Louisa Guinness Gallery collaborates with contemporary artists to create wearable art, as well as dealing in jewellery by modern masters. LG Treasures deals in vintage, bespoke jewellery and gemstones. The gallery also offers an advisory service on personal collections.
The gallery opened in May 2003 with its inaugural exhibition 'Past and Present; Jewellery by 20th Century Artists', which saw Louisa Guinness depart from her original focus on artist-made furniture into the world of artists' jewels. The exhibition placed specially commissioned works by contemporary artists Ron Arad, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Ettore Sottsass and Sam Taylor Wood beside the creations of Alexander Calder, Georges Braque, Lucio Fontana and Niki de Saint Phalle and Claude Lalanne.
Since then the gallery has collaborated with more than 25 contemporary artists including Mariko Mori, Ed Ruscha, Gavin Turk, Yinka Shonibare and Tim Noble & Sue Webster to create artist-made jewellery. Concurrently, the gallery has built-up an impressive collection of historic jewellery, including pieces by Pol Bury, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray. For past exhibitions and press releases relating to them, please see here.
Louisa Guinness Gallery was the first ever gallery dedicated to exhibiting artists’ jewels, presenting exceptional works by revered 20th Century and 21st Century artists, and Guinness has earned a reputation as a leading voice in Artist's Jewellery, as well as a pioneering gallerist in their creation and curation. Central to the gallery's work is the collaborative approach it takes with its artists, who are invited to create works in dialogue with their artistic practice. These unique and highly collectable works of art are published in small editions, handmade with the best craftsmen in London's famous Hatton Garden district or the artist's studio. Louisa Guinness Gallery firmly believes jewellery should be treated as wearable sculpture, which when not being worn is a piece of art independent of function, at home on a coffee table or in a dressing room.
LG Treasures was created as a result of Guinness' true passion for jewels and gemstones, an additional facet of her gallery where she buys and sells vintage jewels and deals in one off studio made pieces of modern jewellery. She is also advises on gemstones. If you are considering a collection of jewellery, please get in touch.
In November 2017, Louisa Guinness published Art As Jewellery: From Calder to Kapoor, an introduction to Artist's Jewellery by the titans of 20th Century and 21st Century art. Through the lens of contemporary photography, Guinness developed a chronological timeline of the history of artist jewellery and the great painters and sculptors of modern art who have turned both thought and talent to jewellery making. Art as Jewellery’s pages are home to a stunning variety of design sketches and photographs - some taken by renowned 20th century photographers such as Ugo Mulas and Antonia Mulas. Other photographs have been buried in archives for decades, unseen since the 1960s. In contrast, modern works have been given model treatment by top photographer Alexander English, making this book a glamorous blend of new and classic jewellery art.
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