Salon Art + Design: Jewels in the City

For the first time, New York’s prestigious exhibition is showcasing design-led jewelry among its works of art this November.

The worlds of art collectors and jewelry lovers often converge harmoniously, as the current Salon Art + Design reveals. The event, which takes place at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, through November 15, showcases 50 international dealers, a majority of which are art and design galleries.

For its 10th anniversary the salon, produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates and set within period 19th-century rooms, has expanded its offerings by welcoming jewelry integrated within art and design pieces on the exhibitor floor.

Among the dealers displaying fine art and jewelry in their booths, there’s the Macklowe Gallery, Ornamentum Gallery, Didier and Galerie Negropontes. This gives the opportunity for exquisite pairings, such as a Lalique brooch shown close to a Tiffany lamp at Macklowe.

A noteworthy launch at this year’s edition is the home design collection by Brazilian designer Silvia Furmanovich, who for the first time created one-of-a-kind sculptural items for the home.

The jeweler, known for her use of organic materials, such as bamboo, and her wide-ranging inspiration, debuted a special installation that pays tribute to the Amazon rainforest. It’s been erected in the Library Room, a masterpiece of the Gilded Age designed by Louis C. Tiffany. She says the idea to create an installation evoking the natural world “provides a powerful, contrasting counterpart to the original context.”

As in her jewelry collection, Furmanovich emphasizes the need to “celebrate and preserve master artisans and craftsmanship, showing how long it takes to make things by hand.” She explains, “This collection is realized in collaboration with an exceptional group of artisans located in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest using the marquetry technique, which has a long tradition in the decorative arts but here is reimagined in a contemporary way.”

The award-winning designer is also debuting sculptures by outsider artist Mestre André da Marinheira, who lives in the north of Brazil. Inspired by Brazilian fauna, he sculpts feline and other figures out of wood based on the natural and animal worlds.

“We would like to evoke the riches of the rainforest and [show] that unconventional, superb forms of craftsmanship exist in those remote areas,” notes Furmanovich.

Here is a preview of the wearable art and art works displayed at this year’s Salon Art + Design.