Curator's introduction

Acting as curator for this touring exhibition has been a challenging experience. It has also given me precise insight as to how much AGC has grown in these first three years and the high quality members the Association boasts today.

It has been an honour for us to have had Stephen Bottomley, Chairman of ACJ, the British Association for Contemporary Jewellery, as juror for this event.

The exhibition will be touring to several prestigious galleries in different countries in Europe and USA, and will serve as a photographic document internationally, evidencing the current situation in Italy in this field.

When speaking of contemporary jewellery from Italy, one immediately thinks of the School of Padua and of all the excellent artists that have attended, and often taught, at the Pietro Selvatico Institute of Art. In this exhibition, two of the artists selected, Maria Rosa Franzin and Alberto Zorzi, are indeed from the School of Padua, but the rest of them are artists who have created a language of their own, due to the different backgrounds they have. Some examples of this are GianCarlo Montebello, who developed a different experience in working with artists from all over the world, such as Man Ray, or Benjamin Lignel, who graduated at the Royal College of Art in London, Alessia Semeraro, who studied at the London Guildhall University and Roberta Bernabei at Sheffield Hallam University, currently lecturing at Loughborough University.

It was my intention, with this exhibition, to be able to showcase a broad spectrum of works so as to give a more complete picture of the situation within the Italian jewellery community today, and I think Stephen Bottomley's selection reflects just this.

The Padua School has been synonymous of geometry and precious materials since the early days of Pinton, Pavan and Babetto. Although in a completely different way, here we see that many of the artists in this exhibition also extensively make use of precious materials, as these are part of the heritage that Italy as a whole has acquired and carried throughout the centuries. This alone already puts Italy in a different category if compared to countries such as Holland or Germany, where a more extensive use of alternative materials has been made since the 1950s. It is indeed the excellence in the working of precious metals that makes Italy famous throughout the world in the jewellery field.

Here we frequently see ancient techniques reinterpreted and used in new ways. I find it comforting to see that these traditional techniques and materials, often shunned by jewellers today, are still of interest and have not lost their appeal within this community of jewellery makers. It is interesting to see how traditional materials and techniques can speak a new language.

We have, on the other hand, a small minority of audacious artists in this group experimenting with materials such as silicone, leather, wood, iron. I think it needs to be recognized that the use of alternative materials in Italy is somewhat rare, so my appreciation goes to those artists for using their technical skills in this sense, as it is important for the public to be made more aware that non-precious materials can be used with as much skill and can result in jewellery that is just as fascinating and precious as the rest.

Rita Marcangelo
Chairman of AGC Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo