GemGenève 2026: Reimagining the Ukrainian Avant-Garde in Jewelry Art, Geneva, Switzerland

May 7–10, 2026

Lobortas Classic Jewelry House took part in the international GemGenève exhibition in Switzerland — one of the most important trade events in the industry of jewellery art. The Ukrainian stand VD‑04, organised on the initiative of the Strong & Precious Art Foundation and its founder, Olga Oleksenko, showcased works by Ukrainian designers dedicated to the theme of the Ukrainian avant‑garde of the 1920s and 1930s.

Anastasia Lobortas, Creative Director of the House, presented a series of jewellery pieces at the exhibition, created especially for GemGenève. Participation in the project marked a continuation of the exploration of the Ukrainian avant‑garde through the language of contemporary jewellery art, combining artistic vision with engineering expertise and proprietary technologies of the House.

This project began with the ‘Ukrainian Avant‑Garde’ jewellery design competition, organised by the Strong & Precious Art Foundation in December 2025. One of the competition winners was a design for a kaleidoscope pendant entitled Ode to Kazimir Malevich, created by the House’s seasoned professionals.

The House's team brought the sketch to life, transforming it into a complex piece of jewellery featuring a patented kinetic mechanism. The Ode to Kazimir Malevich kaleidoscope pendant reinterprets Suprematism as a living structure that exists in motion. At the heart of the composition lies a dialogue between Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square and Black Circle, transformed into a three-dimensional kinetic object, where movable Suprematist linear structures continuously alter the composition’s configuration, creating a kaleidoscopic effect in which the form constantly changes its own visual resonance.

Alongside their work on the competition piece, the House’s master jewellers also produced another design created for the ‘Ukrainian Avant‑Garde’ competition — the Word ring. Inspired by the architecture of the Slovo Building in Kharkiv and the history of the Executed Renaissance, the design of the ring reinterprets the building’s architectural structure through a modular system of cubes, whilst quotations from writers of the Executed Renaissance are integrated into the jewellery's design as a symbol of voices of Ukrainian culture that continue to resonate through time.

The House’s creations attracted considerable interest from international guests, jewellery critics, and the professional community. Particular attention was drawn to the combination of artistic vision and engineering complexity, the use of kinetic mechanisms, and the reinterpretation of Ukrainian avant‑garde ideas through contemporary jewellery-making techniques.

GemGenève 2026 served as a platform for showcasing the works of the winners of the ‘Ukrainian Avant‑Garde’ competition organised by the Strong & Precious Art Foundation, as well as for presenting a contemporary interpretation of Ukraine’s artistic heritage within the context of global jewellery art.