Making Them Look Good: Sienna Patti
In the 56th episode of Perceived Value host Sarah Rachel Brown connects with gallerist Sienna Patti. Sienna is the first to say that she is not an artist, but this creative has dedicated her career to supporting and making artists look good.
The two woman sat down to discuss what experiences led Sienna to opening her gallery, the importance of holding on to one’s naivete, sustaining engagement, and contracts or lack there of.
Sienna Patti was born in Massachusetts in 1975. She attended New York University’s Tisch School of Art for a BFA in Theatre and Film Studies. With a curiosity about the history of ornament and adornment she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the American Decorative Arts and Design Department as an assistant to the curator.
In 1998, Patti founded Sienna Gallery (now, Sienna Patti Contemporary). Sienna Patti Contemporary has since established itself as one of the most prominent and groundbreaking design and jewelry galleries in the world. The gallery has contributed to creating a growing global interest in studio jewelry through its lectures, exhibitions, and publications program.
The gallery continues to exhibit artists in multiple mediums that use craftsmanship as an intellectual and structural vehicle for their ideas. In 2018 the gallery launched Sienna Patti Shop, with limited edition and one of a kind works created specifically for presentation online. The second year of SPS will conclude in a project at New York City Jewelry Week featuring a select limited edition series by some of the gallery’s most prominent artists. In 2019 the gallery celebrated it’s 20th year with the exhibition, Charmed, culminating in an oversized charm bracelet, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
Patti has lectured extensively at universities and museums as well as contributed to multiple publications including titles on artists Helen Britton, Bettina Speckner, Melanie Bilenker and Lauren Kalman. Since 2000 she has curated over 150 exhibitions in and out of the gallery and presented artists and exhibitions at art and design fairs worldwide. As an advisor and appraiser to major public and private collections Patti has placed works in museums around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Smithsonian Institution, D.C; Museum of Art And Design, New York; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Musee de Louvre, Paris; Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Sienna Patti has served on the boards of multiple local and national organizations and currently serves on the Art Jewelry Forum’s Board of Directors as Co-Chair and as a Trustee of “the dance center of the nation”, Jacob’s Pillow.
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