After studying art with a specialization in weaving, she moved to London where she specialized in fabric design. Upon her return to Venice, she worked with the master glassblowers of the island of Murano for some years. Through this partnership, she learned about the techniques of glass production and the possibilities offered by this material.
Some of her textile designs became part of the company collection of the firm Lorenzo Rubelli s.p.a.
Other designs were honored by the Palazzo Mocenigo Textile Museum in Venice and placed in themuseum’s permanent collection. Since 1997, her interest has focused on an exploration of printing on velvet, a technique that has marked her creative identity. In a very personal and original way, she has reinterpreted the ancient technique for dyeing and painting Venetian tapestries. Each of her white silk velvet, is hand dyed with pigments and precious ancient powders. The surface of the silk velvet becomes magical, tactile and alive, enriched by brilliant colors, gold and silver leaves, glass and Murrine from Murano island. The silk velvet illuminated by natural or artificial light, either direct or diffused, can completely change color, continuosly mutating into a new and surprising work. The colors and glass details appear and disappear depending on the direction from which the tapestry is viewed: what was not grasped at first sight emerges unexpectedly after careful and patient observation, leaving astonished.
With her works, Cibin brings to light the Venetian precious art of dyeing and working silk velvet. She has discovered the possibility of bringing together different materials such as Murano glass and fabric, combining them with sophisticated manufacturing techniques: something in between art and master craftsmanship. The magical creations of Anna Paola Cibin, born from her passion for Venetian fabric, deepened and developed during her years of study at the Institute of Art in Venice and in London, where she discovered the potential of velvet. The artist works with fabric due to its near magical properties, because the characteristics of silk velvet and its processing methods, creates iridescent and always unpredictable light affections, where paintings appear and disappear depending on the point of observation.
The collaboration with the master glassmakers of Murano was then fundamental to her research, adding elements and details to her works, like silver and gold leaf and glass decorations. Through this partnership, she learned about the techniques of glass production and the possibilities offered by this material.
Anna Paola Cibin has reinterpreted the ancient technique for using precious velvets and pigments to create fabric installations, transporting the fish that animate her tapestries from the two-dimensional world, to the 3D world, from the ancient waters of the lagoon to the world, suspended in the air.