Preziosa Young is a competition organized by Lao (Le Arti Orafe Jewelery School) and has been held since 2008. It is an international competition that aims to promote the younger generations and encourage their creativity. The jewels of the seven young artists selected by an international jury for their inventive skills in the materials used, in the techniques used, in the proposal of innovative concepts and designs will now be visible at the Oratory of San Rocco in Padua (Italy) from 9 October until November 7. It is the last stage of the exhibition of the winners of the competition which took place at the Galleria del Palazzo Coveri in Florence and, in January 2021, in Barcelona in the Hannah Gallery.
Each of the selected artists has its own peculiarity, its own specificity, and each has presented a project which shows the originality and quality of the research she is working on. The works they present impeccably interpret the trends and the way of feeling of the contemporary world. Three themes, three common threads under which the pieces on display are brought together: Psychological Jewel, with the works of Chia-Hsien Lin, Dongyi Wu and Zihan Yang; the Hybrid Jewels, by Elwy Schutten and Marie Masson; the Ethical Jewel with the works of Rachael Colley and Jess Tolbert.
Gió Carbone, curator of the exhibition
The jury that selected the works is made up of curators, artists and jewelery critics such as Giovanni Corvaja, Eugenia Gadaleta, Kazumi Nagano, Cóilín O’Dubhghaill, Renzo Pasquale, Carla Riccoboni, Sam Tho Duong.
The seven artists protagonists of this great traveling exhibition compete for the assignment of two special prizes offered by the school: a three-month stay in Florence as a resident artist, offered by Le Arti Orafe, which this year was not possible to assign due to the restrictive measures resulting from the spread of the pandemic, and a free exhibition space at the Munich fair Inorghenta2021, won by Zihan Yang jewelry designer from China. The other young designers are Elwy Schutten, Dutch, trained in Jewelery design at Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts & Design, Chia-Hsien Lin, Taiwanese jewelry designer, recently graduated from Birmingham City University, Marie Masson, French with a Masters from the National Arts and Design School of Limoges, Jess Tolbert, American who studied Art History in Florence and then specialized in Art and Jewelery at Texas State University, and with a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois.
Finally, Rachael Colley, an English designer who studied 3D Design, Silverware and Jewelery, graduating from Loughborough University, with a Masters in Gold, Silver, Metalworking and Jewelery from the Royal College of Art in London, and Dongyi Wu, another Chinese designer, with studies at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
