Maria Grazia Rosin was born and raised in Venice, and she trained as a painter at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1992, she experimented with glass for the first time. Rosin has applied her inventiveness and humor to two of the most traditional Venetian forms in glass: the chandelier and the table centerpiece. This is one of a series of chandeliers in the form of octopuses and squids that the artist has made with the master glassblower and glass sculptor Pino Signoretto. With its waving arms, murky color, and staring eyes, the octopus evokes the mysterious depths of the ocean. This subject is perfect for Venice, a city that has had a long association with the sea. This extraordinary chandelier is both a sculpture and a lighting fixture. One of the arms of the huge octopus acts as the vertical shaft of the fixture, and the creature’s remaining arms (five large and two small) are shaped into the traditional arms of the chandelier. The invertebrate’s eyes are illuminated with fiber-optic lighting, and the deep black of the glass is enlivened with iridescent purple, blue, green, and gold sparkles. A small red squid hangs from the bottom of the chandelier.