James Rivière

James Rivière is considered one of the most important jewelry designers of the 20th century. A versatile artist, designer, and sculptor.
His creations are part of prestigious museums and private collections worldwide.

In 1999, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris exhibited ‘Monolite’, a unique sculptural silver bracelet.
The Vatican’s Secret Museum in Rome houses ‘Razionale’, created for Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
Since 2008, the pendant ‘Optical Titanio Diago’ (1973), made of silver and polychrome titanium, has been on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The Art of James Rivière

James Rivière’s creations open the door to a magical world filled with poetry and passion, an enchanted world made of precious objects, radiant forms, and vibrant colors. In his creative universe, color is essential: whether it is the hues of precious stones, the tones of inlays, or the polychrome titanium used to evoke water, surreal landscapes, and distant worlds.
The shapes he creates express different qualities and rhythms: the triangle represents creativity and dynamism, the square represents rationality and solidity, and the circle represents completeness and perfection.
James Rivière’s art renews the classical world of jewelry through new techniques, where unusual materials are combined with the most precious and traditional ones, giving life to a new kind of jewel conceived as a valuable cultural symbol.
For Rivière, every piece of jewelry carries an emotional message: beyond creativity, his works are born from an imaginary world in which dreams, philosophy, and poetry take on a magical dimension.

Creativity

Extraterrestrial fragments of meteorite and sheets of polychrome titanium are often used in his unique creations, such as the ‘Razionale,’ made for Pope Benedict XVI.

The artist’s one-of-a-kind pieces are born in his atelier at Via Brera 2, in the heart of Milan, for a select group of collectors.

In 1973, invited to the Milan Triennale, he won first prize with his creative jewelry.

Teaching

At the age of 25, he was invited to give a seminar on ‘Plastic Forms with Metals’ at the Sculpture Department of the University of Gdańsk.

In 1977, he took part in the founding of the ‘Centro Design Orafo’ in Milan. In 1978, he established the first jewelry design seminar at the ‘Istituto Europeo di Design’ and contributed to the creation of the jewelry design department at the ‘Istituto Europeo di Design’ in Milan, where he taught for many years.