On view at Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery until 10 November 2026, ‘Between Ruin and Root’ is the first solo exhibition of Joy Bonfield-Colombara (aka Joy BC). Comprising more than 20 pieces, the show introduces six new creations that Bonfield-Colombara created specifically for her debut with the London gallery. All sit somewhere between jewellery and sculpture. ‘My pieces oscillate between jewellery, sculpture and talisman,’ the Italian-British artist and goldsmith explains. ‘As humans, we like to categorise. But an artwork can be many things at once, a mycelium of emotion, material, and form. Whether it’s a composition, a dance, a ceramic, a film, or a painting. For me, it gets interesting when there is cross-pollination.’
Jewellery by Joy BC
Born and raised in London, Bonfield-Colombara is an alum of the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Working with master artisans in both Italy and Japan, she is trained in metal casting and rare techniques such as Japanese urushi lacquer, for which natural tree sap is applied to a variety of bases. ‘London, Glasgow, Tokyo, Kyoto, Umbria and Rome. These are the places, striations of craft and the cultures that have influenced my work the most,’ Bonfield-Colombara says when asked about her globetrotting education. ‘My practice is a love letter to materiality, storytelling and craft. Head, heart and hands working harmoniously in tandem.’
Jewellery by Joy BC
At Elisabetta Cipriani Gallery, pieces such as the 2025 ‘Precious Tear’ ring – a bust fragment in blackened silver with one gold-set old cut diamond for a tear drop – or a new recycled yellow gold torque necklace, named ‘Demeter (Parched Earth / Rain)’ after the Olympian goddess of agriculture, grain, and the harvest, draw from ancient Greece and Rome. ‘My grandfather described me as an old soul, and young at heart,’ says Bonfield-Colombara. ‘I see time as all interconnected – past, present and future – akin to the Andean Cosmovision, rather than Western linear timelines. Narratives that were explored in ancient civilisations are still completely relative now. The materials we have been drawn to continue to be seductive – especially gold, and bronze, which has been used in objects of ceremony, magic, celebration and venerating stories and beauty, across continents and epochs.’