Exploring the Timeless: Vignelli Designed Silver

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Panel Discussion 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Reception and Gallery Viewing 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Join us for a panel discussion about the timeless allure of Vignelli designed-silver pieces at Saint Peter's at 6:00 p.m. A reception and celebration of an accompanying photo exhibition of Lella Vignelli’s Jewelry for San Lorenzo will follow at 7:00 p.m. The reception will include additional silver pieces on display. The exhibition, Through A Contemporary Lens: Lella Vignelli's Jewelry For San Lorenzo, is on view at Saint Peter's from April 9, 2025 through July 31, 2025.

About the panel

Exploring the form and function of Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s silver designs gives an opportunity to see how their design sensibility creates limitless possibilities. From Lella’s jewelry that bridges the everyday with the elegant, to Massimo’s fundamental, principled forms raised to the sacred, the Vignellis’ designs continue to live on and inspire a unique sophistication.

A reception will directly follow with an opportunity for guests to see various Vignelli silver designs on display and modeled.

This event is sponsored by the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology, The Arts and Architecture Conservancy at Saint Peter’s, and Saint Peter’s Church.

About the exhibition

Based on a 2023 exhibition at Vignelli Center for Design Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology, this photo exhibition, Through A Contemporary Lens: Lella Vignelli's Jewelry For San Lorenzo, is open to the public and on view in the Living Room Gallery at Saint Peter's from April 9, 2025 through July 31, 2025.

Since its foundation in Milano in 1970, San Lorenzo has distinguished itself by working with internationally renowned designers and architects, including collaborations with Lella Vignelli. Lella worked with San Lorenzo from 1970 designing many timeless silver jewelry pieces. These pieces include the fluid and charming Senza Fine necklace, which featured the ability to create many different configurations, each suiting a different occasion or dress requirement, as well as the necklace Seicento, a refined modern sort of Elizabethan collar inspired by her admiration for those ruff collars of the 1600s, among other pieces.

As the Vignelli Center for Design Studies acquired the final missing pieces from the archived collection of Lella Vignelli’s jewelry designs, Julia Abbonizio sought to capture the timeless allure of these pieces. This exhibition highlights how the jewelry is able to take on different forms and mirrors that versatility through a variety of models.

About Julia Abbonizio

Julia Abbonizio is a graduate of RIT’s Advertising Photography program. Her photographic work is inspired by notions of performance and surrealism, delivered with elegance and curiosity. Abbonizio’s imagery expands beyond the photographic medium. From events and commercial advertising to commissions and personal work, she focuses on art direction and styling to create unparalleled spaces and experiences.

About Saint Peter's Church

Revisit or visit for the first time Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s masterpiece, Saint Peter’s Church, in Midtown, NY. Long-described by the design duo as their “most important project,” Saint Peter’s is a total design: from interiors and furniture to silver liturgical objects and graphics. Massimo’s design for the church’s impressive organ is among only a handful of architect-designed organs of the modern era. An immensely public building, this reception and panel is a rare opportunity to experience the space without the hustle and bustle of the myriad programs held in an environment Massimo hailed as “more than a church.”

Presented by The Arts and Architecture Conservancy at Saint Peter’s and The Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT.

Learn more about Saint Peter’s rebuilding, visit future.saintpeters.org/modernism

Photos by Julia Abbonizio, Through A Contemporary Lens: Lella Vignelli's Jewelry For San Lorenzo, on view at Saint Peter's Church through July 31, 2025.