The Italian Artist Celebrating The Power Of Nature With Wearable Art

After showing alongside the Venice Biennale in April, London jewelry gallerist Elisabetta Cipriani’s latest exhibition on home soil opens today; Constellazioni, a solo show of the work of Italian artist Giorgio Vigna charts a creative career spanning four decades. Fifty pieces take visitors beyond the sculptural jewelry that regulars at the gallery will already know, to include sketches and works on paper in a celebration of a 15-year creative partnership between curator and artist.

Rather than a retrospective, Cipriani views the show as a journey through Vigna’s evolving practice, spotlighting his creative notion that each piece is a cycle of being; evolving and morphing into the next in a reflection of Nature itself. “Giorgio is one of the few artists I know who can really evoke the power of nature. He has always moved between two parallel worlds in dialogue with each other – reality and imagination,” she says. “His works are powerfully poetic, spiritual, and ethereal.”

Through both new and existing work, the show also demonstrates the flow between his large scale-pieces and wearable sculptures that typically feature tactile, organic forms rooted in nature, like the Constellazioni necklace whose Murano glass, mixed metals and white gold leaf call to mind rutilated quartz. Nearby, the Flora Maris magnetic brooches look like tiny life forms in a rock pool, while Morfema, is a glass sculpture that interacts with the surrounding environment “like a living organism,” says Cipriani.

Running throughout, is the poetic interplay of what we know of Nature with what we see in his work, which he explains “evokes unconscious emotions. Glass as solidified water, copper reminiscent of fire, and gold symbolising light… a fusion of physical, psychological and symbolic elements.” Through the magnificent Lapilli rings, using volcanic rock gathered by the artist on Mount Etna, then coated in silver or copper; or the feather-light magnetic Sassi (‘Stones‘)necklaces, he seeks to reveal the hidden essence of the materials he uses, in a creative alchemy anchored in the talismanic power of the elements.

Cipriani discovered his work when she was given a glass necklace. The first time she visited his studio, in 2004, was the turning point at which she knew she wanted to bring together her dual passions for art and jewelry: “his studio in Milan was a Wundercammer of the natural world intwining reality and imagination. I found myself surrounded by imaginary archaeological finds and seemingly living organisms emanating a great energy,” she recalls. When she opened her art jewelry gallery a few years later in 2009, Vigna was the first artist she reached out to, for commission.

As a multidisciplinary artist since his teens, Vigna views wearable art as integral to his “circular” practice, which develops through “materials and dimensions that intertwine over time” including large-scale bronze sculptures, glass installations, and works on paper. Time spent when he was young, working for a goldsmith to pay for his studies, “was the unconscious challenge that pushed me to continue and delve deeper into this field.”

One element that Cipriani found most appealing about his work all those years ago, was his manual practice. With the exception of electroforming, each piece is handmade using slow procedures and complex hand techniques, something she believes he will continue in the years to come even with the advance of technology: “in any case, I am sure he will continue to amaze use with pieces that reveal the force of nature like no-one else,” she finishes.

And for the artist himself, the past decade and a half have been creatively nourishing: “my encounter with Elisabetta Cipriani over 15 years ago, through the exhibitions we’ve held together and the editions created for her, has allowed me to deepen and continue my research on jewelry within my artistic journey,” he finishes. To the delight of collectors and art lovers alike.

Costellazioni runs May 29th – July 5th at Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery, 23, Heddon Street, first floor, W1B 4BQ, London