Xinye Chen, Futuristic Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire
PREZIOSA YOUNG 2023|24
From a shortlist of very numerous candidates, as always, for the 2023 edition the jury has chosen three artists who come from different countries, cultures and experiences: the Palestinian Hasan Kurd, Xinyi Chen, a Chinese artist who moved to London, Maria Camera-Smith, American artist. Three voices, three narratives that contribute to Preziosa Young’s lively and polychrome story and confirm its international and intercultural character.
The exhibition of the three artists’ works, curated by Alice Rendon, will now be hosted by Archivio Negroni in Milan, from 13 to 30 May 2024.
Previously the works were exhibited in Florence in the context of MIDA (International Artistic Crafts Exhibition), and in October the exhibition will be held in Padua, at the Oratory of San Rocco.
PREZIOSA YOUNG is part of the larger project PREZIOSA | Florence Jewellery Week and was created to support new generations of craftspeople, designers and artists who explore innovative paths or anticipate future trends. Over the years, this event has proven to be an excellent launching pad for most of the artists selected in past editions, who have obtained further recognition, prizes and presences in many prestigious international galleries.
Hasan Kurd
It is well known as a mark of the beginning of civilization when humans started to create tools. Over time, these tools have helped their creators achieve their goals and have lead to the development of more tools.
My project seeks to focus on the cultural, material and philosophical relationships between body and tool, culture and language. This is to deal with the tool’s symbolic and utility functions. In the project I question this historic connection by creating abstract tools and jewelry, examining the boundaries and transitions between the tool and body movements, between natural and artificial materials, between geometric and energetic forms, between the holding and what is being held and more.
I chose to focus on these questions by using manual and mechanical tools working in marble stone.
The marble is a culturally and economically charged material, analogi- cal to the human body in terms of absorption, toughness, flexibility and transparency. To me, these features of the marble made it a natural extension or a part of the body. It has a simultaneous relationship with the space around it as well as before the eyes of the observer.
Xinyi Chen
Electronic components have a special place in artist heart– she calls them ‘Artificial Intelligems’. She is fascinated with their shapes, textures, colors, precise structures, digital spirituality, and hidden beauty, and draws from her childhood memory by her computer practitioner mother.
Her practice combines digital-based production processes with traditional crafts and found object, using 3D scanning, printing and laser engraving, to explore the past and the future, with the world she live, creating her own idiom. Setting with electronic components evoke dialogue between digital technology and manual skills that captivates audiences with curiosity and visual delight.
Acting within a broader context of sustainability and the younger generation’s awareness of E-waste, WEEE Recycling Centre formed part of the supply chain.Through the elevation of e-waste as a luxury material with circular economy, her jewellery challenges proposes a transgressive approach to what we value moving forward, highlighting boundary between ‘physical versus digital’ and showing a new way of living in digital awe and pleasure.
Maria Camera-Smith
My craft practice is an exploration of self, body adornment, and nostalgia. I rely on jewelry formats as systems to analyze my environment. The historical and cultural threads that persist through jewelry allow me to place things into a context that can be both expressive and introspective. The traditional hand skills of decorative arts/crafts are integral to my studio practice. The forms that I use are direct casts from trees and plants from geographic locations that hold personal significance. These forms undergo a cycle of fabrication that include casting, mold-making, soldering, and enameling, which often is not linear. Enameling processes allow me to capture imagery and hues that hold nostalgic, sentimental value. I walk through the woods and analyze. Along the way I collect small physical and abstract details. Integrating this content into my practice allows me to immortalize the moments I experienced while working through the emotional weight of that point in time. I craft art jewelry pieces to enable myself to process the landscape that I currently find myself in, while also digging into the roots of who I am as a maker.
Since 2008, LAO has also organized the collateral exhibition “Preziosa Young”, dedicated to emerging artists selected through an international competition. The aim is to contribute to the circulation of what is new in research jewellery, as well as showcase what the new generations of goldsmiths/designers/artists are “brewing”. Thanks to the seriousness of intent, to the visibility and promotion deals to selected artists, and to the high profile of the jury, PYOUNG has become a prestigious worldwide event. Every year we select a small number of artists by assessing the material that the candidates submit to us: a concise presentation of their research and images of their work. The jury doesn’t know the participants’ names, countries of origin or the schools they have attended, and have to choose the winners on the basis of the originality of their research, the formal quality of the jewellery, and the coherence between concept and objects.
The exhibition featuring all the works of the three winners was presented in Florence on the occasion of the
INTERNATIONAL EVENT MIDA 2024, in the Polveriera space, from 25th April to 1st May 2024.
The second stop is in Milan, in the exhibition space of the ARCHIVIO NEGRONI, from 13th to 30th May 2024.
The exhibition will then be hosted, as in previous editions, in the ORATORIO SAN ROCCO IN PADUA, from 18th October to 10th November 2024.
PREZIOSA YOUNG 2023|24
opening: Monday 13th May 2024 at 6.30 pm
opening hours:
May 14th : 10.00/18.00
From May 14 to 30 by appointment only
for enquiries or to book your visit, please contact
Archivio Negroni
in Via Tajani 3, Milano, Italy
eventi @archivionegroni.it
T. 3334003308 (whatsapp)
The conversations will be both in Italian and English. If interested in more information in English, please ask for the next session here:
INFO eventi@archivionegroni.it
