Annamaria Zanella

Bio

Annamaria Zanella (1966–2022) was a renowned Italian jewellery artist known for her experimental use of materials and the poetic, sculptural quality of her work. Born in Sant’Angelo di Piove near Padua, she studied at the Istituto d’Arte Pietro Selvaticn in Padua and later earned a degree in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.
She taught at several prominent institutions, including in Padua, Florence, and Nuremberg, and received numerous international awards, among them the Herbert Hofmann Prize (1997, 2006) and the Bavarian State Prize (2002). Her works are held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and Die Neue Sammlung in Munich.
 

Statement

Inspired by the Arte Povera movement, Annamaria Zanella combines everyday materials such as plastic, corroded steel, and found objects with precious metals. Her works are often characterised by bold accents of colour. A distinctive feature of many of her pieces is a blue pigment she created based on a 14th-century recipe.

The jewellery artist repeatedly incorporates personal impressions and experiences into her work - for example, referencing a car accident by embedding shards of glass into a gold ring or alluding to medical treatment through the use of empty pill capsules. Her more recent pieces increasingly read as socio-critical commentaries, addressing issues such as intolerance, xenophobia, or excessive nationalism - wearable artistic statements that raise questions about the kind of society we want to live in.

Despite their high aesthetic quality, Annamaria Zanella’s objects do not focus on the preciousness of metals or gemstones. What matters most to her is the exploration of materials during the creative process - their transformation, such as through oxidation - as well as the poetic power of sculptural forms.
/ Text from The Poetry of Material