Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery is pleased to present The First Encounter, opening on Wednesday 25th February from 6–8 PM, a group exhibition bringing together 35 contemporary artists in a focused exploration of one of the most ancient and immediate gestures of adornment: wearing something close to the face.
Earrings are perhaps the most relational form of jewelry. They do not inhabit the body silently or discreetly — they move, reflect light, respond to expression, and participate in conversation. Existing in constant dialogue with the face, the gaze, and the presence of the wearer, they are often the first jewel perceived when meeting someone — a detail that becomes language.
For more than 4,000 years, earrings have traversed cultures and civilizations as symbols of protection, power, identity, and belonging. Positioned close to the eyes and the voice, they occupy a uniquely communicative space between object and expression.
In today’s world — shaped by images, screens, and visual communication — this dimension is amplified. The face has returned to the center of daily experience, and with it, earrings regain renewed expressive urgency. They are immediate, intimate, and personal — capable of transforming presence through a minimal yet powerful gesture.
The First Encounter assembles 35 contemporary artists and designers who approach the earring not as a simple accessory, but as a wearable micro-sculpture — a site of formal, material, and conceptual experimentation. Each pair becomes a “first encounter”: between artwork and face, artist and viewer, identity and form.
Participating artists include:
Adel Abdessemed, Ron Arad, Francesco Arena, Atelier Van Lieshout, Giampaolo Babetto, Carol Bove, Campana Brothers, David Rodriguez Caballero, Faust Cardinali, EC X EC LAB, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jacqueline De Jong, Ute Decker, Kendell Geers, Ania Guillaume, Massimo Izzo, Fernando Jorge, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Anish Kapoor, Liliane Lijn, Alba Lisca, Gigi Mariani, Michael Craig-Martin, Haroldo Burle Marx, Satta Matturi, John Moore, Ifeany Oganwu, Tania Pistone, Jacqueline Ryan, Elsa Sarantidou, Sissi, Joanne Thomson, Sophia Vari, Line Vautrin, Giorgio Vigna.
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