Today on The Art Bystander, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Francesca Grima — Creative Director of GRIMA Jewellery, and the guardian of one of the most influential design legacies in modern jewellery.

Her father, Andrew Grima, changed everything. Often called the father of modern jewellery, he treated gold like sculpture, embraced raw stones in their natural form, and pushed the art of adornment into the realm of architecture and abstraction. His pieces were worn by royalty, collected by icons, and displayed in major museums — yet his spirit always remained independent and quietly rebellious.

Francesca has carried that legacy forward in her own way. Since taking over the house in 2007, she’s reimagined GRIMA as a contemporary atelier — producing small, handcrafted collections and bespoke pieces alongside her mother, Jojo. Each work still bears that unmistakable GRIMA DNA — sculptural, textured, and fearless — but now infused with Francesca’s own sensitivity to form, emotion, and modern life.

In our conversation, we’ll talk about what it means to inherit and evolve a creative legacy, the emotional side of making wearable art, and how Francesca balances intuition, heritage, and innovation in a world that moves faster than ever.

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The art world is undergoing a profound transformation. Traditional models of collecting and dealing are giving way to new players, platforms, and hybrid business models that blur the lines between galleries, auction houses, advisors, and digital marketplaces. At The Art Bystander, we are closely following these shifts—where technology, luxury, and creativity intersect to redefine how art is experienced, bought, and sold.

In this context, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Elliot Safra, a figure at the forefront of these changes. Safra is the co-founder of The Art Marketplace, an online platform facilitating global private sales, and the founder of AndArt Agency, a creative consultancy dedicated to building collaborations between luxury brands and the art world.

With a background that includes leadership in the Chairman’s Office at Christie’s and as Senior Director of Global Strategy at Lévy Gorvy (now Lévy Gorvy Dayan), as well as early experience in Management Consulting and Private Equity, he brings a unique vantage point on how the evolving art economy is reshaping opportunities for collectors, brands, and cultural institutions alike.

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In this episode, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar turns the spotlight on two art fairs that have each shaped the mid-tier ecosystem in distinct ways.

The Affordable Art Fair, founded in London in 1999 by Will Ramsay, has grown into a global franchise with editions in over a dozen cities — from Hong Kong to Hamburg, New York to Stockholm. With its price cap of around €10,000, the fair has opened the art market to tens of thousands of new collectors and offered emerging artists a platform to reach international audiences. Representing AAF in this conversation is Carl-Wilhelm Hirsch, who has helped steward its mission of accessibility and growth.

The Volta Art Fairs, launched in Basel in 2005, are known as the “discovery fair,” championing solo presentations and younger galleries that bring experimental voices to the fore. Active today in both Basel and New York, Volta has built a reputation as the place where collectors often encounter artists just before they break through. Here, we hear from Francesca Starling, who has been instrumental in shaping Volta’s evolving vision.

Together, these two fairs embody a vital counterpoint to the mega-fairs that dominate headlines. They prioritize intimacy, accessibility, and discovery — serving as laboratories where new collector generations are nurtured and where artistic risk-taking remains possible.

As always, I’m fascinated by how the future of the art market unfolds, and conversations like this reveal how fairs at this scale — human, innovative, and open — might shape the next chapter of global collecting.

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