On the occasion of Orticola 2025, whose main theme is "Bio, bio, bio, there is life in the garden!", the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum participates in the seventh edition of Fuori Orticola by presenting, from May 7 to June 8, the exhibition by Hugh Findletar From then till now | Da allora ad oggi.

Hugh Findletar, Jamaican by origin, New Yorker by training, adopted by Milan and captivated by Murano glass, is a professional photographer, particularly a portraitist. It is from this vocation that he began to create glass icons.

His blown glass heads are inspired by the masks of Egyptian pharaohs and Greek oinochoe, sometimes bifrontal, as well as by the wine flasks of the Roman Empire. At the same time, they are also vases that recall the baroque still lifes of the 17th century, symbols of vanitas and transience, while representing the opposite: they are living natures, to be kept vital according to one's desire.

Thus were born the FLOWERheadZ by Hugh Findletar, which interact with the permanent collection of the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, offering the public a unique experience where Renaissance taste meets nature and glass. An exhibition that fits into the celebrations for the thirtieth anniversary of the museum's opening, continuing its spirit of openness to the contemporary.

Findletar's art is the result of a blend of suggestions and influences: his Jamaican culture, rich in legends and traditions, gives his works a unique imprint; the passion for horticulture, passed down to him by his great-grandmother, completed his journey.

He only lacked the ideal medium, which he discovered during a trip to Kenya, where he approached glass blowing for the first time, the material he needed to give shape to his imagination. From that moment on, he embarked on a long journey of experimentation that led him to Murano, to the historic Zanetti glassworks, where he refined the technique and brought to life his famous faces molded in hot glass. Each breath is a creative, intimate, and unrepeatable gesture that transforms the incandescent material into an icon, into a living and pulsating presence.