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Gabriella Crespi ( Born Gabriella Pellini, February 17, 1922 – February 14, 2017) studied Architecture at Milan Politechnic and started her carrer as a designer in the 1950’s. Thanks to her own original conceptions and ideas, and to the amazing ability to transform objects by adding changes in function, she still incisively inspires the expressive creativity of the current generation of artists.

Her work methods recall those of Renaissance workshops, in which high craftsmanship and artistic flair come together in an expression of unmistakable mastery. Her creative period spanned less than 30 years with a repertoire of more than two thousand pieces of the highest quality. Crespi developed her own unique style through skillfully chosen materials and brilliant use of metals and rare, natural wood, all assigned to master artisans able to bring her designs to life and offer the highest expression of Italian creativity. In 1985 Crespi realized her last works before setting out on a new life completely devoted to the spiritual quest. At the height of her success, she withdrew from the spotlight, pursuing her constant desire to follow her own path in the search for spirituality. With a backpack and a sleeping bag, at the age of 65, in 1987 she ventured into the Himalayas where she lived almost without break for two decades.

After a long and voluntary interruption of her activity as a designer and artist, Crespi returned to Italy in 2005 and started writing her book Ricerca di Infinito, Himalaya which was published two years later, in 2007.

Subsequently, in 2011 a tribute to her artistic life, took place in Milan. Palazzo Reale dedicated to the artist-designer the great anthology The Sign and the Spirit that covered all areas of Crespi’s creativity through her original and unique works of art, still jealously guarded in the private homes of passionate collectors.

She died in her Milanese home that was her urban retreat made of light and bamboo, anchored to the earth by the artist’s bold creations, ellipses and moons, totems of other civilizations.