Last year, the jewellery industry was set abuzz when Sotheby’s announced its ground-breaking selling exhibition “Brilliant & Black: A Jewellery Renaissance,” showcasing the extraordinary skill, imagination and craftsmanship of black jewellery designers from the 1950s to the present day.
Almost a year later, Sotheby’s has teamed up once again with celebrated jewellery writer and curator, Melanie Grant, to organize the second iteration of the acclaimed exhibition, set to take place in London this September, coinciding with Black History Month.
Entitled “Brilliant & Black: The Age of Enlightenment,” the new London edition is bigger in scale than the original New York show, offering more than seventy pieces from a roster of twenty-five exclusively contemporary designers.
All participating artists have created one new piece in response to Grant’s overarching theme of Enlightenment, a period which represents as Grant states, “a time of growth, individualism and intellectual reason.” This theory of expansion has been realized by the appearance of seven new artists, including Gina Love, Sewit Sium, Ndidi Ekubia and Latoya Boyd.
On view at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries from 22 September to 2 October in full, and until the end of October as an edit, all Brilliant & Black pieces exhibited will be available for purchase, either in person, or directly through Sotheby’s Buy Now marketplace at www.Sothebys.com.