Marion Friedmann Gallery is thrilled to present EGYPT, the recent jewellery collection by Mexican stone sculptor and designer Julio Martínez Barnetche. First-grade Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan, ebony wood and gold leaf are the core of Julio’s bold EGYPT jewellery collection, which consists of 18 unique pieces. The artist combines these three materials in his pieces and unites them masterfully.

Without intention, this collection honours and resumes the sacredness of Egyptian art.
Lapis Lazuli, Ebony wood and gold leaf have been present since ancient times in Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures. Magnificent art pieces have been manufactured in these three materials for more than five thousand years. The simultaneous use of them is traditionally Egyptian.

This collection is elaborate: highly skilled wax modelling and direct carving of organic shapes in ebony wood and supreme quality 1st-grade Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan combined with hand-made silver chains and gold leaf applications. The collection is a combination of demanding and ancient techniques, which makes these sculptural jewellery pieces rare and valuable.

Direct carving masters in stone belong to a genre that is increasingly disappearing. The work of Julio Martínez Barnetche is of high technical mastery combined with a creative fluidity that has the capacity to reveal the aesthetics hidden in the crystalline structures of the stones or the inner life of wood specimens. Martínez Barnetche, who is an established pioneer of the direct carving technique, continues to stretch the limits within his three-dimensional work to new heights.