Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery presents Hotel 87 & Other Relics
Curated by Melanie Grant, celebrated Luxury Writer and Curator
23-27 September 2025
To celebrate the publication of The Jewelry Book (Phaidon), Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery and Melanie Grant host anew exhibition highlighting 20 artists and design houses in London.
This September 24th, Phaidon will publish The Jewelry Book (£59.95 GBP / €69.95 EUR) edited by Melanie Grant, author of Phaidon’s bestselling Coveted (2020), a stunning and authoritative A-to-Z guide to 300 of jewelry’s greatest names spanning more than 200 years. From Chanel pearls and iron jewels at Hemmerle set with flawless diamonds to the Notorious B.I.G. and Greta Garbo, this book offers indispensable insight into the artists, creative houses, and style icons who have defined jewelry. Eminent creatives such as Wallace Chan, Elsa Schiaparelli, Suzanne Belperron, and Bhagat appear alongside such lesser-known trailblazers such as Maōri jade carver Joel Marsters and Winifred Mason Chenet, apioneering metalsmith and designer. And, of course, no book on jewelry would be complete without pieces from the great heritage houses: Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Chaumet, Harry Winston, and Chopard.
In conjunction with the book’s launch, Melanie Grant will curate two exhibitions: one at Sotheby’s New York (10-21 September) and another at Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery in London (23-27 September), launching 24 September, 6-8pm, on the day of publication. The London exhibition, entitled Hotel 87 and other Relics, will bring together over 20 artistsand design houses featured in The Jewelry Book. Each will articulate a personal connection to Italy, whether through inspiration drawn from its cultural and aesthetic legacy, or through a formative experience that has left a lasting and meaningful imprint on their creative practice.
The exhibition is framed around a conceptual installation composed of five objects collected during Grant’s recent travels through Italy, each imbued with historical, cultural, and symbolic resonance. A square handkerchief of handmade lace from the weavers of Pescocostanzo (Abruzzo), crafted by local villagers, it evokes the enduring traditions of a place where time appears to stand still. A carved soap of Eredi Zucca, with its rich history in Milanese barbershops, represents a bygone era when such establishments were centres of social and political exchange. A rosarydedicated to Pope Francis encapsulates a moment of collective mourning witnessed at the Vatican, where pilgrims andRomans gathered to pay their respects. A blackened silver horn (cornicello), gifted by an Italian goldsmith, serves as a protective talisman against the Evil Eye and draws connections to both Greek and Roman mythology. Finally, Hotel 87, a seemingly unremarkable yet deeply evocative hotel in Rome, symbolizes the absurdity and unpredictability of contemporary life. Here, a pair of Umbro pants inexplicably hung from a bathroom door handle serves as a moment of unexpected surrealism, a sharp contrast to the other objects’ historical weight.
These talismanic objects will serve as conceptual anchors, inviting artists to create jewellery pieces that draw inspiration from their own narratives. The exhibition will bring together the contemporary and the historical, the sacred and the surreal, just as the book does, to interpret and transform the symbolic power of these objects and their meaning into wearable artthrough a new narrative. The intention is to create a dialogue between object and adornment, exploring how jewellery can serve as a vessel for storytelling, memory, and cultural continuity. The jewellery pieces, much like the original objects, willact as modern-day talismans — evocative, symbolic, and deeply rooted in the textures of Italian life. The exhibition will not only showcase these pieces as stand-alone works of art but will also position them within a broader narrative that connects contemporary artistic practice to Italy’s rich and layered cultural history.
Artists included in the London exhibition:
Giampaolo Babetto
Louise Bourgeois – Courtesy Didier Limited
Bulgari – Courtesy Eleuteri London
Pol Bury
Wallace Chan
Attilio Codognato – Courtesy Eleuteri London
EC X EC LAB
Melanie Grant
Grima
Hedy Martinelli
Giuseppe Penone
Arnaldo Pomodoro – Courtesy Didier Limited
Cora Sheibani
Castro Smith
Sophia Vari
Giorgio Vigna
Selection of Vintage Jewellery– Courtesy Piccadilly Vaults
Notes to visitors Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery
Exhibition dates: 23 – 27 September 2025
Press View: 23 September 10:00 am– 12:00 pm Collector’s Preview:
23 September 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm by invitation only 2:00 – 4:00 pm by appointment
Private Event: 23 September 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Opening: 24 September 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Private Event: 25 September 4:00 – 6:00 pm by invitation only 25 September 10:00 – 3:00 pm
26-27 September: Collector’s tours: 10:00 – 6:00 pm by appointment
About Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery
Founded in London in 2009, Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery invites world-renowned contemporary artists to create innovative, socially relevant wearable art, redekining the boundaries between jewellery and kine art. The gallery has collaborated with over 50 acclaimed painters and sculptors, including Ai Weiwei, Chiharu Shiota, Giulio Paolini, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Enrico Castellani, Erwin Wurm, Giorgio Vigna, Jannis Kounellis, Rebecca Horn, and Pedro Cabrita Reis.
Each project begins with an artist—often new to wearable art—developing ideas through sketches and prototypes, guidedclosely by Elisabetta, before the kinal piece is crafted by the artist or a master goldsmith. These works, representing the artists’ most intimate expressions, are held in major museum and private collections worldwide, including the Musée desArts Décoratifs (Paris), Museum of Art and Design (New York), World Jewellery Museum (Seoul), and The State Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg).
The gallery’s projects have been featured in signikicant exhibitions such as From Picasso to Koons: The Artist as Jeweller curated by Diane Venet, and are presented at leading art and design fairs including Design Miami, Design Basel, TEFAF Maastricht, Artissima, MiArt, PAD London, PAD Monaco, and Salon Art + Design New York.
About Phaidon:
Phaidon is the premier global publisher of the creative arts. We work with the world’s most inkluential authors to produce innovative books on art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, food, and travel, and illustrated books for children. Phaidon has a long and distinguished history as an art-book publisher with over 1,500 titles in print. In 2023, Phaidon celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Melanie Grant is a writer and curator based in London, specializing in the interplay between art, jewelry, and economics in society. With more than two decades as a journalist, she has worked at The Times, the Financial Times, Independent, Guardian, the BBC, and the Economist, where she spent sixteen years overseeing luxury content and photography for their 1843 Magazine. She also writes for Vogue, Vanity Fair, Tatler, and The New York Times, and has curated for Sotheby’s as well as Kensington Palace. She published her first book, Coveted, in 2020 and served as Executive Director for the Responsible Jewellery Council from 2023 to 2025 where she continues to consult.
Press Contacts
The Jewelry Book/ Phaidon: Ellen Bashford, Head of Press UK & Export ebashford@phaidon.com
Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery: Despina Kaklamanou despina@elisabettacipriani.com
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