Padua, Preziosa Young 2023: the art of jewelry on display at the Oratory of San Rocco.

As in previous editions, thanks to the collaboration with the Department of Culture, the historic headquarters of the Paduan Oratory of San Rocco confirms itself as an obligatory stop on the itinerant itinerary of PREZIOSA YOUNG 2023, an exhibition-competition curated by the Florentine school LAO Le Arti Orafe, since 1985 the first important educational institution in Italy dedicated to the training of new generations of goldsmiths updated on contemporary jewelry culture.

The exhibition, created with the contribution of the Cassa di risparmio di Padova e Rovigo Foundation, inaugurated on October 18th at 17.30 pm and will be open to visitors until November 10th 2024, closing the exhibition season of this latest PY, inaugurated in Florence at the famous MIDA International Crafts Exhibition from 25th April to 1st May, which passed through Milano in the multifunctional space of the Negroni Archive from 10 to 30 May, and coming to the capital in autumn, from 4 to 6 October, on the occasion of the RJW Roma Jewelry Week 2024.

PREZIOSA YOUNG was born as an offshoot of the larger event PREZIOSA | Florence Jewellery Week with the aim of supporting new generations of artisans, designers and artists who explore avant-garde paths in terms of design content and material and technical experimentation, intercepting and anticipating current and future instances of research jewellery.

Since 2008, LAO has launched an annual competition open to young professionals in the sector from all over the world and under the age of 35, who compete to win the opportunity to promote their work through a traveling exhibition, submitting the candidate project to a jury composed of qualified experts – including jewelry artists, gallery owners, teachers, journalists.

This year, LAO founder and director Giò Carbone, art historian Alice Rendon and jewellery historian Maria Laura La Mantia have announced the three winners: together, the Chinese Xinyi Chen, the American Maria Camera-Smith and the Palestinian Hasan Kurd heterogeneously represent the plural and intercultural language of the PY project, each contributing with their own feelings to the complex international debate focused on the design and production of objects for body decoration.

"Through the encounter with electronic waste, Chen proposes a 'powered' revisitation of the material and aesthetic culture of jewellery – he writes in the catalogue the curator of the exhibition Alice Rendon. Camera-Smith – saves and infuses in his pieces the emotion aroused by contact with a regenerative nature, experienced in an intimate and intense way"; while that of the Palestinian artist "is an ode to artisanal wisdom [...]. Kurd pays homage to the industriousness of the profession, understood as a value to be preserved and practiced".

Confirming the intuition and attention in the scouting work by the LAO organizers, PREZIOSA YOUNG has proven over the years to be a useful springboard for the careers of most of the artists selected in previous editions, who have obtained important recognitions, awards and presences in prestigious international events and galleries over time.

Opening: Friday 18 October from 17.30 pm.
Open to the public until Sunday 10 November with the following hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9.30-19.00 | Monday closed.
Oratory of San Rocco – via Santa Lucia, 59, 35139, Padua.