Gallery ArtistsAntoine Pierini

Antoine Pierini

Master glassmaker, designer, and contemporary glass artist

Born in 1980 in Antibes, France, Antoine Pierini lives and works in Biot — a historic center of glassmaking on the Côte d’Azur.

The son of a mother devoted to environmental advocacy and a father who was a pioneer of the French Studio Glass Movement, Pierini grew up surrounded by glass and its makers. From an early age, he absorbed the gestures, rhythm, and spirit of blown glass in the family workshop in Biot — a former olive mill founded more than 45 years ago. Since 2005, he has carried this legacy forward, combining deep respect for tradition with an innovative contemporary vision.

To expand his mastery, Pierini pursued extensive training in fusing, casting, filigree and murrine, glass engraving, figurative sculpture, neon and plasma work, and vitreography. His development has also been shaped by residencies and collaborations with leading institutions, including MusVerre (France), the Museum of Glass in Tacoma (USA), Pilchuck Glass School (USA), Cesty Skla – Ways of Glass (Czech Republic), and the Niijima Glass Art Center (Japan).

Encounters with influential figures in the field of glass art have led Pierini to develop a distinctive contemporary practice that merges sculpture, installation, and material experimentation. Often incorporating other crafts — marble, metal, and light — his work is the result of close collaboration with skilled artisans who help bring his complex visions to life.

Influenced by Constantin Brancusi’s pursuit of essential form and Arman’s conceptual approach to the found object, Pierini’s aesthetic is guided by a sense of restraint, balance, and purity — always in dialogue with nature.

Artistic Approach

Drawing from the rich cultural and natural heritage of the Mediterranean, Pierini’s work explores the dialogue between antiquity and modernity. He reimagines the archaeological relics of the ancient world — particularly amphorae — through the lens of contemporary glass art. His sculptures evoke a nature that is at once radiant and mysterious, both flourishing and fragile.

Inspired by La Pensée de Midi by Albert Camus, Pierini envisions a dreamlike Mediterranean where light, landscape, and human experience are inextricably connected. His work invites us to inhabit light — to engage with it not as an ideal, but as a living, ever-changing presence. Through his precise craftsmanship and subtle irony, he finds a balance between the technical virtuosity of glassmaking and a poetic reflection on the natural world.

An internationally active artist and educator, Antoine Pierini has exhibited widely in Europe, North America, and Asia. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the GlasMuseum Lette in Germany and the Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins in France.

In addition to his personal studio in Biot, Pierini founded the Centre du Verre Contemporain — recognized by the “Ateliers d’Art de France” label — as a space dedicated to creation, exchange, and education. Expanded in scale and vision, it also serves as an artist residency where international artists can present their work and engage in dialogue with the broader community.