7th Annual BIJOUX Comes to Florida in March Bringing Italian Artisans

  The Norton Museum of Art presents the seventh edition of BIJOUX!, an international art jewelry exhibition and fundraiser that offers the chance to purchase unique art jewelry from its creators. Once again, about 40 artists from around the world, including Israel, Italy, and The Netherlands, will be represented. Artists from Norway and South Korea are represented
for the first time. BIJOUX! runs Thursday, March 1 through Sunday, March 4, 2018.
The participating artists work in a variety of media, including gold, silver, porcelain, paper, acrylic, glass, iron, steel, diamonds, and other materials. Designs range from conservative to avant-garde.
Proceeds from the four-day-long event benefit the Museum’s education and public programs. If there is a secret to the event’s success, it is not only that BIJOUX! founder and chair Donna Schneier has a great eye for overseeing the selection of the artists, but that the artists come from an array of cultures and environments – and can’t help but be inspired by everything from geography to philosophy to politics. Because artistic influences are so eclectic, the artists look forward to BIJOUX! to exchange ideas and offer encouragement.
Though the artists come from every conceivable background and belief, they are unanimous in trumpeting BIJOUX! founder Donna Schneier’s vision. “Donna’s choice of artists is brave, innovative, and fascinating every year,” says Israeli glass artist Nirit Dekel. “I feel that it’s more highly anticipated each year.” American Sally Kay adds that, “Donna set a high bar from the beginning. In a short amount of time BIJOUX! has grown to be considered one of the premiere art jewelry shows in the country.” Tours will be led by Independent Curator Davira S. Taragin at 3 p.m. each day. American Artist Don
Friedlich, who works with glass, will give a public presentation at 6 p.m. on March 1 during Art After Dark.
BIJOUX! is made possible through the generosity of Brown Advisory. Travel arrangements for the Israeli artists are underwritten by the Association of Israel’s Decorative Arts.

Italian Artists who will be participating in Bijoux this year include: 

Ylenia Deriu
With a degree in Fashion Design from IUAV ClaDEM in Venice, Deriu’s work encompasses everything from contemporary jewelry to accessories, exploring all the possibilities these fields offer. After gaining experience working for fashion design companies and attending craft workshops, she decided to work as a freelance designer. Deriu finds inspiration in the
morphological complexity of nature and the rationality of industrial production. Her work lies at the intersection of the organic and the mechanical. She has a passion for brass, wood, leather, and anything that can be molded, cut, sewn, or welded. In creating each work, she experiences a close -- at times almost obsessive -- bond with the material that animates the technique,
influences the form, determines the structure, and transforms her pieces into evocative, personal jewelry.

Maria Diana
Diana’s jewelry aims to innovate without neglecting style. Wishing to explore new frontiers in expression, Diana provides a modern interpretation using unconventional material for classical and exclusively feminine jewelry, such as pearl necklaces. Her bracelets and necklaces are made of porcelain beads with inserts in gold and platinum. Each piece in her collection is unique and brings together style, research, tradition, and innovation. Her creations have been exhibited in
museums in London, Barcelona, Tokyo, Dubai, New York, and Florida.

Leslie Genninger
Genninger is an American artist who moved to Venice, Italy, to pursue her artistic inspiration and has been creating Murano glass jewelry for more than 25 years. She creates one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces using some of the most difficult Murano glassblowing techniques, along with color secrets that date back more than 1,000 years. Her works of art are an explosion of color and light and can be found in private collections around the world, as well as the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington; The Ringing College of Art and Design in Sarasota, and the Venetian Glass Museum in Otaru, Japan.

Anna Porcu
Porcu, a native of Sienna, belongs to a prominent Tuscan family with ancient roots. She Archives in Milan and at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She created her first collection and launched her business in 2011. Porcu searches the world for museum-quality cameos made from materials that include shells, ivory, amber, agate, and lava. She has become an expert in this type of art which, carved in extremely low relief by master artists, dates back to ancient Roman times and often included mythological or pastoral narratives. By re- original settings and using additional sterling silver and gold, Anna
transforms each cameo by placing it in a contemporary setting of leather. The wonderful combination of the delicate cameos against the leather creates a strikingly fresh collection .Each piece is unique. All the leather and the entire process of realizing the jewelry is made by expert artisans in Tuscany.

Francesca Vitali
Vitali strives to transform paper, a humble and ordinary material, into precious objects of unique and modern design. Paper affects everyday life continuously and in multiple forms: magazines, maps, shopping bags, etc., so she enjoys the idea that fragments of our lives will remain trapped in her paper jewelry. Vitali earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the
University of Zurich in Switzerland. Besides her passion for science, she worked with paper since she was a child in Italy, but it was only when she moved to the U.S. that she decided to take a leap of faith, gradually left her science career, and began making jewelry fulltime. She has been showing her work ever since in the most prestigious shows in the country.




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