The first-ever selling exhibition from Melanie Grant and The Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery, launching on 18th November during a special evening with our friends from Serpentine Galleries.
Grant continues her mission to dismantle the boundaries between art and jewellery by inviting 18 renowned contemporary artists to express their connection to nature through wearable sculpture.
Art and Innovation in High Jewelry, the first modern jewellery book published by Phaidon where she asked the question Can Jewellery be Art? To Brilliant & Black: A Jewelry Renaissance, the first-ever exhibition of it’s kind dedicated to black jewellery designers staged at Sotheby’s New York in September 2021 – Melanie Grant presents a third project Force of Nature, aimed at further dismantling the remaining hierarchy that separates art and jewellery.
Force of Nature will feature nearly 40 jewels dedicated to Naturalism and the evolution of our relationship with the outside world, created by 17 contemporary artists embracing both figurative and abstract approaches. They are: Ai Weiwei, Bibi van der Velden, Fabio Salini, Frank Stella, Giorgio Vigna, Giuseppe Penone, Grima, Jacqueline Rabun, James de Givenchy, John Moore, Joy BC, Liv Luttrell, Lydia Courteille, Melanie Eddy, Melanie Grant, Satta Matturi, Ute Decker and Wallace Chan.
Hypathia brooch in bronze, recycled 18kt yellow gold, steel and garnets – Joy BC
The exhibition will launch on the evening of 18th November at a private reception attended by supporters of Serpentine Galleries and held at The Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery in Mayfair – 1st floor, 23 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BQ, the foremost destination for artist jewellery in London. All pieces will be available to purchase by private appointment or over the phone until Saturday 27th November. This is the first time many of the artists have offered their art via a gallery including Grant who debuts her first jewel.
The combination of artists Melanie has brought together signifies her determination to break down barriers between jewellery and fine art. It is a mission I share. Any artist should be free to work in any discipline and the enormity of nature as inspiration, dwarfs any argument to the contrary.”
– Elisabetta Cipriani
We have a lot of first’s in this show from a collective cast of creative geniuses being exhibited together working in materials such as tiger eye, carbon fibre, fossilised ammonite, red bronze and anodised aluminium to a vigorous debate on launch night with one of the most important jewellery collectors in the world. Thanks to all the artists for their contribution, to Elisabetta for hosting this exceptional exhibition and to The Serpentine for giving jewellery this level of prominence.”
– Melanie Grant
Salamander brooch with opals, sapphires, peridot, tsavorites and diamonds – Lydia Courteille
In chapter four of Coveted, Grant explores what she calls independent thought and the use of personal experience in nature to create a new way of seeing. Everyone at some point has been inspired by nature but few channel this energy successfully into a piece of art. It is perhaps the most democratic and widely understood source of creative inspiration and because of that, finding a unique perspective can be the hardest thing of all.
These artists find innovative and diverse ways to illustrate the human journey, politically in the form of Ai Weiwei’s Ring W addressing his concerns on migration, through abstraction via Grima’s casting of a lusciously carved lychee skin and via the built environment as referenced by the faceted sculpture of Melanie Eddy. As we cautiously emerge back into society, Force of Nature aims to examine the inner revolution that has changed all our lives and ultimately how we will wear that outwardly in the future.
