(Ex) Alchimia. Graduates of The Alchimia School, Florence, Italy

The artists participating in this exhibition all received their training at Alchimia, a school of contemporary jewellery based in Florence, Italy. The diversity of the work selected for this exhibition attests to the quality of the training offered by teachers of international repute.

Alchemy is the art of making gold, once practiced by medieval mystics. Inspired by this discipline, the school’s founders, Doris Maninger and Lucia Massei, wanted to offer a traditional form of teaching with the emphasis on contemporary creation, to produce new work using noble and unusual materials.
Founded in 1998, the school soon achieved international recognition. Students come from all over the world to study at Alchimia. Among the teachers are talented and acclaimed European artists such as Manfred Bishoff, Bettina Dittlman, Stefano Marchetti and David Bielander.

The selection criteria for this exhibition were easily identified: originality of ideas, choice of materials, and technical expertise. Suzanne Beautyman (United States) uses Shibuichi, a Japanese alloy technique, to create work which features irregular shapes, reminiscent of timeworn found objects. In refined pieces with a contemporary touch, Yu-Chun Chen (Taiwan) is inspired by and pays homage to her culture of origin. The poetic creations of Rudee Tancharoen (Thailand) evoke a child’s vision of the world. Martina Mühlfellner (Germany) creates whimsical characters by layering paper then adding a protective synthetic resin. Using hammered, oxidized silver, Elisa Deval (Italy) makes jewellery resembling vessels which contain secrets. Marzia Rossi (Italy) plays with the transparency of mica and the opacity of stone to create her unstructured necklaces. Flora Vagi (Hungary) works with wood in surprising and original ways. The figurative brooches Meiri Ishida (Japan) makes in felt are an explosion of colour.

Much more than simple decorative objects, the jewellery presented here is the result of an exploration of both form and content. As in all authentic art, a piece of jewellery can move, seduce, disturb, or provoke reflection. Audacious and engaged, the creations of these jewellers testify to a diversity of discourse and ideas, which characterizes the art of our time.