Born in Medellin, Colombia in 1967, and previously graduated as Attorney at Law (1990) with a Master in Business Administration (1998), Virginia Escobar quit her career in 2010, and began to study jewelry after fifteen years of professional experience. She first studied silversmith in Bogota, and then she learned jewelry design and techniques in the same city. In 2017 Virginia moved to Italy to enroll the MFA Jewellery & Body Ornament program at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence, where she finished it in 2019. Her work has been exhibited in Colombia, where she lives, and she has also participated in important international exhibitions since the beginning of her career.
Jewelry is a human way of expression. It communicates emotions and feelings, and it is related to culture, power, politics, bodies, and identities. I am interested on creating pieces that can be worn on the body and connect with others. My creative process is attached to material experimentation and research. Transforming resources, reusing them and finding new meanings when I make pieces of jewelry, describes the way I work.
2015
Torre Fornello Award Unconventional Jewellery Competition Selected Artist 2015
2014
Award Nomination - Premio Lápiz de Acero 2015, Colombia
I new beginning, reinventing oneself… The egg, considered as the universal symbol of life is the first cell, the beginning of everything.
2014
Award Nomination - Premio Lápiz de Acero 2014, Colombia.
“The next step in sculpture is motion”, Alexander Calder. I use silver wire to construct pieces that move and transform differently, following the user´s body shape.
2013
Feeling stressed, tense and frustrated. This body of work represents those moments when we are trapped and stuck as a consequence of our own decisions. Days when we feel despair, trying to find a way out.
2010
Award Nomination - Premio Lápiz de Acero 2010, Colombia
Award Nomination - Premio Traza Artesanal 2010, Colombia
Understanding death as a transformation process, as part of life.
These pieces come from experimental processes and special projects and exhibitions.