Contemporary Art, Design + Sienna Patti Jewelry Gallery – COOL HUNTING®

Siena Pattithe artistic ambassador’s efforts come in two parts. First there is his shop in Lenox, Massachusetts — a collection of weird, exquisite and unexpected objects configured as both solo and group exhibitions. Second, there is her gallery practice, representing around 25 different artists, which maintains a presence in international art and design fairs. Through both, the charismatic and devoted gallery owner presents the power of objects. She explores the implicit value of future artefacts and heirlooms. She searches for objects with privacy. Patti is an important part of the ever-growing Berkshire art scene.

“I’ve been here for 23 years,” she tells us. “I focus on jewelry made by artists, not artists who have someone else do a scaled-down version of their great work, I focus on artists instead, and jewelry is the main form of jewelry. ‘expression they use to show their artistic intention. ” That said, Patti’s interests also include “other wearable items and photography that deals with the body and adornment as a concept.”

To refer to Patti’s Lenox store as a jewelry store would be wrong. “It’s less about stones than about the intrinsic value we place on objects,” she says. “It’s about this idea that we live in a world of mass production, but jewelry is one of the things that can still be made by hand and given person to person. The idea that one person did this thing for another person.

Patti grew up in a small town in Massachusetts but moved to New York City to study film. “I went to New York to go to New York,” she says. “I started working at the Bowery Bar, which is now called BBar– in 1994. As an 18 year old from the countryside, I had no idea what to expect or who to enter. I worked there at the gate for six months. I also worked at the Met, in American decorative arts of the 20th century. New York taught me to ask why we do what we do. In many ways, it also taught her both presentation and pageantry, elements of jewelry.

Passing through Lenox, she saw the building that would house her future gallery under construction. She had long dreamed of opening a space for her and there, in front of her, the opportunity presented itself. From those early days, Patti has watched Lenox and the region flourish. “It’s usually an intellectual and academic environment and places like Jacob’s Pillow allow that,” she says. “Especially now you have this huge influx of the cultural community, integrated into the local community.”

“In the summer, I keep my doors open all the time,” she says. Many of the displays in its large, bright space are also left open, so people can touch what’s inside. In addition, there are drawers and drawers and drawers of wonders. The highlights are numerous. Of Lola brooks‘pin to Melanie Bilenkerstrange eyes and Darcy MiróBracelets (which “appear to have been taken from an archaeological dig,” according to Patti) styles and prices vary. Perhaps the most enchanting, “Lauren Kalman is all about the nipples “as the inspiration for many of his artwork, though his beaded helmet suits Bjork.

“I like to show the photography and the sculpture and the objects and the jewelry together because I feel like it tells the whole story,” she says. “I’m trying to ask: what does it mean to have something in our life? What power do we give to objects? Jewelry is an integral part of this story. It goes over your body. It’s next to your skin. It doesn’t have to be expensive because we imbue it with value. In his store there are scepters and amulets and tiaras and brooches. There are hot spins of buying and selling real estate. There is art and there are ideas and they are presented as one.

Images by Bill Wright courtesy of Sienna Patti Contemporary