Game by Adel Abdessemed | 4 October – 3 November
Elisabetta Cipriani is delighted to present Game, a new gallery project by Adel Abdessemed. Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea of ‘fatal beauty’, Abdessemed created a chain bracelet and a pair of earrings made of an accumulation of white gold laser-cut razor blades. Game encapsulates the notion of fatal beauty by being both lethal and attractive in its appearance. It provides the person who will wear it with a complex interplay between being threatened and at the same time reassured by its beauty. Through its complex identity, Game draws from Abdessemed’s artistic practice, in which he consistently blends elements of beauty and brutality. Developing an artistic vision from text, images and life, Abdessemed engages with the flaws and contradictions of the contemporary world. As the artist states: “My art makes no claim at representing reality, but simply a touching reality.”
Financial Times – Watches and Jewellery
June 2016 Ten pieces of wedding jewellery that are not rings by Hattie Judah Read
Art in Jewellery | 5 July – 5 August
Elisabetta Cipriani Jewellery by Artists is pleased to present the summer exhibition “Art in Jewellery”, a group show with the aim of exploring the mental, visual and tactile characteristics of ART in jewellery. The exhibition will be a performative experience where the interaction with the wearable sculptures will be led by human voice and movement. The encounter will be a tête-à-tête, the conversation and relationship between the narrator and the spectator will be crucial in the understanding of the works. For each selected project, the emphasis will be on revealing the hidden stories, the poetics and provocations of the artist in creating a wearable art piece and feeling the intimate connection between the work and the wearer. The artists selected for the summer show are: Enrico Castellani, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Carlos Cruz Diez, Jacqueline De Jong, Ute Decker, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Avish Khebrehzadeh, Jannis Kounellis, Giorgio Vigna, Ai Weiwei and Erwin Wurm.
Elisabetta Cipriani at Design Miami 2016/ Basel
Elisabetta Cipriani – Jewellery by Artists Design Miami/ Basel | 13- 19 June 2016 Booth G21 Elisabetta Cipriani – Jewellery by Contemporary Artists is delighted to present at Design Miami/ Basel a unique solo exhibition with renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Cipriani works with internationally acclaimed contemporary artists to create one of a kind wearable sculptures made from precious materials. Rebar in Gold takes root in Ai Weiwei’s investigation into the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, which killed approximately 70,000 people. Ai’s concern focused on the distressing number of children who perished due to the poor construction techniques used to build government schools. Upon visiting Wenchuan after the earthquake, Ai found a mass of contorted steel rebar, left behind from the fallen school buildings. Ai purchased 200 tonnes of the material from the scrapyards, where they were sent after the sites were cleared, for use in a bold body of work dedicated to the catastrophe. “It is about commemoration and memory” Ai Weiwei says. “Whether your memory or the one I have, that’s up to you, so you mould the piece to suit you. I used gold because it’s precious and that’s what life is. If you […]
BLOUIN ARTINFO
03 May 2016 Interview: Elisabetta Cipriani on Ai Weiwei’s First Foray Into Jewelry by Jana Perkovic Read
Art16 | Talks | May 20 2016, 3PM
WEARABLE ART: ARTIST-MADE JEWELLERY TRANSFORMS THE WEARER INTO A WALKING WORK OF ART Friday May 20 2016, 3:00 @ Art16, Olympia – London Panel: Elisabetta Cipriani, Stephen Webster MBE, Andrew Logan, Didier Haspeslagh, moderated by Harriet Quick Collectable, covetable and (relatively) affordable, artist-made jewellery is the millenial art-lover’s must-have, but what is behind its sudden surge in popularity? From Alexander Calder and Yves Tanguy, who both made earrings for the ground-breaking collector Peggy Guggenheim, in 1942, to Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray, artists have long-regarded jewellery as small-form sculpture. They tended to produce pieces as one-offs for their most loyal patrons but, recently, galleries devoted to wearable art have sprung up and are commissioning the world’s top contemporary artists to create these dimuitive works. Always tactile, sometimes kinetic or emitting tiny sounds, the pieces are all about an intimate relationship between the artist, the work and the wearer – the artist’s imaginary woman come to life.