Loot 2018

Venue

MAD, 2 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019 USA

When

Audience

Open to the Public

Loot: Mad About Jewelry

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) will yet again present LOOT: MAD About Jewelry, its annual five-day exhibition and sale of contemporary art jewelry, with all proceeds benefiting the Museum’s programs and exhibitions.

Now in its 18th edition, LOOT remains the only event in North America to provide the public with the opportunity to meet and directly acquire contemporary pieces from the most skilled, innovative, and creative jewelry artists working globally today. Open to the public from April 17 through April 21, this year’s LOOT features a curated selection of jewelry by thirty-five international emerging and established artists.

“LOOT remains the ultimate contemporary art jewelry shopping experience in New York,” said LOOT 2018 Chair Marsy Mittlemann. “No other event offers such a variety of expressive and original jewelry from around the world. We are proud to showcase the work of contemporary jewelry artists to the public, providing a platform for their creative practice, while supporting the Museum’s education and exhibition programs.”

“The 2018 artists we invited stood out for their inspiring craftsmanship and inventiveness,” said LOOT Curator Bryna Pomp. “

The jewelry featured incorporates a wide range of remarkable non-traditional materials, from crocheted textiles, ecologically tie-dyed silk, felt, leather, and resin to 3D-printed nylon, titanium, safety pins, bicycle tires, X-ray film, papier-mâché, and wood.”

LOOT 2018 welcomes thirty-five artists from fifteen countries, most of whom have never been shown in New York. In addition to artists from Argentina (2), Denmark (2), France (5), Germany (2), Greece (3), Israel (1), Italy (4), Japan (1), Romania (1), South Korea (1), Spain (1), Switzerland (1), United Kingdom (8), and the United States (2), LOOT will feature an artist from Thailand for the first time in the event’s history.

LOOT: MAD About Jewelry reflects the Museum of Arts and Design’s commitment to the exploration of materials and process, as well as its long-standing presentation of jewelry as an art form. MAD is the only American museum with a gallery dedicated to the display of both temporary jewelry exhibits and its own collection of contemporary and modern studio and art jewelry.

Highlights

The works of Italian jeweler Gian Luca Bartellone recall the style of the Baroque era. Yet Bartellone forges new paths with daring combinations of materials: gold, gemstones, and silk are united with paper or papier-mâché. Though clearly unconventional, the mix of materials in his work has become familiar for this academically trained goldsmith.
Based in London, Tania Clarke Hall is an award-winning jeweler working in leather. Inspired by the built environment, Japanese design, and her early studies in chemistry, Clarke Hall considers leather to be her “perfect creative playmate,” and her jewelry celebrates the overwhelming potential of this natural material.
Greek designer Tina Karageorgi’s LOOT collection focuses on porcelain. Precious and semiprecious stones and patinated and gilded silver complete the palette of materials. Her iconography looks at flora and fauna captured in vivid motion and vibrant color. Beyond her experience of the natural world, Karageorgi draws inspiration from a personal reading of Old Master paintings and Far Eastern artistic traditions.
Swiss designer Roland Kawczynski’s creations take their inspiration mainly from nature, with influences of architecture and poetry. The collection ‘‘Brume d’Automne,’’ featured in this exhibition, includes necklaces, rings, brooches, and headpieces, in which titanium, silver, bronze, and gemstones come together to reveal the entire universe of the creator. Pearls and natural elements covered with flocking transform these jewels and give them a touch of modernity.
Italian artist Stefania Lucchetta applies 3D software and rapid prototyping techniques to unexpected materials including polyamide, biocompatible resins, Stellite, and titanium. The resulting sculptural pieces challenge the preconception that the artist and the machine are always at odds. Lucchetta continues to research the application of new technologies to jewelry design in her quest to create wearable signs and symbols that capture the essence of our times.
A designer based in Glasgow, Lynne MacLachlan creates jewelry that plays with light, space, and color. She takes an experimental approach with digital tools, exploring and pushing their capabilities, using bespoke software and 3D printing to realize complex forms.
French jewelry designer Isabelle Molénat considers her jewels to be messengers, carrying stories about our heritage and linking us to other times. Her “Knots” collection represents the tying and resolution of these links, to understand their meaning and impact. Molénat works in silk and eco-prints her fabric using dye from carefully selected plants, which produce tannins that change through the seasons. She uses the dyed silk to make sheathed ribbons, which she then weaves to create wearable textile sculptures.
Madrid-based designer Beatriz Palacios trained as a mining engineer before studying with professional jewelers. She started her design practice in 2011. Inspired by a variety of European art and design movements of the last century, her work has a conversational, whimsical quality.
The daughter of an antiquarian, Italian jeweler Anna Porcu inherited a knowledge of antique artifacts and an eye for rarity and fineness to detail. She creates her own collection of jewelry using rare antique cameos. This will be Porcu’s fifth year at LOOT, which remains the only opportunity to purchase her work in New York.
Israel-based designer Shenhav Russo uses the ancient technique of crochet to create intricate, delicate statement jewelry. Inspired by wide-open vistas and urban landscapes alike, she locates the true beauty of her art form in her ability to create anywhere, requiring nothing more than a spool of thread, gleaming natural stones or crystals, a crochet needle, and her imagination.
Thai jeweler Sarran Youkongdee began his jewelry practice in 2008. Inspired by the rich culture and heritage of his birth country, he creates art to wear, characterized by flowers and an artistry that pays tribute to women past and present.