Milan Design Week 2019. Jewelry stop
Every year, in April, Milan turns into an exhibition hall of design events, installations and performances. Hundreds of innovative projects are distributed in different areas of the city, international craftsmen and designers come together to showcase their extraordinary creations.
My first stop was the BABS Art Gallery which hosted in its space the solo exhibition of Israeli artist Orna Ben Ami. The exhibition, curated by Ermanno Tedeschi, focused on the “sculptures to wear” created by the artist exclusively for the gallery.
Her work is characterized by the lightness with which she treats a material as heavy as iron, making it soft and extremely delicate. Orna captured in iron, just like in a photo shoot, ordinary objects of everyday life: some books stacked, a child apron, a pillow with still imprinted the silhouette of those who slept there… all objects that tell something about their old owner absent, the artist or ouselves.
She focuses on ordinary objects that may tell the story, contain memories. They evoke emotions and are open to interpretation.
“For me, objects are representing people,” she said.
Another amazing part of the gallery was the collection of jewelry created by artist which includes some of the most significant names in the ‘900 art scene.
The effects of illusion and depth created by oval concave disc and blue enamel in this “Water” ring by Anglo Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor is magical.
Geometric gold necklace and ring with sapphires designed in 1971 by Italian sculptor and jeweler Giorgio Facchini.
Three-dimensional abstract with smooth movement silver ring by South Korean sculptor Lim Dong Lak, known throughout the world for his geometric, sinuous and extremely elegant sculptures which reflect their surroundings.
Geometric and playful yellow and white gold, enamel necklace with a flat circular disc that rotes 360 created by Giò Pomodoro in 1972⠀⠀
The next stop was an Osanna and Madina Visconti di Modrone’s atelier which I discovered occasionally in the historic heart of Milan where there are the furniture and objects created by Osanna and the jewels designed by her daughter Madina.
Bronze textured pieces are inspired by nature and produced with the lost wax technique.
The collection Broken Nature created by Milan jeweler Daniela de Marchi was shown in the Novacolor space. She uses lost wax technique and realizes her pieces in bronze, brass, silver and natural stones. The unmistakable sign of her art is the “Dropage”, a patented texture thick with small spherical drops covered with colored enamels.
The last jewelry stop was the Rossini Gallery and The exhibition Outsidelounge 2019 curated by Marina Chiocchetta and Sonia Patrizia Catena and dedicated to the art of contemporary jewelry.
The pieces presented in the gallery were the result of jewelry research and experiments with the use of non-precious metals, materials and traditional jewelry techniques. The pieces were distinguished by geometric shapes, textured surfaces, curious approaches to metal processing, as well as personal artist’s experience and vision.
In the works of Italian jeweler Glauco Cambi a great attention is dedicated to a continuous research on the plastic arts. His creative sculptural pieces are studied in every detail and are the result of amazing craftsmanship.
Sculptural silver bracelet and bronze drapped cuff by Italian jeweler Glauco Cambi.
This gold bracelet with pearls by Italian brand Maragisca has a beautiful dynamic effect and fluid movement.
The collection by Italian jeweler Sabrina Formica is created in brass with the use of hand saw piercing technique. Her work concentrates on making nature inspired designs of plants, flowers and countrysides.
This minimal and expressive geometric designs by Italian architect Paolo Gambarelli (Lunante) are made from acrylic polymer, mineral inerts and brass.
Beautiful anticlastic art and sculptural forms from Italian jeweller Erica Magliano.
The jewelry pieces by artist and architecture Claudine Dupeyron leave nobody indiffrent. Her art has its own poetic expression and extraordinary strange beauty.
She explains: “During my long walks on the beaches of the French Riviera, I look for those simple, but at the same time meaningful, and personal gifts that the sea can give us. Wood shapes fascinate me, and the pieces washed ashore feel like velvet to the touch.
They have been modelled by the sea, and they have suffered during their journey and their metamorphosis. They remind me of myself. We are so alike! I then choose the minerals, the stones and corals.
When I look at them, the conjunction between such different pieces is immediate, as if they had long been expecting and looking for each other. I assemble them together with invisible and natural resin, so that it won’t damage them or alter their nature. It actually leaves them the way I found them.
As a matter of fact, it is nature that completes a most complex process or journey by totally reshaping and transforming wood, or cork, or other natural elements. I feel it is my duty to give them back their lost, or merely forgotten, dignity.”
And as a bonus… I fell in love with this creative eclectic potraits by American moda illustrator Rebecca Moses.
Her brown paper paintings were displayed at the darkened burgundy room of the industrial structure of Nilufar Depot and displayed women full of individuality, charm, with imperfections but always beautiful… Naturally wearing different and amazing jewelry.
