Pieces on display at the Objet d’Emotion booth at PAD London, worn by the collectors of the future.
All eyes are on two jewelry galleries at PAD London this week, where magnificent art jewels are currently vying for collectors’ attention.
Objet d’Emotion features a curation of jewelry by her artists and designers around the theme Jewelry Dreamin’, exploring the wants of the collectors of the future and inspiring them to respect and value craftsmanship. The selection is illustrated by her daughter Paloma and a friend as young teens growing up and developing their identities, in our modern celebrity-driven culture: “are they wearing the jewels here, or is it a dream? And in real life, can they also not aspire to wearing non-mass-produced jewels?” asks the jewelry consultant and Objet d’Emotion founder, Valery Demure. Two highlights from her booth, Minas and Sauer, are both well-established family businesses in their markets, now run by a new generation.
Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery, winner of this year’s Jewellery Gallery Prize, has a broad edit of artists that includes several specially commissioned works. Bold new work from Ute Decker, including copper and silver arm pieces that represent a new direction for the jewelry artist known for her coils of metal ribbons on the body, shares space with upcycled woven brass by Maria Sole Ferragamo, and a necklace by Italian artist Giorgio Andreotta Caló, which features a live moth, hatched during the event, to complete what must surely be the most original piece in the show.
The Icarus necklace, featuring a live moth, on display at the Elisabetta Cipriani booth at PAD … [+]
Giorgio Andreotta Caló
Elisabetta Cipriani
The Greek legend of Icarus proved fertile inspiration for Giorgio Andreotta Caló, who in the most poetic way possible, has created one of the stand-out installations of the show. On a gold-plated brass mimosa twig necklace, sits a silver-cast chrysalis of the argema mimosae moth. Once born, the female moths are immobile and emerge to sit on the twig in a spectacular interplay between living sculpture and still life. The neck piece is an exploration of the power of metamorphosis, development and growth, and forms part of an ongoing project the Venetian artist has been working on since 2020.“ Caló incites viewers to contemplate the dual nature of freedom,” says Cipriani, “both its attraction and its risks.”
The Apollonian Choker, 18kt gold, by Minas, on display at the Objet d’Emotion booth at PAD London.
Minas
Objet d’Emotion
Bold and sensual, with a focus on the beauty of the metal itself, Greek-born Minas Spiridis’ jewelry is conceived as the ultimate adornment of the human body. At PAD, the Apollonian choker is like molten gold dripping between the clavicles, alongside the Universal Joint bracelet, which was originally designed during his time in 1970s New York and eventually became emblematic of his work. “God did not create the human body with straight lines,” he explained to the French Jewelry Post in 2019. He passed away in 2020, but his artistry lives on through his two sons, Arion and Promitheas.
The Trame cuff by Maria Sole Ferragamo, on display at the Elisabetta Cipriano booth at PAD London.
Maria Sole Ferragamo
Elisabetta Cipriani
“It’s about constantly looking for new ways to elevate materials that I find abandoned,” says artist Marie-Sole Ferragamo. “It’s a form of optical art, small objects of architecture, like organisms on one’s body that carry with them past and present.” Commissioned by Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery, Ferragamo hand-wove her exquisite capsule collection, Trame — Italian for ‘weaves’ — herself, from brass shavings known as ‘trucioli’. Through the deceptively simple cuff, brooch, necklace, and earrings, she explores the idea that real preciousness can only be found in scarcity, elevating waste material into something beautiful. Her practice echos the Italian Arte Povera movement, as well as the work of her own grandfather, the shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, who famously wove chocolate wrappers together to make shoes, during wartime restrictions.
The Mycelium necklace by Sauer, 18kt gold, 5ct diamonds and 8 carat opals, on display at the Objet … [+]
Sauer
Objet d’Emotion
Award-winnging Brazilian jewelry house Sauer was founded in 1941 and is now helmed by the third generation of the same family. Creative Director Stephanie Wenk looks to nature, art and spirituality to create jewels like the Fantastic Fungi collection, presented by Objet d’Emotion at PAD London. An exploration of renewal and healing through mushrooms, the jewels feature organic, textured drops of gold accented with diamonds and “earthy gems” like chalcedony and jasper, alongside psychedelic opals, pearls and lapis. The Oyster earrings perch on the lobes like fungus on a tree trunk, but the real showstopper is the Mycelium necklace, which wraps the throat with glittering diamonds and luminescent opals.
The Sciara ring, blackened silver with a Mexican fire opal and rubies, on display at the Elisabetta … [+]
Massimo Izzo
Elisabetta Cipriani
Sicilian artist Massimo Izzo’s homeland pulses through jewels that draw on the flora, fauna, myths and legends of the Mediterranean. In an exclusive series for Elisabetta Cipriani gallery, he looked to Mount Etna for inspiration, to produce six one-of-a-kind rings. A Mexican fire opal blazes against rough blackened silver terrain, while diamonds and sapphires burn just as brightly in his search for ‘the essence’ through his creative practice: “On top of the mountain, one can find the truth, it’s where everything starts. I create for the free winds blowing in Sicily… the hallowed salt of the Ionian Sea… the pure diamonds, cut and shaped by god’s breath. For the crystal structure of creative ideas, rising and falling like stars.”
PAD London, 10 – 15 October 2023, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6EN, UK
