Antonella Villanova / presenting Manfred Bischoff

Antonella Villanova Gallery was founded in 2008 in Florence, Italy to promote contemporary jewelry. The gallery’s artistic research endeavors to develop work that creates a singular design experience for the user. All pieces of the artists and designers are unique, mostly produced by the gallery.

Manfred Bischoff’s creations, presenting a range of themes from personal issues to universal dilemmas, are realized in a world of small animals or objects that are immediately recognizable, yet appear paradoxical and false because of the surreal combinations in which they are constructed. Profound irony acts as a thread throughout his work, disconcerting the viewer. Innocent ambiguities occur with an object that can have multiple interpretations, inviting naive perspectives.

Bischoff says, “my jewelry does not have any purpose other than to be here, to exist.” But then why does he love to tell the meaning and the story with headlines and drawings? These, although misspelled and immature, further deepen significant messages, along with titles, that are sometimes complex, often unsettling, absurd, curious but create the starting point, the more accessible thought, idea, irony, the poetry, humor and tenderness that informs each object.

His gold masterpieces, worked mostly with pink coral, are not only precious but act as tools for drawing shapes, deliberately elected and unfinished, inventing nuances, through a large pictoral sensibility, playing with light.

Bischoff’s skill to forge the metal or precious stone with unique style, alongside a sense of reality and life, make him a true artist who can create works that are playful, sensual and surprising.