NEGATIVES BY FEDERICA SALA

A site-specific light installation in 5Vie headquarters showing an exclusive exploration of the balance between lightness and solidity

During the Milano Design Week 2025, Federica Sala presented at 5Vie headquarters in via Cesare Correnti 14, the new pieces from her collection of blown glass and metal vases with a site-specific light installation, showing an exclusive exploration of the balance between lightness and solidity.

Each piece is rigorously unique, numbered AND signed by the artist, and tells a story of craftsmanship and experimentation. It’s the result of a handcrafted process that combines the vibrant transparency of glass with the rigour and materiality of metal.

This collection reflects through a new declination of Sala’s artistic research into the tension between opposing and seemingly irreconcilable materials: the blown glass expands into organic and unpredictable forms, while the carefully turned and cut metal defines the structure with geometric and refined details.

“There’s a reality to discover, in which things are exactly the opposite of what we knew. What moves us is mainly based on expectations, imagination and their fulfilment, but reality often reveals an unexpected side. Sometimes it’s better, sometimes it’s worse, but it’s always surprising,” the designer states. “Through my work, I’m defying the laws of the reality we know, playing with the nature of materials. I see our surroundings as an “equilibrium of uncertainties” that I kept and turned into delicate body-related objects. My pieces are created after a long process of experimentation with materials in order to subvert the common way of thinking and perceiving them. By engaging directly with materials, I let them reveal their deeper side. In making my work, I’m always looking for the inner tension of things that I finally shape into a new and temporary balance.”

Born in 1986 in Italy, Federica Sala lives and works in Milan. She holds an MFA in Contemporary Jewellery and Body Ornament from Alchimia in Florence (2015) and an MA in Fashion Design from the Politecnico in Milan (2011). From 2010 to 2013, she was the assistant of the Italian artist Giorgio Vigna. From 2016 to 2018, she was the Head of the jewellery Department at IED in Milan, where she currently teaches.

Her work has been exhibited at the Mad Museum in New York, at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, at SOFA in Chicago, at ZIBA Prague Museum and at CODA Museum, among others. In 2015, she was nominated for the Stanislav Libensky Award.

Her unique approach to glass was the motivation behind both the Enjoya’t Award in 2017 in Barcelona (Spain) and the Collector’s Choice Prize in 2020 at Design Without Borders in Budapest (Hungary). In 2023-2024, her research with glass applied to contemporary Art has been supported by the Alexander Tutsek Stiftung. In 2025, she is one of the selected artists in residence at Corning (USA).