Vivian Cavalieri

With a sense of color and a playful style inspired by my Venetian heritage and by that city’s once-prevalent glass torsades, I have for many years created opulent, multi-strand necklaces combining Murano glass with other rich components, including amber, freshwater pearls and semi-precious stones. Inspired by Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes and Paul Klee’s sense of humor, I recently began building surrealistic sculptures around segments of those necklaces.  Each assemblage is an intimate work of art with its own theme.   As with my necklaces, these framed sculptures combine seemingly unrelated components into a unified whole.  They pair necklace segments with a wide range of elements including fine dollhouse miniatures, realistic animal models, richly textured fabrics, found objects and digitally manipulated photographs.