Maria Rosa Franzin, Gabi Veit and Gigi Mariani
The Contemporary Italian Goldsmiths and the International Art of Jewellery
Tickets: http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/ and search ‘Italian Symposium’
10 am –12 noon
Lunch will be provided
On the occasion of the Year of Architecture and Design, the Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Edinburgh College of Art is pleased to welcome three famous Italian goldsmiths who will hold a three-day workshop with invited UK jewellers, followed by a public talk about contemporary Italian jewellery and a tour of the jewellery workshops and the weeks project work.
Maria Rosa Franzin was born in Libya in 1951 and now lives and works in Padua, Italy. She studied goldsmithing at the “Piero Selvatico” Institute of Art in Padua and then painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice. Her work has been shown in several solo and prestigious group exhibitions in Italy, Austria, Belgium, USA, Spain, Switzerland, Scotland, France, Germany and Ireland. Maria Rosa avails herself of ancient techniques and materials, typical of the Italian tradition. She has, since the very beginning, adopted a pictorial approach in her jewellery. The pieces reveal an almost sketch-like appearance, that can be perceived in the pure gold strokes on oxidised silver surfaces, as if they had been made with a paintbrush. These latest years have seen the introduction in her work of colour by means of coral or synthetic elements protruding from slits on the surface of the piece, creating a three-dimensional effect and giving depth to her jewellery.
Gigi Mariani was born in Modena in 1957. After apprenticeship in a Goldsmith’s laboratory, Gigi Mariani opened his own studio in 1985 in Modena, Italy. Elegance, originality and sophistication of his creations are widely acknowledged, with numerous national and international awards over the years. Among the latest, the First Prize Joya Barcelona 2014 and the selection for Schmuck 2015. “I have always been fascinated by the infinite potential that metals offer and the opportunity of transforming their original properties and aspect in order to stretch the scope of what can be achieved. I avail myself of antique goldsmith techniques that have almost fallen into disuse, such as niello and granulation, personalizing them in order to give my work a distinctive character. I work with precious metals, combining them with other metals such as iron, copper and brass”.
Gabi Veit
1968 Born in Bozen, Italy. She studied Graphics in Innsbruck and Venice, subsequently opened an advertising graphic studio in Bozen. Having grown up in South Tyrol, Gabi Veit creates jewellery that celebrates the rough and jagged shapes and outlines of her home country’s rocks and mountains. “Knott’n, Brock‘n, Stoan – my dialect has many words for the stone that forms the mountain”, she says. And her jewellery always features stones in different forms. Some of her rings, for example, have been set with garnets in the rough from South Tyrol. For some time now, this artist from Bolzano has also been passionately engaged with spoons. Her unique pieces composed of bowl and handle surprise the beholder with unusual shapes borrowed from plant life.
Tickets: £20 / £15 concession