Jewelery as Sculpture. The Precious Art of Giorgio Facchini

The BABS Art Gallery in Milan , the only gallery in Italy entirely dedicated to artist jewelry, presented a solo exhibition of Giorgio Facchini , a key figure in the international contemporary jewelry scene. The exhibition offered a broad and coherent exploration of his creative journey, highlighting over sixty years of research spanning goldsmith practice and sculptural experimentation.

A journey between jewelery and sculpture

The exhibition presented a selection of approximately thirty works, including jewelry, sculptures, and preparatory drawings , highlighting the continuity of language that runs throughout Facchini's production. Forms and volumes reveal a constant dialogue between wearable dimension and sculptural space, confirming a vision in which jewelry is conceived as an autonomous work of art , capable of transcending the distinction between applied arts and sculpture.

The creative process

Particular attention was given to the artist's design process , also documented by the presence of an unpublished preliminary drawing , which reveals the conceptual phase preceding the creation of the work. For Facchini, the project arises from visions and intuitions captured on paper , in a poetics in which art is movement, observation, and contemplation, and in which research always tends to leave a recognizable and timeless mark .

Wearable sculptures and space research

The works created between the 1960s and 1990s take the form of wearable sculptures , often inspired by kinetic art, with articulated geometric elements that transform with the movement of the body. In his later works, a more rigorous spatiality emerges, constructed on the alternation between shiny and matte surfaces and the refined insertion of precious stones , in a calibrated balance of formal and chromatic contrasts.

Matter, form and female body

Crafted primarily from yellow gold , sometimes paired with red gold , Facchini's jewels are designed for the female body , adorning fingers, wrists, and neck like small poetic works of architecture . The titles of the works—such as Spatial Movements , Mysterious Landscape , and Musical Pipes —reflect an intense and personal symbolic universe, in which the precious material becomes a vehicle for plastic and emotional tensions.

A dialogue with the history of art

Throughout his career, Giorgio Facchini has shared exhibitions with prominent artists such as Picasso, Fontana, Calder, and Sottsass . His creations have been presented internationally and worn by leading figures in the worlds of culture and science, confirming the transversal value of his research, capable of engaging with the major artistic movements of the twentieth century.

A moment of reflection and discussion

The exhibition also included a public dialogue dedicated to the figure and work of Giorgio Facchini, in the form of a conversation with art historian and critic Federica Facchini . This opportunity for discussion allowed us to retrace, through memories and reflections, the key stages of his artistic research, from his early works to his most recent experiments.

A coherent and recognizable artistic legacy

With this exhibition, Giorgio Facchini's career emerged as a coherent and rigorous investigation, capable of redefining the concept of jewelry, transforming it into wearable sculpture , a place of synthesis between matter, form, and thought. A research distinguished by its expressive power, stylistic continuity, and cultural depth.