“I Don’t Shine, I Have Something to Say” exhibition was held Oct 5 – 19, 2025 with an Artist Event on Oct 12, 2025. Art jewelry @Venice Design Week !!
The wearable art in the third edition of this international contemporary jewellery exhibition was selected by juror Eleanora Varotto, Art Curator Arte Design Venezia and head curator @cluster__contemporaryjewellery, in association with Lisa Balasso, co-founder of Venice Design Week. Eleonora Varotto is an art historian and independent curator specializing in contemporary art and jewelry design and the force behind Hooroon Curatorial Studio. She has trained between Padua, Venice, Madrid and Milan.
The site of the exhibition, one of Venice’s historic cultural institutions Fondazione Querini Stampalia, is a gem in a relatively quiet corner of La Serenisima at Santa Maria Formosa Castello 5252, 30122 — Venezia
Fondazione Querini Stampalia Collections and Exhibitions are open Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Fondazione Querini Stampali,
Venice, Italy
About the Bracelets
“Marine Fauna Meets Industrial” reflects Sherry Cordova’s design language, blending technology, aesthetics, and sustainability. Hand-drawn illustrations of microscopic marine creatures are transformed into wearable art via laser cutting and hand finishing. The work highlights the fragility and beauty of marine life and human impact. Species of plankton, important in the marine food chain and global oxygen production, are represented in thin layers of low-tarnish sterling silver and pure titanium. Industrially produced fasteners symbolize human induced changes affecting microscopic marine life. The bracelets embody Sherry’s fusion of art, precision, and respect for the environment.
Overview of the artists and statements in this exhibition
“I Don’t Shine, I Have Something to Say” is an annual juried exhibition featuring wearable art which each make a statement. The 17 international “Artists have let their pieces scream, inspire and transform.“
In-Person Exhibition Dates & Details
Venice Jewelry Week is an annual week-long celebration that invites a global audience to experience the world of design in Venice, Italy.
Venice Jewelry Week is part of Venice Design Week
“Venice Design Week is the festival dedicated to design held in the city of Venice, every October since 2010. For a week, the lagoon of Venice comes alive with exhibitions, conferences and meetings, competitions, workshops and guided tours that take place in a unique setting, full of history and contemporaneity, in a continuous exchange between cultures meeting and mutual comparison. VDW is a widespread event, in symbiosis with the city that hosts it, and that winds its way through calli and campielli, private galleries and museums, homes and artists’ studios, stores and workshops.
Venice Design Week is also an unmissable opportunity for connection and dialogue between established and emerging designers, international companies, artisans, architects and a curious and passionate public.”
05 – 19 October 2025
Wonder Q Room – Fondazione Querini Stampalia
Castello 5252 Venice, Italy
Opening hours: 10:00–13:00 & 14:00–18:00 Closed on Mondays. Free entry
I DON’T SHINE, I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, the international exhibition dedicated to contemporary jewellery as an art form and a powerful communication tool, returned with its third edition in 2025.
Jewelry, in this vision, is not a simple ornament, but a visual statement , a work capable of questioning social norms, stimulating reflection, expressing profound emotions, and raising awareness of pressing issues. It is a language that challenges convention, that narrates identities, stories, and demands for justice.
The selected jewels were housed in the evocative Wonder Q Room of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a symbolic location in the heart of Venice, already the setting for important artistic projects.
The selected artists:
Sherry Cordova (United States), May Ganan (Spain), Amanda Tartik (Brazil), Amanda Paige (United States), Mask-ulinity (Germany), Luisa M. Florez Herran (United States), Elledi Gioielli di Laura Di Leo (Italy), Hennie Broers (Netherlands), Silvana Bohorquez (Bolivia), Sophie Lowe (United Kingdom), Marcela Dias (Brazil), Folpo (Italy), Mariko Kumon (Spain), Marisia Lukaszewski (Australia), Jemma Slade (United Kingdom), Mariana Gorga (Italy), Sheila Westera (Switzerland), Verónica Pérez (Chile).
Bracelet Dimensions
14.8 x 14 x 1.6 cm
5.8 x 5.5 x 0.6 in
inner oval: 2.5 x 3″
Materials: Low tarnish sterling silver, Stainless Steel. Two of the bracelets have pure titanium layers.
Reversible
Hand drawn, CAD modified, laser cut, hand finished
Each bracelet began as an enlarged hand drawing of a microscopic creature. Mentally deconstructing the zooplankton during the hand drawing phase, I morphed the creatures into flat layers which would rebuild as a 3D form. I used CAD software to ingest the layer drawings and further modify the designs of each layer. Individual vector files were sent to a laser cutter. Each rough-cut low tarnish sterling silver layer was hand textured and finished in the hundreds of uniquely shaped cut outs.