Chihuly: Venice 2026

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark project “Chihuly Over Venice”. To mark this milestone, Chihuly returns to Venice to present “CHIHULY: Venice 2026”, presented by Pilchuck Glass School and Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

The exhibition features three new sculptures installed along the Grand Canal, in reference to Venice as a formative location in the artist’s career. An interpretive and archival centre, curated by Suzanne Geiss, accompanies the presentation. It opens on 5 May at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, concurrent with the Venice Biennale. All three outdoor works are visible from the Accademia Bridge. The works extend the formal vocabulary developed in the decades leading up to and following “Chihuly Over Venice”. The 30-foot “Gold Tower” (2025), installed in the Palazzo Franchetti garden, allows close viewing of new forms created for this presentation.

The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti at Palazzo Loredan, Campo Santo Stefano, hosts the interpretive and archival centre. Drawings, photographs, videos, and documentation trace the development of the artist’s process, the making of “Chihuly Over Venice”, and an ongoing practice of experimentation, collaboration, and risk. Archival materials and selected works contextualise the outdoor installations through narrative, history, and material practice.