NEW YORK – The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan, has once again assembled a remarkable group of artists for their 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 17-21, this year’s Loot features a curated selection of jewelry by thirty-five international emerging and established artists. Three talented Greek artists, Katerina Anastasiou, Tassa Ganidou, and Tina Karageorgi are also among the artists this year.
Katerina Anastasiou lives and works in Athens, Greece. Her practice is based on the ancient tradition of mosaic, which originated in Greece, and which she studied at Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli, Italy. Anastasiou is fascinated by the endless possibilities inherent in natural stones and Venetian glass tiles, or smalti, and she tests the limits of her materials in pursuit of the final form.
For the collection presented here, she focused on the direct juxtaposition of precious metal and stone to create a narrative of opposites: motion and stability, abstract forms and figurative representation, fluidity and constraint. Anastasiou approaches each of these pieces as wearable art, with the aim of bringing joy to the wearer through reflections of light and pure color, and the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design.
Born and raised in Greece, Tassa Ganidou is trained in the design and manufacture of cast jewelry. For the past two years she has focused on “non-wearable jewelry,” using jewelry-making techniques and playing with scale to create standalone jewelry sculptures. Having spent summers close to nature from an early age, Ganidou felt the need to capture a part of it: images, sounds, wood, stones, fruit, fish and birds, and the sun started taking substance in the form of jewelry. She recalls the strength she felt when wearing her early creations, and the sense of fulfillment that came out of the process. Today, she continues to use those natural found materials of the past, combining them with silver, gold, and precious stones.
She explained some of the pieces for The National Herald, noting the use of natural materials which add an individual aspect to each piece. Ganidou told TNH that she collects the various materials from her travels throughout Greece to create her designs.
Trained in ceramics, mixed media, metal sculpture, photography, and silkscreen printing, Greek designer Tina Karageorgi makes jewelry using a variety of techniques, translating works of art into wearable objects. The collection presented here focuses on porcelain, termed “the white gold” in eighteenth-century Europe—an alchemistic curiosity made of earth, water, fire, and air. This choice is informed by her love of ceramics and by her urge to touch and knead the soft material, to shape it with her hands. 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.
“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 nontraditional 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.
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