Louisa Guinness, founder of Louisa Guinness Gallery, will be launching an exhibition of new jewellery made by contemporary artists who have been challenged to create beautiful jewellery using stone instead of traditional gems. The show, entitled The Artist as Jeweller: Interpreting Stone will run at Louisa’s new gallery space on Conduit Street, Mayfair from 20th November until 20th December 2013.

Louisa has invited some of the world’s best contemporary artists including Anish Kapoor, Sophia Vari, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Michael Craig Martin, William Ehrlich, Gary Hume and Rob Wynne to work in materials such as stone and glass to explore the creative potential and properties of different materials. These will be shown alongside 20th century pieces by artists such as Man Ray, Jesus Rafael Soto and Alexander Calder who also chose to incorporate non precious stone in their work, including lapis lazuli, agate, malachite and glass.

She says: “We have invited artists to make jewellery using common-place rather than precious stones including marble, alabaster or even pebbles. We want the jewellery to be judged for its artistic merit and not its material content. Greek artist Sophia Vari, for example, has created a unique pendant from marble (pictured above), whilst Tim Noble and Sue Webster have played with mudlarking and crown jewels, to create a silver cast raven’s claw clasping a stolen pebble. Meanwhile, New York based artist Rob Wynne has fashioned a ring using a stone from his friend’s fish tank (pictured below). The stone has been cut as you would a diamond or sapphire and set in 18ct gold. The result is a whimsical piece that glows with a bluish hue: it is beautiful for the simplicity of concept and design”

The exhibition of this new collection will challenge the conventions of traditional jewellery making. She says: “In this show the artistic merit of the piece, over its materials, will determine its value”.

Louisa Guinness Gallery is the first gallery in the world to exclusively show jewellery made by artists. The new gallery space at 45 Conduit Street opened in London’s Mayfair this autumn reflects a growing interest amongst art collectors for jewellery made by artists. Not only do these pieces offer a collecting opportunity but they can be worn as a piece of statement jewellery or enjoyed as miniature sculptures. “We are the first London gallery to deal exclusively in artist-made jewellery,” she says. “We don’t work with jewellers, only artists whose primary medium is either painting or sculpture. We offer artists a new form in which to express themselves and at the same time challenge them to adapt their artistic language to the demands of scale and function.”

Louisa Guinness Gallery
45 Conduit Street
London W1S 2YN United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 74944664
info@louisaguinnessgallery.com
www.louisaguinnessgallery.com

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From 10am to 6pm