Stefano Fronza, 1978. Graduated from the Art Institute "Alessandro Vittoria" in Trento (Art of Metals and Goldsmithing), he designs jewels while experimenting techniques and materials in his father's goldsmith workshop; in the meantime, he deepens his knowledge of further techniques and manufacturing processes at other workshops in Trentino.
In 2000 he joins a Call for Scholarships for visual arts and moves to Düsseldorf, where he attends the Department of Jewelry Design of the then Fachhochschule and works with several artists and professors, in particular with Peter Skubic, Elisabeth Holder and Herman Hermsen.
Back from Germany, he enhances his contacts with personalities belonging to the world of international contemporary jewelry. In Munich he meets the owner of the Padua-based Galleria Studio Marijke, with whom he starts a fruitful collaboration.
Having joined and won a second Call for Scholarships, he decides to work with professor Erico Nagai at the Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, where he gets to know the German artist Bussi Buhs, from whom he draws inspiration.
He spends two years in The Netherlands and, in late 2001, he joins one more Call for scholarships and wins it thanks to an interdisciplinary project on the interaction among different art languages: jewelry, music and dance.
In 2004 he returns to Italy, resumes his work in the family workshop and, in the meantime, he keeps collaborating with Studio Marijke in Padua, where he has the chance to exhibit artworks that are the outcome of his years of study and research.
In 2011 his first personal exhibition Effetto Donna takes place at Palazzo Candelpergher in Nogaredo under the curators Osvaldo Maffei and Micaela Vettori, the latter of whom also is the curator of Stefano’s first performance Alchimie nell’aria, a performance held at Sala Baldessari in Rovereto in 2015.
Since then he has attended collective exhibitions at Studio Marijke in Padua, Museo del Gioiello in Vicenza and Stelline Foundation in Milan as well as several exhibitions curated by Alba Cappellieri at the jewelry pavillion of the Milan-based Homi Fiera.
In 2019 he gets selected for the jewelry exhibition organized at Ca’ Pisani Design Hotel within the frame of Venice Design Week, an event curated by Lisa Balasso. In the same year he becomes member of AGC - Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo and starts collaborating with this association as site webmaster.
2020 is marked by his attendance at two online exhibitions: Gioielli in Fermento, curated by Eliana Negroni and held in Castel San Giovanni (Piacenza), and Luce, curated and hosted by Thereza Pedrosa Gallery in Asolo (Treviso). In early 2021 he gets selected for Premio Vittorio Sgarbi and in October of the same year his artworks are among those exhibited at the Centro Fiera fairground in Ferrara. In May 2021 he gets selected for Gioielli in Fermento 2020/2021 part 2 and takes part in the exhibition held in Ziano Piacentino within the frame of Festival Confluenze. 2021 is also the year of several publications on magazines and catalogues as well as of an interview published by the daily newspaper “L’Adige” (the main newspaper of Trentino). In late 2021 he gets selected among the top five artists by Arte y Joya Yearbook 2021/2022, thereby getting the chance to exhibit his artworks in Spain at Studio Squina (Madrid), Backyard Arte Gallery (Valladolid) and 66 Mistral Gallery (Barcelona). In 2022 he becomes member of Klimt02, an internationally known online platform devoted to contemporary jewelry.
During 2022 Milan, Padua, Pavia, Livorno, Rome and Bologna were all home to exhibitions of contemporary art jewels: inside all these exhibitions the artworks by Stefano Fronza can be found.
At each and any exhibition from Spain to Padua - the place where contemporary artistic jewelry moved its first steps in Italy and then further developed - artists willing to participate always have to undergo a competitive selection.
The presence of Stefano Fronza’s works can therefore be seen as one more testimony to the artistic and technical level that he has attained and that is now acknowledged by an environment which has always been known for its being particularly demanding.