GemGeneve 2023- May exhibition

For the second time in a row, I had the honor of taking part in the extraordinary and exclusive GemGeneve gemstones and jewelry exhibition in Geneva (Switzerland, May 2023). I consider this to be one of the extremely important events in my artistic biography, because the opportunity to present my works as one of 6 people in the world selected for the “Emerging Talents” section (and one of 16 contemporary designers), is a great honor. GG focuses on the presentation in a carefully selected way of unique gemstones, antique and collectible jewelry, contemporary designer fine-jewelry, sculptures, museum specimens and other things that are easiest to describe with the word “treasures”. During this edition, GG cooperated with the Museum of Art and History of the City of Geneva (MAH) by lending a collection of automatons, i.e. works of jewelry/watchmaking art that have the ability to move in a programmed way or produce music. The exhibition also featured exhibits from the “International Museum of Horology at la Chaus-de-Fonds” and private collectors. I invite you to watch the video below, in which I recorded GemGeneve’s treasures as those that caught my eye the most.

 

Here’s what my exhibition space looked like:

 

As usual, my space is filled with photos by Margo Skwara Photography, which travel with me to every exhibition. Margo made 4 portraits of models with my jewelry for me, which perfectly reflect the nature of my work. All photos are hypnotic, magical and masterfully balanced. The contrast between the seemingly carefree age of these girls and their maturity and inner wisdom that they seem to possess seems to perfectly reflect what I include in each of my works. 2 of these portraits always travel with me to fair exhibitions. Margo can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/margoskwara  and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/margoskwaraphotography/  and her website https://www.margoskwara.com/index 

The designers from the “Emerging Talents” section of GemGeneve (May 2023) are 6 people from around the world who were personally selected by the curator – Nadege Totah, who not only has great taste and knowledge of the jewelry industry (passed on to her by 3 generations of industry dealers and decades of practice), but also the mission of finding designers whose works arouse in her a feeling of extraordinary and uniqueness.

I am very proud and happy that my work was presented alongside world-class artists such as Aso Leon, Denise Cassou​, Teresa Escudera, Wallis Hong, and Fred Fa.

 

Among the artists invited to take part in the exhibition, there were many whom I had heard about for years, admiring their talent and never dreaming that my name might appear in the same place with them. They say “never meet your heroes”. But in Geneva I met one of my own and it was a great experience! Austy Lee- Austy Lee Art Jewelery– turned out to be an extremely warm and humble person. We talked a little, I got his autograph, I even saw his sketches and I could try on one of his iconic bracelets that I admired on his Instagram. I also really liked his assistant in Geneva, who is a very polite and charming person: Cheung. Thank you very much for our meeting. You made my trip to Geneva almost like a dream come true. I hope we will meet again!

Here are some photos of Austy Lee’s brilliant works:

Another brilliant creator I discovered at GemGeneve is Aso Leon, known in China as the “Prince of Titanium”. He is a precursor of working with titanium as material used in exclusive jewelry, bringing this metal to the level of art and has been engaged in jewelry OEM production in Panyu, China for more than 20 years. Because of those reasons Aso has been invited by many universities in China to give lectures. “Today, he emerges as a jewelry artist on the international stage, transforming Made in China into Created in China.” As far as I was able to get to know this artist, he gave the impression of an extremely modest, warm man, who knows his craft perfectly, and at the same time is full of artistic sensitivity and maturity. His works are ethereal, very light, colorful and richly decorated with stones. Although we had a small language barrier, he took the trouble of approaching my exposition space and told me, that he really likes my works and they remind him of his brother’s art. That is one of the nicest things any other designer has ever done for me.

But I would also like to talk a bit about the second plan hero – his assistant in Geneva, Zoe Wang, who herself studies jewelry design in Paris. Zoe is an extremely talented person who, in addition to speaking several languages fluently, working in the fashion department in the heart of Paris, studying and having a passion for jewelry, is also a joyful, witty and crazy person! One evening after the fair, we went on a “girls’ night out”, that is, because we were extremely tired, we ate instant soups in the kitchen of a hostel in Geneva. Because I’m an introvert, I was extremely happy that Zoe’s vision of a “party in the city” was the same as mine, i.e. eating warm soup in silence and cooling off from all the events of the day. It was great for me because it was the first time I ate instant soup with a vacuum-packed egg attached (you can see it on Zoe’s fork).

GemGenève is not only jewelry. In large part, it is a show dedicated to unique gems of the highest quality. That is why I am so pleased that my invitation to the exhibition was accepted by Filip Ożdżeński – from a well-known family of gemologists and jewelery experts in Poland (http://jacek-ozdzenski.pl/ ). Mr. Ożdżeński not only took over his father’s passion for gemology, but also expanded his knowledge and expertise as an appraiser by majoring in Art History. Thank you very much for taking the trouble of traveling so far and for visiting me at the exhibition. I hope it has given you many reasons to make the trip worth it. I think it’s great that people who are passionate about their work are able to travel great distances to discover new things, learn more and grow. To paraphrase the words of Filip Ożdżeński: “What we had the opportunity to see at GemGeneve were top-shelf specimens.” The first photo of this post shows paraiba tourmaline, and the calculator shows its price in Polish zlotys.

This year, what caught my attention most were the wonderful sculptures made of gold and natural stones by the Swiss company Crystal Art Collections. In the photo, standing next to one of his brilliant works, is Paul Blochliger – one of the two (Bruno Higgins) creative pillars of the Crystal Art company from Switzerland. I remember the amazing mineral sculptures presented by this company in 2022 – kingfisher, crystal steeds, amethyst cockatoo and many others (please read the previous entry Gemgeneve 2022). This time I was blown away by bouquets of wheat (in a realistic scale) and cornflowers made of pure gold and tanzanites, arranged on a rock crystal vase. Contact with such beauty revealed through the mastery of human hands, artistic sensitivity, sense of perfect form and material that is literally the essence of the word “treasure” gave me goosebumps, waves of tears and a strong heartbeat. I am so happy that there are people in the world who still want to create works, not “products”, for whom the act of creation is more important than thinking “will it sell” – and I am even more happy that there are people in the world who who value such mastery and want to own the works of real, contemporary masters, because it is their work that translates into the true value of humanity.