Signs, Painting series (round), 2025; 18kt yellow gold, niello earrings; L 7,2 cm; Unique within a series
Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery is excited to announce Marks of Time, Gigi Mariani’s first solo exhibition in the UK, opening on Tuesday, 10th June 2025. The show is dedicated to the evocative and transformative artistry of the renowned contemporary jewellery artist and will run until 4th July 2025.
Gigi Mariani is part of EC LAB, the gallery’s initiative supporting emerging and established contemporary jewellery artists who challenge the boundaries of jewellery through innovation and unique vision.This highly anticipated show will present 38 unique pieces of jewellery, including rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, created specifically for this exhibition. Marks of Time reflects a dialogue between tradition and experimentation—a cornerstone of Mariani’s practice.Trained in Modena and working as a goldsmith since 1985, Gigi Mariani bridges the ancient and the contemporary. His pieces integrate age-old techniques such as niello, an ancient method using sulphur, silver, and copper to create darkened reliefs, with modern processes such as laser etching and surface manipulation by hammering. The result is jewellery that embodies texture, rawness, and emotion—where fractures, oxidation, and corrosion are not flaws, but defining elements.
Marks of Time will showcase two recent bodies of work created specifically for this exhibition, alongside new pieces from Gigi Mariani’s ongoing series. Corrosion explores transformation through time, where controlled erosion on metal surfaces unveils hidden layers beneath. Mariani intentionally embraces cracks, rust, and textures that speak of decay and endurance. In contrast Paper offers a lighter, almost poetic counterpoint, where metal is treated with softness. Using tools and techniques to mimic the texture of delicate tissue, Mariani invites viewers to reflect on fragility and impermanence. “In my work, I seek a balance between technique, material and an emotional connection between ideas and realisation, a meditation with black and gold” says Mariani.
Mariani also includes new pieces from his ongoing series. The Painting Series serves as a foundational element in his practice, where the visual language and textures he explores in his paintings are continuously translated into jewellery, creating a cohesive dialogue between the two mediums.
Similarly, Mariani continues to explore personal and emotional narratives in his In My Garden series, blending simplicity with imagination to create evocative forms that convey a sense of intimacy and poetic resonance.With Marks of Time, Gigi Mariani invites us to experience jewellery not as static adornment, but as emotion made tangible—a fusion of past and present, permanence and impermanence, beauty and rawness.
About Gigi Mariani
Born in Modena, Italy, Gigi Mariani is a contemporary jewellery artist whose expressive, tactile approach to jewellery has earned international recognition. Since opening his own studio in 1985, Mariani has remained rooted in the values of the classical goldsmith while pushing boundaries through material experimentation.His practice draws on historical techniques like niello, granulation, and oxidation, applied in an instinctive, painterly way that evokes ancient artefacts reimagined through a contemporary lens. Each piece is a fusion of intuition and mastery—where material becomes a site of transformation, not perfection.Mariani’s works have been exhibited across Europe and the U.S., with recent solo exhibitions at Galerie Isabella Hund (Munich), Hannah Gallery (Barcelona), and Traces in the Matter, Oratorio San Rocco (Padua). He has received numerous accolades, including the First Prize at Joya Barcelona.
His works are held in collections including the Helen Drutt Collection (USA), Museo degli Argenti in Florence, Museo Civico Modena, Fondazione Cominelli in San Felice del Benaco and Espace Solidor in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France. In addition to his practice, Mariani has lectured at institutions such as the Edinburgh College of Art and remains a leading voice in the field of contemporary Italian jewellery.
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