Modern Light Illuminates the Past at Veronese

Luxury lighting brand Veronese designed its Paris showroom to be like a home. In the heart of Paris, the brand welcomes visitors with gorgeous vintage furniture and artwork curated by The Spaceless Gallery. Unifying its French roots with Murano glass techniques has been core to Veronese’s philosophy since its inception in 1931. Complete with a basement of glass archives, every facet of Veronese’s identity is on display in the new showroom exhibition, “The Next Chapter.”

The company opened the new showroom in 2019, making this exhibition, opening for Paris Design Week 2022, one of the first to welcome the public to the space. Owner and creative director Ruben Jochimek and communications manager Nancy Jochimek say that the showroom is made like a home, with different rooms to show off the different luminaires. There’s even a dining room and kitchen.

Upon entry, a chandelier made of rippling columns raises tendrils of glass like leaves and flowers in greeting. This fixture, called “Past and Future,” is an appropriate welcome, as it is a conglomeration of historical pieces found in the archives, pieced together and made contemporary with the help of Dutch designer and master upcycler Piet Hein Eek. Veronese’s creative director, Ruben Jochimek, compares the piece to a pirate’s treasure, unexpected and shiny.

In the “office,” wall sconces expand the Martha and Anemone collections. The Anemone wall lamp designed by Maurizio Galante and Tal Iancman is a cluster of handmade glass pieces that can be moved by the hand as an anemone is moved by the current. Each piece of glass moves freely from the others. The resulting twinkling and clicking of glass sounds beautiful, but delicate. “Some pieces are designed to be touched,” Ruben offers as reassurance. “Glass is not as fragile as we think, and we should enjoy it before it breaks.”

He repeats this sentiment as he encourages exploration in the archives tucked in the showroom basement. There are shelves on shelves, stacked with boxes of glass creations from the brand’s history. Small flowers, large glass columns, and experimentations in color and technique are organized somewhat chronologically. It is easy to see how Fredie Jochimek, Veronese’s president, found an interesting old bobéche and reworked it as a diffuser to create the very contemporary Martha Collection.

Veronese is known for its contemporary interpretations of neoclassical revival style light fixtures. Coming up on 100 years of history, the brand’s consistent eagerness to try new things pushes the expertise of Murano glass to meet the most French ideas of beauty in each sparkling new fixture.