Gray Gallery, a new gallery in West Hollywood, just opened last month. The gallery is a combination of vintage jewelry, colored gemstones, and one-of-a-kind pieces by artists. Cousins Vram Minassian, a jewelry designer, and Chahan Minassian, an interior decorator, conceived of their endeavor from an organic perspective. Chahan asked artists he works with to create pieces for the opening, including a massive bronze-inlaid wall by Peter Gray.
“Whichever artist that he comes in contact with and then he represents, they’re already very, very talented artists,” said Vram of his cousin. “But once they go into Chahan’s world, he goes, why don’t you make it this way, and bigger, taller, skinnier. For example, that massive wall, that’s 26 ft x 12 ft high, it’s the biggest that Peter Lane has ever done, and that’s because Chahan stretched his vision from making small sculptures or mirrors, to growing. We think L.A. is absolutely the perfect place… because we definitely have the size, versus New York, where it’s a lot smaller, or Paris.”
“I like a lot of vintage collections, and actually one of my specialties is to show in Europe, American ’30s, ’60s,-‘70s, one-of-a-kind designer pieces, which is not what I’m doing here. Because basically here, I think there’s a lot of it, and not good,” said Chahan, who is from Paris, Vram based in L.A. “…But, basically, equally, I think what I am bringing is a little more of the personal vision to things, a little more selective and individual approach to unique pieces. I think there’s really time for that. Every piece that is here is a unique piece done by a sculptural or artist just for us.”
Estate and jewelry-dealer Ineke Peskin located one-of-a-kind vintage pieces for the show from Cartier and Boucheron, shelved inside of the wall itself. One vintage jewelry collection in the window of the wall was labeled simply, as a charming Frenchman with the key informed me, “French”. Consisting of unknown French jewelry designers, this collection made me think of wistful walks on a secluded beach along the coastline in France during the ’40s. And of course, on a gray, cloudy day. On view through the winter, until Gray’s next show.
Vintage Cartier
French Vintage and estate Jewelry
Imaginable seascapes
