Presentation

Permanent Collection
Cominelli Foundation

The Permanent Collection was born from a collaboration between the Italian association for contemporary jewellery, AGC and the Cominelli Foundation, within the annual Cominelli Foundation Prize, a contest that since 2010 has seen the participation of contemporary jewelery artists from all over the world.
This jewellery Collection has come into existence thanks to the great attention that the Cominelli Foundation has always shown towards new forms of expression and the cooperation and expertise brought by AGC, with the express purpose to document, promote and spread knowledge of this particular field of creativity to a wider public. To implement this, the Cominelli Foundation opened the doors of its prestigious venue to this permanent exhibition, completely dedicated to contemporary jewellery.
The Collection, initiated in 2011, was curated for the first year by Bianca Cappello, critic and jewellery historian, who carried out an initial selection of artists on the basis of different aspects relating to materials.
Since 2012, when I took on the curatorship, as well as an expansion of the Collection by means of the constant selection of new works, I performed a complete reorganization of the same, in order to give a broader overview of the different research areas that characterize contemporary jewellery today. Thus, the exhibition has been divided into four thematic categories, which are further divided into specific areas of interest.
Nevertheless, many of the works in the collection use a mixture of languages that could easily place them in more than one section. This means that there is no clear-cut, categorical separation among the various spheres of experimentation and highlights the fact that different forms of research sometimes overlap to later move away on completely different paths.
The purpose of the subdivision is to guide the viewer through a more rational understanding of the different pieces in the Collection, providing the critical tools for a correct analysis of the works.
We can thus appreciate the extent of the research areas, stylistic forms and technical solutions adopted, demonstrating the vitality and eclecticism of an art that enriches the jewellery world with new cultural meaning. Works created using traditional and/or innovative techniques, precious materials, but also alternative materials that find new preciousness through the artist’s hand.
Thanks to a continuous increase in works selected from year to year, the collection currently includes works from 25 countries, both European and non- European, becoming an absolute reference point with regards to experimental jewellery.

Rita Marcangelo
Permanent Collection Curator