Alessia Semeraro

Alessia Semeraro was born in Italy in 1966. She began her jewellery-making career with an initial course at Central St. Martin's School in London. The following year she went to London Guildhall University, where she took a BA in Silversmithing and Jewellery. She then returned to Italy to join the contemporary jewellery school Alchimia in Florence, where she undertook advanced studies with Manuel Vilhena and a specialization course with Manfred Bischoff. In 2004 she took part in the NowChaos Workshop with Ruudt Peters. She was selected to take part in Schmuck 2004 in Munich and SOFA New York and Chicago. She has participated in the second edition of the exhibition Pensieri Preziosi in Padua in 2005-06. Her work is present at the Muzeum Ceskeo, Turnov (CZ) and in private collections in Austria and Italy. Semeraro mainly makes use of iron, pure gold and silver, combining them in order to achieve different chromatic variations. She is fascinated by the warm colour of pure gold as opposed to the grey colour of iron and likes to use them as found in nature. Her work has been influenced by the "Arte Povera" movement, that developed in Italy in the second half of the 1960s. The disparity between the value conferred by man to gold, as opposed to iron, is of great interest to the artist. She likes to use materials that show they have a past life, such as iron sheets from old electrical transformers or old wood; materials that tell a story. Her work is also based on a study of proportions, whereby the alternating of smooth and rough surfaces, as well as of colour, give depth to her pieces.