Thank you Hotel Flora for hosting me during this Venetian Spring, so full of events, from Homo Faber to the Biennale.

The large vine in the internal courtyard of the Palazzo is the ideal stage for the bronze ateles, spider monkeys, one different from the other, dynamic and playful, in the form of pendants and brooches.

Let’s enjoy Spring at the Hotel Flora – San Marco 2283 / A – 30124 Venice

my interview on Inside Venice

#insidevenice #supportinsidevenice #byromanellifamily #hotelflora

photo by Francesca Manera

In occasion of the Milan Design and Art Week:

Rock. Bronze. Fluid rocks.

I start from where nature surrounds me most, in South Tyrol, and experiment. I observe the rocks, I transforme their shape by modeling it in wax and leave the lost wax casting to a specialized craftsman. And the object turns into bronze.

But I like to go further. I photograph the rock and transfer it onto a thin aluminum wall piece. Or I make it fluid and light thanks to a colour print on silk. So I carry with me the colors of nature when I am far from Milan, my city of choice.

On the 5th of September the doors of SanFermoSette reopen. Back in town, I present the collections of bronze jewelry, silk scarves, and photographs on aluminum.

where: via San Fermo 7, 20121 Milan

when: from the 5th to the 19th of September 2021, from 10 am to 7 pm and by appointment

Self Portait With Nose​, 2010, brooch, credit: Bruno Bani – Martina Simeti Gallery

Once again I had fun putting my encounter with a jewellery artist into words for Domus.

An interview with the Swiss jewellery artist who mixes noble materials with discarded objects and relics of our disposable society.

Picking his way across a virtual minefield, the Swiss artist Bernhard Schobinger seeks equilibrium between beauty and ugliness. Born in Zurich in 1946, he has become one of the most important exponents of contemporary jewellery by inserting his craft into the current social discourse. As the same time, his items connect to the archaic origins of amulets. Schobinger reproportions the concept of jewellery as something precious and luxurious. He bypasses the hierarchy of jewellery with evident disesteem regarding its conventional categories. The mounting and modifying of objects of daily use and elementary discards open a creative space in which the functionality and background of objects and materials are called into question. The result is formal richness full of content and (sometimes invisible) meaning, full of humour, imagination, history and destiny. Schobinger has an immediate, sensual relation to materials. We can feel the joy of discovery with which he dissolves the boundaries between applied arts and visual art by combining modest, unusual materials such as shards of glass and nails with metal, gems, pearls and diamonds. Vice versa, he uses precious substances to create objects usually associated with transitoriness and uselessness.

www.domusweb.it

Sharon Fitness, Akiko Kurihara, Gigi Mariani, Alessandra Mancini, Yoshie Nishikawa, Gabriele Scotti, Hongjie Yang
curated by Valentina Romen and Annalisa Rosso

exhibition from Thursday April 5th to Friday 13th 2018, from 12 to 8 pm
Spazio Sanfermosette
via San Fermo 7, Brera – Milan

Sharon Fitness, Meteors from space, 2018
earrings/pins
silver

Akiko Kurihara, The earth and the moon, 2016 – 2018
necklace
silver, 18kt gold

Akiko Kurihara, Orbit, 2018
rings
silver, 18kt gold

Gigi Mariani, Sketch, 2018
brooch
silver, 18kt gold, niello, patina

Alessandra Mancini, Shape of you, 2018
oil on canvas, diptych
24 x 30 cm each

Gabriele Scotti, Catodiche Supernove, 2018
Video 9:10

Yoshie Nishikawa, Icona 2, 2016
Giclée print, 30 x 40 cm, ed.7 +2ap

Sharon Fitness, Akiko Kurihara, Gigi Mariani, Alessandra Mancini, Yoshie Nishikawa, Gabriele Scotti, Hongjie Yang
curated by Valentina Romen and Annalisa Rosso

opening Wednesday April 4th from 6 to 9 pm
exhibition from Thursday April 5th to Friday 13th 2018, from 12 to 8 pm
Spazio Sanfermosette
via San Fermo 7, Brera – Milan

The Harvard Spectral Classification Scheme, the modern stellar spectral classifications scheme, was created at the beginning of the last century. The classification sequence groups the celestial bodies in a series of capital letters (O, B, A, F, G, K, M) and in order of decreasing temperatures, from the hottest to the coolest. To remember this scheme scientists suggested a mnemonic phrase “Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me!”

Celestial bodies have always been an object of observation and inspiration for mystics, scientists, travellers, artists and poets. They can be nearby and familiar, or mysterious, totally unknown. Ideally, they generate a symbolic connection between the individual and everything that is, often full of completely personal meanings. For this reason they are collected, exposed, adored and interpreted.

Continue…

Jiro Kamata, Ghost

for once I jumped into the role of a reporter for Elle Décor Italia:

10 talents of jewellery seen in Munich

From the most important contemporary jewellery design week, our selection of designers to follow.

Schmuck, the German word for “jewel”, is the annual special exhibition first held in 1959 as part of the craft and design fair in Munich, and thanks to this event the city turns into the platform for the world of contemporary jewellery. Next to the works of 67 artists in the curated show, coming from 31 countries (from Germany and France, to Sweden, New Zealand, the United States of America and Mexico and Iran), a good section of specialized galleries.

Over the years jewels conquered Munich thanks to an explosion of independent events and during the Munich Jewellery Week (from March 8 to 14, 2017) the city becomes the reference capital with nearly 100 events. There are exhibitions and presentations of famous designers, masters, students from the academies, with book presentations, conferences and performances, institutional exhibitions and parties. Armed with the map you explore the city discovering dedicated galleries, improvised locations and museums.

Elle Décor Italia

Monika Brugger, Federico Floriani, Nadine Kuffner, Brigitte Niedermair, Gabi Veit
curated by Valentina Romen and Annalisa Rosso

opening Tuesday November 29th 2016, from 6 to 9 pm
exhibition from November 30th to December 5th 2016, from 12 to 8 pm
Spazio Sanfermosette
via San Fermo 7, Brera – Milan

Monika Brugger, Für Dürer, 2008, object for the body

LOVE•&•HATE discordance in contemporary jewelry

There is a thin line between love and hate.
Science proves how these two feelings activate the same nervous circuits of our brain, though hate keeps traces of judgment and rationality. Emotions that appear to be polar opposites, in reality are intimately connected in the human brain. This could explain why both can lead to similar acts of extreme behaviour – evil or heroic – often irrational.

The exhibition project LOVE•&•HATE follows the curiosity for a match or a collision of different materials, discordant forms and ventured combinations. Attraction or repulsion can be behind a specific attention to a formal research, able to find an unexpected balance among elements sometimes very dissimilar, to define new aesthetics, and become a crossroad of strong emotions.
Continue…

work in progress

opening Thursday November 19th from 6 to 9 pm
exhibition from November 20th to 26th from 11am to 7pm
Spazio Sanfermosette
via San Fermo 7, Brera – Milan

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, November 19th with the first episode of Speakers’ Corner. From 6 to 9 pm, Sanfermosette will present Eigenart, the new project of jewellery by Valentina Romen. Continue…