LONDON.- Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents an exhibition exploring the fusion of sculpture and jewellery in the practice of Sylvain Rieu-Piquet, where organic forms seamlessly merge with the human body. The Paris-based designer’s new Chimaera series is displayed alongside his Imagined Nature collection, both of which feature works that epitomise nature enhanced by heightened emotional responses.

Exhibited in London for the first time, the Chimaera series features ceramic vessels and jewellery that draws inspiration from the earthy textures of wildlife, from intriguing flora to reptiles and fish. The glazed porcelain and stoneware vessels reflect Rieu-Piquet’s fascination with the medium of clay, through which the artist conveys the natural world at its roughest and finest by sculpting evocative shapes and patterns, finished in enigmatic colours.

The jewellery pieces – including new additions created this year – bring the same wild, elements into close contact with the body, letting the wearer draw power from them through their skin. Rings, bracelets and pendants are crafted from brass, bronze and silver, some gilt in gold and some embedded with gemstones including sapphires, rubies and garnets. Each piece acts as a chimaera – a fusion of forms – that appears dense and alive.

Imagined Nature consists of 24 bronze and gold rings cast in organic forms and named after various flowers and plants. Created in Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s workshop in Mitry-Mory, on the outskirts of Paris, this collection marked Rieu-Piquet’s first foray into jewellery in 2023. The designer shapes the wax mould for each ring on his fingers, seeking a specific balance between strength and grace, rawness and refinement.

Crafted using a lost-wax casting method, Rieu-Piquet then chisels and patinates his works, lending them a subtle, sculptural quality. Each ring in Imagined Nature is accompanied by a unique ceramic case expressing a move towards breakage and decomposition, which creates a dialogue with the impulse for life contained within the precious metal rings, lending an existential dimension to the collection.

Mineral, vegetal, aquatic and animal elements collide to produce the hybrid, intense and brooding artworks of Rieu-Piquet’s collections of jewellery and ceramics. With their soft, liquid curves and free, sensual vision of nature, the works of this exhibition invite the viewer into an intimate dialogue with materiality, adornment and transformation.