Nivuru Series by Yoko Takirai and Pietro Pellitteri

Artist list

Yoko Takirai and Pietro Pellitteri

The name Nivuru—black in Sicilian dialect—comes from the first brooch created for the exhibition A Tale of Multiple Worlds. From that piece, a collection gradually unfolded, guided by the artists’ long-standing fascination with the many shades and meanings of black.

We have always been captivated by the depth of black and wanted to explore its many dimensions, both tactile and visual. —Yoko Takirai & Pietro Pellitteri.

The central material in these works is burnished iron, chosen for its rich, almost liquid darkness. Using an ancient hand-burnishing technique, the artists achieve a polished black surface that feels both reflective and impenetrable. Each brooch, developed over the course of several years, evokes its own associations, shaped by the nuances of a single metal. Additional materials act as counterpoints, balancing gloss and matte, light and shadow.

The exhibition opens on June 4th. There will be no official opening event.

At Hannah Gallery, we see Nivuru as a silent yet powerful manifesto, a distillation of formal and conceptual intensity that reflects the refined, poetic language of these two artists. We are delighted to accompany Yoko Takirai and Pietro Pellitteri in this new chapter of their practice.