i Santillana, at le Stanze del Vetro, Fondazione g, Cini in Venice, and at the MAK in vienna in 2014; the Yorkshire sculpture park in the chapel, with a new installation in 2015, and Wunderglas at schloss Ambras in Innsbruck the following year.

Museums/public collections

Venezia, Museo Vetrario di Murano

Corning, Corning Museum of Glass

London, Victoria & Albert Museum

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Arts

St Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum

New York, Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Seattle, Seattle Art Museum

Denver, Denver Art Museum

Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts

Pittsburg, Carnegie Museum of Art

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Lausanne, Mu.DAC

New York, MAD

Sao Paolo Museu de Arte

Paris, Musée des Arts Decoratifs

San Diego, Mingei International Museum

Dusseldorf, Kunst Museum im Ehrenhof

Coburg, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg

Coesfeld-Lette, Ernsting Stiftung, Alterhof Herding museum

Hamburg, Museum Fur Kunst und Gewerbe

 München, Neue Sammlung

IMA Indianapolis Museum of Art

Boston, MFA

Miami, Lowe Art Museum