Martina Simeti Opens Milan Gallery Dedicated to Contemporary Jewelry

Martina Simeti is launching a new gallery in Milan focused on contemporary jewelry as an avant-garde art form, bridging visual art and design. The inaugural exhibition, opening April 11 in the studio of her father, artist Turi Simeti (Alcamo, 1929), features 40 works by Zurich-born Bernhard Schobinger (b. 1946), a master of the genre, marking his first Milan show. Schobinger's work is held in collections including the V&A in London, Philadelphia Museum of Art, LACMA in Los Angeles, and the Palais du Louvre in Paris. The exhibition opens a day before the miart fair and initiates Simeti's program dedicated to "peripheral art forms," culminating in a permanent space on Via Tortona by late 2018. Simeti, who previously lived in Africa where she collected utilitarian objects, aims to explore the frontier between applied and visual arts, citing artists like Tobias Rehberger who work across both registers. She credits curator Anne Dressen's exhibitions, including "MEDUSA" at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, for inspiring her approach. The new space, a former silversmith's workshop of 130 square meters on a courtyard with cobblestones and climbing plants, retains tools from its previous use.