Interior is a new exhibition at the Galleria Alessandro Bagnai / Antonella Villanova Gallery in Florence showing the work of 2 Italian artists, Florentine jeweler Lucia Massei and Roman painter Pizzi Cannella, both using silk through a collaboration with the Antico Setificio Fiorentino. The exhibition, through September 14, 2013, was first presented at the Design Miami / Basel 2013 fair and intends to create a dialog between the artists’ works and the space, creating an evocative environment.
In the first room, the viewer gets a sense of entering an interior as a solo musician or conductor of an elegant musical production. Three walls are covered with pure silk panels printed with a chandelier image taken from a painting by Pizza Cannella entitled Salon de Musique, with a necklace by Lucia Massei presented on a music stand.
The next room is a symphony of necklaces by Massei, of pieces made with raw and existing materials, including 18th century silk, gold, epaulettes, and natural pigments creating weighty layered masses infused with delicate details. Her pieces, inspired by Mark Rothko, “aim to capture that which exists between opposing phenomena, such as strength and fragility, the transient and eternal, past and future.”
Paintings of glistening crystal chandeliers and floating tulle dresses by Pizza Cannella provide ephemeral backdrops within the space. According to the project description, his process of abstraction “transforms symbolic and intimate images, turning them into iconic representations of collective memory, coalescing the real with the dreamlike.”
In the rear of the gallery are a few jewelry cases on display showing the works of Manfred Bischoff, Helen Britton, and newly represented English artist working in Umbria, Jacqueline Ryan.
INTERNO: Lucia Massi / Pizza Cannella
June 22 – September 14, 2013
Galleria Alessandro Bagnai / Antonella Villanova Gallery
Palazzo Ricasoli, Piazza Goldoni, 2 – Florence, Italy
art925 
[…] Britton is a jeweler from West Australia living and working in Munich since 2002. See more photos of Helen’s work in a previous post. […]
[…] Lucia Massei at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence. I was previously familiar with Lucia’s work and the luscious patinas and surface layers she creates inside and outside of her forms. Because I […]