Summer has started, and jewelry students around the globe are frantically finishing their coursework and installing end-of-year exhibitions—or maybe relaxing after finishing a challenging semester! For this photo essay, we asked professors from AJF member schools to identify one outstanding grad or undergrad from their class. Here, we present their work. (This opportunity to show off student work is one of the benefits for AJF member schools; see all the benefits here.) Congratulations to all of the students who were selected!

Keep your eyes on the career trajectories of these ambitious new makers—they represent the next generation of jewelry artists!

You can also check out the graduate portfolios of each school’s other students. Do so by clicking on any school’s logo here, then scroll to the bottom of the page.

The post Meet the Outstanding Students of 2022 appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

Rosa Taikon: Art and Struggle
Permanent exhibition
Hälsingland Museum, Hudiksvall, Sweden

This article presents the extraordinary Swedish jewelry designer Rosa Taikon, who not only revived modern jewelry art but also a Roma silversmith tradition, which makes her unique in Sweden and internationally. In her dynamic and content-rich art practice, Taikon created jewelry that testifies to an assured sense of design and an ability to combine diverse references into an elegant whole. A skilled artisan who employed time-consuming and patience-trying techniques, Taikon developed an art practice that she would use as a platform for the political struggle for Roma civil rights.

This rich body of work is now presented in a permanent exhibition at Hälsingland Museum. The exhibition builds on a donation from the Taikon family following Taikon’s death, in 2017, at age 90. The result of sterling work by the museum, in collaboration with the Taikon family, researchers, and other experts in the field, Rosa Taikon: Art and Struggle presents Taikon’s art with all its rigor, commitment, and complexity. By reflecting on various aspects of Taikon’s significant art practice, this article will attempt to illustrate the astonishing breadth that you can experience in the exhibition.

In 1961, Taikon enrolled at Sweden’s largest art and design academy, Konstfack, the University College of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm, where she remained until 1967, receiving a traditional design education specialized in metalwork. At that time, the department was at a turning point where new practices such as industrial design were introduced and old ones were substantially changed. An example of this change is manifested in the 1959 exhibition Nutidssmycken (Contemporary Jewelry), at Nationalmuseum, in Stockholm, which presented jewelry that transcended its function as discrete embellishment and became a conduit for the subjective expression of the artisan.

In Taikon’s preserved sketches from Konstfack, we see how she produced both hollowware and jewelry, how she was prepared for a career within the applied art industry that would supply the bourgeoise with beautiful everyday objects. Taikon continued to sketch throughout her career. Her Konstfack sketches reveal how she explored her family’s jewelry tradition, exemplified by a sketch of a decorative necklace created by her father, Johan Taikon, a skilled silversmith who learned his trade in Samarkand.

With her Roma background, Taikon was a somewhat unusual Konstfack student. She came from a family of accomplished silversmiths, but none of them had attended any of Sweden’s art academies. In fact, systemic racism had prevented the Roma in Sweden from receiving a formal education there. Silversmithing was only practiced by male members of the family, and while Taikon was inspired by their work, she was also heavily influenced by modern jewelry art.This innovative combination is evident already in the work from her student days. Her graduation project included a belt she created for her sister, Katarina Taikon, is composed of richly decorated silver roundels strung together on a leather strap. Taikon also created a breast piece whose focal point is a richly decorated roundel, the design of which the artist has elaborated into an expressive necklace, amply demonstrating contemporary notions of jewelry as subjective and expressive objects, and successfully merging two essentially different practices into a well-functioning whole.

In 1969, two years after graduating from Konstfack, Taikon was given the opportunity to exhibit at Nationalmuseum, in Stockholm. Giving a recently graduated artist a solo exhibition at Nationalmuseum was something very unusual. This must be viewed in light of the political engagement of the time, which followed the so-called counterculture. It influenced the practices and exhibition programs of major institutions and led the museum to offer Taikon a show. The resulting exhibition, Zigensk Smycketradition. Rosa Taikon (Roma Jewellery Tradition. Rosa Taikon) opened at Nationalmuseum on October 23, 1969.

Taikon chose not to occupy the space alone. Instead, in a manner typical of the time, she staged a collective act. The exhibition was created together with her then partner, the architect Bernd Janusch; her sister, Katarina Taikon; and Katarina’s husband, photographer Björn Langhammar. In addition to presenting her own work and Janusch’s, the exhibition included jewelry that had belonged to her family and images showing Roma history and the current social situation of the Roma.

The exhibition would also serve as a platform for the civil rights campaign Rosa and Katarina Taikon were actively involved in. At the time of the opening, the two were engaged in preventing a group of Roma from being deported from Sweden. The campaign was visible in the exhibition, the catalog, and the poster. Visitors to the exhibition encountered satirical political drawings and signs featuring critical statements about the Swedish Migration Agency.

This was a very active period in the struggle for Roma civil rights, and both sisters were deeply involved in it. In 1963, Katarina Taikon published the autobiographical book Zigenerska (Roma Woman), which received much attention. The Taikon sisters were committed to attaining equal rights for Roma. In 1965, they co-founded Zigenarsamfundet (The Roma Association) and the following year contributed to the foundation of the association’s journal, Amé Beschás (We Live), which described contemporary Sweden and its history from a Roma perspective.

Zigensk Smycketradition differed in terms of its content from other politically engaged exhibitions of the time in Stockholm. This is perhaps most evident in the fact that the basis of the exhibition was Taikon’s precious silver jewelry. At the time, many Swedish makers distanced themselves from precious materials and sought cheaper alternatives. There is no denying that Taikon was radical, perhaps even more so than her peers, albeit in a different manner and on her own terms. Taikon’s design and use of precious materials must be understood as site-specific. That is, they must be read in relation to a specific time and place. Taikon’s meticulous making stands in relation to a craft tradition—from the Roma—that hardly existed in the 1960s and was not at all represented in Nationalmuseum’s history writing. At the same time, her work fulfills the role of expressive adornment.

Until her death in 2017, Taikon remained an important advocate for Roma civil rights. Yet, as we will see, she would somewhat alter how she used her jewelry as part her activism. Her worked changed somewhat when she and Janusch relocated in 1973 to a former school in Flor, a small town in the north of Sweden. For many years they collaborated closely, almost in symbiosis, creating jewelry together and participating in joint exhibitions. An example of their collaborative efforts is the 1983 exhibition Rosa Taikon, Bernd Janusch, Smycken, Corpus, Silver (Rosa Taikon, Bernd Janusch, Jewellery, Holloware, Silver), at Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, in Gothenburg. It is evident in the exhibition that Taikon’s curiosity in form and craft never stopped.

In the accompanying catalog, Taikon writes about her background as a dancer and musician, describing corporeal experiences that she brought to her making. In the text, Janusch asked her: “Why do we work with silver, what do we want to say?” Taikon answers, “in creativity, in the design, in the feeling and its rhythm.” Now, in the beginning of the 1980s, she described her artistic practice as wordless. She wrote that if the answer could be expressed in words, she would have been a writer. For her, jewelry was a sensuous design. In the catalog text she also expressed her admiration for the “sensualism” and “sensuality of rhythm” of the figures in the Indian Sun Temple at Konarak and in the temple in Bhubaneswar. Although Taikon opened up to manifold references, she always coalesced them into a coherent whole.

Compared to the late 1960s, the beginning of the 1980s was a very different time. Postmodernism made its breakthrough in design. In Sweden, it meant that the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, with its political activism and social interest, gave way to a greater interest in form. In the piece Solens Strålar (The Rays of the Sun), 1980, the silver is accompanied by gold details that have been given a stricter placement than that usually afforded to silver filigree. It is a piece of jewelry that demonstrates how the artist had changed, a development that always occurred with the same, strong integrity. She continued to create her own, utterly unique idiom.

Already as a student at Konstfack, Taikon had displayed a mature jewelry expression that early on generated much interest. She created work through variations of the same fundamental techniques: filigree and granulation, a motif to which she continuously returned and performed variations on. For her degree project, she primarily created flat surfaces, but soon she would work with more sculptural relief designs. She continually developed new combinations, new motifs, varying the placement of the techniques and the design of the silver. Taikon never stopped. She never ceased being curious and creating new variations, while constantly returning to and reworking old motifs. The exhibition Rosa Taikon: Art and Struggle gives us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in her design world and her indomitable creative energy.

Presenting Taikon’s artistic development may seem obvious. That is how we often talk about artists—we describe their artistic choices and how they change over time. However, this does not necessarily apply to Taikon. Readings of her work tend to emphasize her Roma identity and not pay attention to her whole complex artistic practice. Furthermore, within the mainstream institutions of the majority society, there has been a great deal of ignorance about the Roma tradition she refers to. This deficiency makes it difficult to appreciate how she contributed to renewing this tradition. A telling example can be found at the Nationalmuseum. From her 1969 exhibition, the museum acquired one of her works, Bara Ihlo. This remains the only piece by Taikon in the Nationalmuseum collection, compared to 35 works by her contemporary colleague Torun Bülow-Hübe. Having acquired works from different periods throughout Bülow-Hübe’s career, Nationalmuseum illustrates how her art practice has developed over time. Taikon is only represented by one single work there, and as a result time stands still.

This fact is essential background information in understanding the important work carried out by Hälsingland Museum in creating the Rosa Taikon archive and mounting a permanent exhibition of her artistic practice and her activism. Thanks to the careful work of the museum in creating the archive, researchers will be able to gain knowledge of this significant art practice, and jewelry artists can be inspired by her work. The exhibition will provide the public with the opportunity to learn about this exquisite, expressive jewelry art by a prominent artist and about her life-long struggle for human rights. For those interested in jewelry, the exhibition Rosa Taikon: Art and Struggle is a must.

The post Rosa Taikon appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

June 2022, Part 2

Art Jewelry Forum is pleased to share the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, news, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on YOUR participation. If you’re a member of AJF at the Silver level or above, you can add news and ideas to this bi-monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJF here.
Listings gathered with assistance from Carrie Yodanis.

AJF LIVE + MAD: RON PORTER AND JOE PRICE: JUNE 29, 2022

Join us for a special PRIDE edition of “In the MAD Loupe”! Our guests, who are partners in life and in collecting, will discuss their studio and contemporary jewelry collection, some of which will be acquired for MAD’s permanent collection. Drawn to works with compelling stories, design, and craftsmanship, Porter and Price have created a collection informed by their life experiences, including as members of the LGBTQ+ community. Their contemporary craft collection began with a focus on ceramic sculpture related to the human figure. This led to a natural interest in narrative studio jewelry. For the last 15 years, they have primarily focused on expanding their collection of studio and contemporary jewelry. Free. Register here.

JOIN AJF AT SCHMUCK FOR THESE EVENTS

AJF will be there with: a joint book presentation by AJF and Arnoldsche: Taming the Beast. Silver by Earl Krentzin (presented by Dirk Allgaier), In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture: Political Jewelry in the 1960s and 1970s (AJF/Susan Cummins), Eleanor Moty: Quiet Elegance  (Matthew Drutt), North by Northwest: The Jewelry of Laurie Hall (AJF/Susan Cummins); Friday, July 8, 2022,10am – 12pm, Galerie Handwerk, auditorium, 80333 München, Max-Josef-Str. 4, Tel. +49 089 5119 298. AJF in Conversation: Collecting: The Next Generation. Detailed information is coming soon. Saturday, July 9, 2022, 10am-12pm, coffee/pastries included, Galerie Handwerk, auditorium, 80333 München, Max-Josef-Str. 4, Tel. +49 089 5119 298. AJF Presents the 2022 Young Artist Award Winner: Join AJF as we introduce and celebrate winner Mallory Weston. We’ll also give a brief slide show of the four finalists’ work at the IHM (Internationale Handwerksmesse) Main Stage on Saturday, July 9, 5:15 p.m. This important biennial competition offers a prize of US$7,500 for the winner and US$1,000 for each finalist, as well as an exhibition at Platina Stockholm during Schmuck.

FEEL LIKE SEEING A JEWELRY SHOW?

Find these listings and many, many more on our dedicated exhibition page:

• Navegar é Preciso: Bettina Speckner, at Galeria Tereza Seabra through July 2, 2022.
• Pépiements, Omamori et Bruissements de Roche: Gésine Hackenberg, Jeannette Jansen, Julia Maria Künnap et Takayoshi Terajima, at ViceVersa through July 23, 2022.
• Stefano Marchetti, Carla Nuis, Sondra Sherman, Luisa Kuschel and Peleg Mercedes Matityahu, at Galerie Marzee through August 28, 2022.
• Tatjana Giorgadse solo show, at Galerie Door through July 30, 2022.
• Transforming the Prototype, at Baltimore Jewelry Center through July 2, 2022.
• Yutaka Minegishi/Lucky Swine,at Gallery Loupe through July 5, 2022.

FROM OUR MEMBERS

CHECK OUT THE EXHIBITION CATALOG FOR THE 30TH INTERNATIONAL JEWELLERY COMPETITION TOUCH

The 30th International Jewellery Competition TOUCH was organized by the Gallery of Art in Legnica (Poland) as part of the Jewellery Festival SILVER. The competition is dedicated to jewelry designers and has been promoting creative explorations in the field of contemporary jewelry for over 30 years. The theme of the 2022 edition of the competition was TOUCH, a sense inseparably associated with jewelry, carrying a special charge of intimacy and safety, but also—in times of global pandemic and escalation of military conflicts—fear and danger. The jury evaluated 426 works by 240 artists from 30 countries, qualifying works by 51 artists from 13 countries for the main exhibition. View the catalog.

CRAFTING A STATEMENT: HOW TO TALK AND WRITE ABOUT YOUR WORK

For many artists, writing an artist statement seems daunting at worst, complicated at best. This four-week class aims to demystify the process of writing an artist statement and find ways to better communicate the concepts behind the work. Shane Prada will teach the workshop at the Baltimore Jewelry Center on Mondays, August 8–29, 2022, 6:30–8:30. Online and in person. Register.

JEWELRY JOURNEY INTERVIEWED GUÐBJÖRG KRISTÍN INGVARSDÓTTIR

Listen to the podcast with the goldsmith, jewelry designer and co-founder of the award-winning sustainable jewelry brand Aurum, Iceland’s leading jewelry brand.

ORIZZONTE D’AUTORE BIENNIAL

Conceived by Thereza Pedrosa, the biennial will include a group exhibition, a Giampaolo Babetto retrospective, a lifetime achievement award, book presentations, an artist’s talk by Giovanni Corvaja, a guided tour by Eliana Negroni, and several conferences. At the Civic Museum of Asolo, in Italy through July 24, 2022. Info on Instagram; museum website.

OPEN CALL: ISRAEL BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY

Open to anyone: professional, studying, emerging artists working in the field of jewelry, all countries and nationalities. Theme: Colorful Recovery. “After a long period of uncertainty, insecurity, fear, and sometimes even despair, one begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s time to add color and joy to our lives.” Application deadline: June 23, 2022. Info.

IRIS EICHENBERG: WHERE WORDS FAIL OPENS THIS SATURDAY

Iris Eichenberg engages the viewer in conversations that embrace such timely topics as gender and identity, the search for a safe, welcoming haven, and the veracity of reality. Instead of focusing on one medium and process, she continually seeks the craft processes and combination of materials that best suit the idea at hand. This exhibition—the artist’s first mid-career survey—was made possible, in part, by the Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant. At the Museum of Craft and Design, in San Francisco, June 25–October 30, 2022. Info.

SCHMUCK // JEWELRY 2012_2022 ON VIEW AT PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE

See donations and acquisitions from the last 10 years. Most of these are being showcased in an exhibition for the first time. At the entrance to Die Neue Sammlung, through July 10, 2022

TWO JEWELRY/METALS GRADS WON 2022 WINDGATE-LAMAR FELLOWSHIPS

Congratulations to Sean Eren, of Rhode Island School of Design, and Lillian Luft, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee! Awards are given for artistic merit and demonstrated potential for contributing to the field of craft. Each artist receives $15,000 from the Center for Craft to support personal and artistic growth in this crucial phase of an early career. Historically, recipients often move on to establish successful studios, exhibit at world-renowned museums and galleries, get MFAs, or become full-time faculty.

WHEN PEARLS TRANSFORM INTO POODLE FUR

The witty Monica McLaughlin, of Dearest, wrote about this French pendant, which “definitely qualifies for my Ridiculous Dog Faces in Jewelry series …. Featuring a baroque pearl head, ruby tongue, and sapphire eyes, he’s got poofy legs set with natural pearls and a ruby collar. Look at his butt!”

CLOSING SOON: TRANSFORMING THE PROTOTYPE

Participating artists received a wax version of a vintage ring, then transformed it through additive or subtractive processes, as wax or after casting. The resulting work demonstrates the infinite possibilities of lost wax casting while making connections between fine jewelry and conceptual jewelry. At Baltimore Jewelry Center through July 1, 2022.

THE LOCATION SERVICES EXHIBITION PRESENTS PERSPECTIVES ON PLACE

The crafting of jewelry and objects is a means to profoundly support and express identity. Motoko Furuhashi, Kerianne Quick, and Demitra Thomloudis observe site, place, and origin within historical and contemporary contexts of craft and the inseparable bond place has to individuality, society, and culture. At the Craft in America Center, June 25–September 10, 2022. Info.

DO YOU HAVE CURATORIAL AMBITIONS? A GREAT IDEA FOR AN EXHIBITION?

The Baltimore Jewelry Center is currently seeking exhibition proposals for its 2023/2024 gallery schedule. Proposals are not limited to jewelry and might include thematic exhibitions or exhibitions showcasing an artist or group of artists. They want exhibitions that explore the gallery setting in an unexpected way, seek to place jewelry and craft within a larger context and expand connections in our community at large. The goal is to demonstrate unique curatorial viewpoints, expose their audience to fresh and emerging makers and ideas, and present art jewelry and metalsmithing in a broader art context. They’re especially excited to see proposals that create a diverse and inclusive gallery space in order to elevate underrepresented voices. Deadline: July 8, 2022. Info. Email with any questions.

LIANA PATTIHIS HAD A SOLO SHOW @UNIVERSUS_GALLERY IN ATHENS, GREECE

The artist showed a selection of jewelry from four of her collections, together with her designer homeware items. Taking advantage of the free time afforded during the various lockdowns, she set up her own company last November, creating homeware pieces inspired by her jewelry creations. All designs are created by Pattihis and printed in the UK on high-quality products. @lianapattihis and @linea.liana

BETTINA SPECKNER CURRENTLY ON SHOW AT GALERIA TEREZA SEABRA

“I never work with the intention to decorate things or to make them look prettier,” says the artist. “I try to discover the soul of an object or the essence of a photograph and want to shape something new, beyond the visual appearance.” Navegar é Preciso (Sailing Is Necessary) will be on view until July 2, 2022.

PAGES

BOOK—JEWELRY + IMAGE 

Jewelry art is a small but easily discernible voice amid the great choir that is the art scene. It has been the impetus for innovation and a seismograph for current discourse within the applied arts for several decades. For the first time, the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts presents its holdings of modern jewelry, ranging from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Jewelry + Image provides insights into the multifaceted oeuvres of around 180 jewelry artists from around the world. The collection broadly represents international developments in jewelry art and grants a special view to approaches from eastern Germany.

BOOK—ART JEWELLERY: A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

Art jewelry specialist Inger Wästberg shines light upon art jewelry as an independent art form through a number of pieces from her own collection. She shows jewelry that reflects the times we are living in; challenges our perception of what is considered beautiful; and deals with topics like gender equality, overconsumption, sustainability, and the transience of life. From AO.

BOOK—TAMING THE BEAST: SILVER BY EARL KRENTZIN

The virtuoso poured his considerable talents into small-scale figurative sculpture, creating whimsical theatrical settings in silver with a wry humor. He had more in common with Benvenuto Cellini than with his 20th-century peers. This first full-scale monograph on the artist offers the breadth of his engaging creations, which he based on his love of toys, movement, and the mechanical arts. Edited by Jeannine Falino and Martha J. Fleischman. From Arnoldsche.

BOOK—LE BIJOU DESSINÉ/DESIGNING JEWELS

This book presents a hundred jewelry drawings, ranging from the second half of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It sheds light on a completely unknown part of the decorative arts, in which anonymous craftsmen or artists rub shoulders with the great figures of jewelry or renowned workshops. In English and French. Look inside (scroll down).

EXHIBITION CATALOG—A MIND OF THEIR OWN

With a focus on the women designers of early avant-garde jewelry, this publication, which accompanies the exhibition of the same name at Museum Angerlehner in Austria, paints a picture of Austrian jewelry production from the 1970s to the present day. More info.

BOOK—GOLD: THE IMPOSSIBLE COLLECTION (AVAILABLE JULY 2022)

Pure, indestructible, dazzling: Since the dawn of time, gold has generated countless fantasies and beliefs. Leading rulers to the afterlife, casting a glow on Buddhist pagodas, illuminating the halos of saints, adding brilliance to crowns, gleaming on haute couture runways, or glittering on a rapper’s grill, gold is an eternal symbol of wealth and glory. The prized element’s malleable nature lends itself to infinite metamorphoses. Today, gold remains the supreme representation of luxury. The book itself is a luxury good. See why here.

GERD ROTHMANN: WERKVERZEICHNIS 2/CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 2

After 1976, the incarnate connection between jewelry and body became Gerd Rothmann focus. This Catalogue Raisonné 2 continues the entire oeuvre of this exceptional artist from 2009 to the present day. Includes personal notes from Rothmann’s workshop and numerous images showing people in relation to the jewelry are presented. For, as the artist says, it’s “not solely the piece of jewelry that is important but the person who lives with it and experiences it. They bestow the whole with meaning.” Info.

INTERESTING LINKS

AUCTION: AUTEUR JEWELRY FROM 1970 TO THE MID-90S

In Worn to Be Alive, to be held June 30, 2022, Quittenbaum will offer 300+ objects by primarily German and Dutch artists. A fascination with the complex interaction between the body and jewelry fascinates all the designers featured in the sale. The objects intervene in the appearance of the wearer, change their silhouette, and interact with the dynamics of the body. See the catalog in AJF’s Library.

DOURIEAN FLETCHER WILL PRODUCE JEWELRY FOR BLACK PANTHER 2

Fletcher‘s designs for the first movie received much media attention. The sequel will release in November 2022.

PORTRAIT STONES MAKE A COMEBACK

The thin, flat stones are minimally faceted, with a transparent glasslike appearance. “There’s something quite irreverent about using a diamond that isn’t cut in a way to maximize its sparkle,” says jewelry designer Eva Zuckerman. “I think it’s a little rebellious.” How rebellious?  Take a look. Hey, does that look like actress Amy Adams’s eye to you?

IN ARETA WILKINSON’S KA TAKA TE WĀ – TIME PASSED, TIME IS RECORDED THROUGH OBJECT MAKING

Each work charts a day of lockdown early in 2020, 36 in total. Punctuating a timeline along the length of Objectspace’s wall, the artist presents a relational whakapapa, where each singular piece relates to the other while calling back to former makers, ancestors, and tūpuna. See it in Garland.

FORBES MAGAZINE FEATURES UTE DECKER

The artist got a write-up on the occasion of her London show. “Ute’s jewelry appeals because it stands out and is also easy—her pieces can be worn just as well with jeans as an Issey Miyake dress,” says her gallerist, who encourages visitors to try the jewelry on, rather than admire it under glass. “If you don’t try them on, they won’t wake up.” Read the story.

MODERN-DAY GOLD RUSH?

As we face inflation, multiple democracies in crisis, and the lingering effects of a pandemic, is it any surprise a modern-day gold rush seems on? Read “The Irresistible Glitter of Gold,” with quotes from studio jeweler Pat Flynn, curator Jeannine Falino, and the curator of Gold in America, at the Yale University Art Gallery, among others.

DREAM BIGGER AND CHANGE THE WORLD

The story of jeweler Jacqueline Rabun’s global success and her return home to California.

SOMETIMES KNOWLEDGE SHUTS DOORS TO EXPLORATION

So says Carin Jones, who was interviewed for The Queue. The former zookeeper unites ethically obtained animal bones and skulls, delicate leaves, and gemstones in her jewelry. Meet the artist.

LARIMAR: AS BLUE AS THE CRYSTAL-CLEAR CARIBBEAN

The semi-precious stone is found only in the Dominican Republic, so you may not have heard about it. Learn more.

CHECK OUT SOTHEBY’S TIARA EXHIBITION

The pieces shown in Power & Image reflect successive design evolutions prompted by monarchic taste, societal shifts, and the influence from other art forms, through to contemporary jewelers redefining tiaras today. In London, through June 28, 2022. Not traveling there? Check out the online exhibition (scroll down to see all the tiaras).

SUMMER’S PERFECT FOR GRILLIN’…

… and hopefully it won’t be your—wait for it—last supper! Gabby Elan Jewelry was established in 1991 by Gabby Pinhasov, who immigrated to the US from Israel as a dental technician with no jewelry background. He noticed that gold teeth, or grillz, were popular in the urban scene. Spotted on NYCJW’s Instagram.

The post OMG, Have You Heard appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

June 2022, Part 2

There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…

• You got that hard-earned promotion—celebrate!
• You’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime occasion—honor it.
• You wrapped up that major accomplishment—pay it tribute.
• You want to mark the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one—commemorate it.
• Perhaps it’s an investment—do it!
• It’s the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection—pounce!
• Or maybe it’s as a treat for yourself—just because.

Art Jewelry Forum’s international gallery supporters celebrate and exhibit art jewelry. Our monthly On Offer series allows this extensive network of international galleries to showcase extraordinary pieces personally selected to tempt and inspire you. Take a look. You’re bound to find a fantastic piece you simply have to add to your collection! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)

Gallery: Gallery Loupe
Contact: Patti Bleicher
Artist: Yutaka Minegishi
Retail price: US$3,200

Yutaka Minegishi studied metalwork at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, in Tokyo, before moving to Germany, where he was a guest student at Fachhochschule, in Pforzheim. From 1996–2002, he studied under Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, from which he received a graduate degree in 2003. He has exhibited widely, including three solo shows at the prestigious Galerie Wittenbrink, in Munich, and group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria; and at Project Space as part of Radiant Pavilion, at RMIT University, Melbourne. Minegishi is the recipient of several awards, including DAAD Preis (2003); Bayerischer Staatspreis (2014); and Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt (2016), Munich. He is in several important collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Stichting Françoise van den Bosch, Amsterdam; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo; Muzeum Českého Ráje, Turnov, Czech Republic; and Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich. In 2019 Minegishi was included in Schmuck, at the IHM, in Munich, where he was a recipient of the coveted Herbert Hofmann Prize.

Gallery: Galerie Spektrum
Contact: Jürgen Eickhoff
Artist: Detlef Thomas
Retail price: US$5,000

Detlef Thomas’s theme was “the ultimate ring.” For him, it meant reducing the “ring” to its essentials. And he came to a very good result.

Gallery: Thereza Pedrosa Gallery
Contact: Thereza Pedrosa
Artist: Maria Rosa Franzin
Retail price: €430

Maria Rosa Franzin often uses ancient techniques and materials in her work. Her close relationship with the world of art has greatly influenced her jewelry, and from the very beginning she adopted a unique pictorial approach.

Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h
Artist: Kaori Juzu
Retail price: Each CAN$560

“108 points of view.” This corpus refers to a significant number in Buddhism. All over Japan at midnight on New Year’s eve, Buddhist temples ring their bells a total of 108 times to free human beings from their Kleshas, or 108 defilements. Kaori Juzu drew her inspiration from this ritual to create 108 unique miniature wearable artworks (which can be worn as earrings or pins) by conforming to a self-imposed rule. During the lockdown caused by the coronavirus crisis, she re-used remaining and left over materials from previous works, as a way to materialize a purifying process, an artistic path to resilience.

Gallery: Platina Stockholm
Contact: Sofia Björkman
Artist: Julia Walter
Retail price: US$2,000

Julia Walter works with condensed form for complex matters where intuitive drawings create her motifs. She likes to play with the vision and wants to leave space for the wearer of the work. This pendant is made of reconstructed lapis lazuli. The size is big, as if it could be a real snake. Do you dare to wear it? Walter is a jewelry artist based in Amsterdam.

Gallery: Galerie Marzee
Contact: Marie-José van den Hout
Artist: Jonathan Boyd
Retail price: €1,325

Jonathan Boyd’s latest work is a continuation of his earlier work where texts were incorporated into typesetting as if they came right out of the printing press. Computer technology and electroforming now make it possible to incorporate written text into his jewelry. His current exhibition, Emergent Dialogues of the Topophilic Line, is on display at Galerie Marzee until June 15, 2022. Parts of the exhibition will be on display at Schmuck – Frame, in Munich, from July 6–10, 2022.

Gallery: Galeria Reverso
Contact: Paula Crespo
Artist: Lauren Kalman
Retail price: €485

The symbols in Icons of the Flesh are abstractions that point toward the body and prompt the viewer to question the complicated process of identity-building. These notions are contrasted by the representation of sexualized body parts and genitalia. Works in this series are described as badges, collars, and buttons, rather than necklaces or brooches—allusions to wearable communication devices as seen in military use or in political movements. There is also levity in their form, as they are almost naive in their simplified rendering of anatomy.

Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center
Contact: Shane Prada
Artist: April Wood
Retail price: US$525

April Wood is a metalsmith living and working in Baltimore, MD. A co-founder of the Baltimore Jewelry Center, April received her BFA in studio art, with a concentration in metals & jewelry from Texas State University – San Marcos and her MFA from Towson University. Wood has taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Penland School of Crafts, Idyllwild Arts Academy, and Towson University. Her work has been featured in Metalsmith, Surface Design Journal, and Sculpture. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Austin Museum of Art and SIERAAD International Art Jewelry Fair, in Amsterdam.

Gallery: Four Gallery
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson
Artist: Flóra Vági
Retail price: €400

Flóra Vági works mostly in natural materials like paper or, as in this case, wood. In her hands the materials develop into something new. It is as if she is giving water to a seed that grows to be a tree or a flower; covering a worm in silk, making it become a butterfly; or lighting a log on fire, turning it into a black piece of coal. She finds and brings out the soul of the material, and she gives it a new identity.

Gallery: Fingers Gallery
Contact: Lisa Higgins
Artist: Sharon Fitness
Retail price: NZ$445

Sharon Fitness explores the concept of “jewelry-ness,” testing the fine line between everyday objects and wearable jewelry. “Mind Switch 2020—helping you change the perspective on all sorts of things.”

Fitness graduated from MIT School of Visual Arts in 2007, majoring in contemporary jewelry. She has exhibited in many exhibitions throughout New Zealand and internationally, including Wunderruma (Munich, 2014; Auckland, 2016), Attitude as Form (Sydney, 2015) and Medusa: Jewellery and Taboos (Paris, 2017). She contributes to the jewelry collaboration Handshake. Fitness lives and works near Auckland, and believes in saving the world … “one brooch at a time.”

Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra
Contact: Tereza Seabra
Artist: Marta Costa Reis
Retail price: €80 each, plus shipping

“There are images that survive over time and whose significance doesn’t survive with them,” says Marta Costa Reis. “The historical and archeological records show us objects and symbols whose meaning has faded away. There is something inherently mysterious in that lost past, in our perceptions of what we no longer understand. The symbols of our own time will also be part of that group of mysterious images in a future we don’t have access to. We can’t know how the simple or complex things of our daily lives will be looked upon, the same way our gaze into the past is full of uncertainty. The feeling that there is something behind the veils of reality, which we can perhaps grasp, is part of that fascination, even if it is all a figment of our imagination. In this series of works I chose objects and shapes that interest me and played with them, making them familiar and finally usable. Some will be recognizable, some not so much. They are a moment in time, in a history we will never fully know. These pieces are question marks.”

Gallery: Galerie Elsa Vanier
Contact: Elsa Vanier
Artist: Martin Spreng
Retail price: €4,400

In this brooch, the beautiful topaz crystal is underlined by titanium lines and platinum layers. Chiseling and stamping seem to mimic the crystalline structure and offer a geological landscape. Martin Spreng followed a career path from cabinetmaking to jewelry. He usually mixes fine gold, platinum, silver, wood, and crystals. His unique pieces, forged or hammered, reveal a sculptor’s approach, moved by the beauty of precious matters.

The post On Offer appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

More than 100 international artists applied for this year’s Young Artist Award. Marion Delarue was chosen as one of the finalists. She received an unrestricted cash award of US$1,000 and will exhibit her work in Platina’s booth at Schmuck, in July 2022. Her work represents a group of outstanding pieces of contemporary jewelry. We asked her to tell us a bit about her background and thoughts on the future of the art jewelry field. Hers is the third of our interviews with the honorees. (Read the interview with Young Artist Award winner Mallory Weston here. Our interview with finalist Taisha Carrington is here.)

AJF’s Young Artist Award acknowledges promise, innovation, and individuality, advancing the careers of rising artists. The competition was open to makers of wearable art age 35 and under who are not currently enrolled in a professional training program. Judging was based on originality, depth of concept, and quality of craftsmanship. This year’s jurors were 2020 AJF Artist Award winner MJ Tyson (US); collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg (US); and educator and curator Chequita Nahar (The Netherlands).

Bonnie Levine: How did you become interested in jewelry? What inspires your work?  

Marion Delarue: I have always been a great fan of objects, but jewelry was very special. When I turned 15, I dreamt I would one day attend the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg (today called HEAR), which was the only French graduate art school to have a master’s degree in contemporary jewelry. (The École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Limoges now also runs such a program.)

Funnily enough, once I was admitted, I wondered whether I wanted to join the ceramics department to become a sculptress instead. But very quickly I found using one single material very frustrating. On top of that, I felt I couldn’t pay as much attention to details as I wished, given the size of the works.

I soon returned to my first love. Led by Sophie Hanagarth and Florence Lehmann, the contemporary jewelry department was a perfect fit: a conceptual approach, great freedom, and endless experimentations. We also had unlimited access to all the other workshops, such as ceramics, glass, wood, and so on. This was really important to me as I was—already at that time—avoiding metal work, because I had no affinity with the material (unless it is metal that doesn’t get along with me?) and enjoyed choosing the materials most fitting for each piece.

What does being a finalist mean for you? Will it influence you going forward?

Marion Delarue: Being a finalist means a lot to me. I feel really honored. I have been applying for 10 years, since I was a student. I’ve kept an eye on the competition. This year was my last chance to apply!

I hope that being a finalist will be a stepping-stone to a long-lasting relationship with the US art jewelry field. (I visited for the first time in 2019, as part of NYCJW, and I absolutely loved it!)

Tell us about the work you applied with.  

Marion Delarue: My work often creates confusion between authenticity and imitation, nature and artifice, referencing simulacrum, false pretenses, and lures.

The two projects I applied with illustrate this idea in different ways.

The first project is the latest piece from my series Parrot Devotees. The idea of artifice and duplicity is embodied here through the very image of the parrot. “Every human being has a parrot on his shoulder (…),” said Cocteau about imitation.

A barnyard fowl swoons with admiration and jealousy over a parrot: the incredibly beautiful bird enjoys a special intimacy with its master, whose shoulder he perches on to converse. In a desire to pass themselves off as the parrot, the poultry birds organize themselves and put together their most beautiful feathers to re-create the illusion of his presence.

The second project is the fruit of research done while I was in an artist residency at Villa Kujoyama, in Japan, in 2019. During the Edo period, Japanese women used quite specific objects to support their imposing hairstyles: Kushis (combs), Kogais (hair sticks), and Kanzashis (hairpins), whose utilitarian function lessened until they became purely ornamental. Throughout my six-month residency in Kyoto—the heart of refinement in the arts and the cradle of hair accessories—I strived to define the singularities and specificities of these exceptional objects, focusing on the most characteristic quality: the decoration.

This series has been conceived from bone, wood, shell, stone, and horse hoof. These are materials of natural origin traditionally used for making Japanese hair ornaments. (I excluded ivory, coral, and turtle shell for ethical and regulatory reasons.) The aim is to search within these “raw materials” for decorative features inherent to them, to harness their “natural patterns” and their unusual chromatic shades: to reveal the unexpected in the familiar. Playing with the confusion between the natural and the ornamental, the pieces create ambiguity and destabilize the viewer.

What excites you about the art jewelry field?   

Marion Delarue: Because the field is so niche, every project you run quickly becomes international. Your jewelry friends usually come from all around the world and you need to travel to attend the events dedicated to the field. You wouldn’t do much, working only in your own country (especially in France, where the scene is largely under-represented). Funnily enough, despite, or rather because of its size, the playing ground is huge!

Also, I am fascinated by the diversity of materials and techniques used, as well as the creativity I encounter every day. You can never get bored. I think this is quite unique.

Any frustrations that you see or have experienced?  

Marion Delarue: I wish there were more theorists and art critics specialized in the field. I am convinced that they could become an important facet in the process of questioning and understanding art jewelry. They would surely greatly support the expansion and the vigor of the field.

Where do you think the art jewelry field is going? Do you see new and exciting trends?

Marion Delarue: I have the feeling that its exposure and recognition are growing year after year, thanks to prizes such as this one. Sure, there is still education to be done, and I hope the general public will be sensitized to this field like it is to other art fields. But I think we are on the right track!

If you could write a master plan for your practice, where would you like to be five years from now?

Marion Delarue: This will probably sound both terribly pretentious and ludicrous if none of this happens, but let’s give it a try.

I hope to have my own studio in the countryside around Paris, fully equipped with complex machines inside, and two longhaired goats, a dog, a duck pond, and, last but not least, fruit trees at the doorstep. I hope I’ll get a chance to work again in Japan, a country which I found incredibly inspiring. I hope to have an opportunity to go back to New York to research or to exhibit. I hope I’ll be part of artist residencies around Europe, particularly in Sweden and in the Netherlands, which I’ve visited couple of times and where I met incredible people. I mostly hope not to look ridiculous in 2027.

The post Checking In with Marion Delarue appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

July 2022, Part 1

There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…

• You got that hard-earned promotion—celebrate!
• You’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime occasion—honor it.
• You wrapped up that major accomplishment—pay it tribute.
• You want to mark the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one—commemorate it.
• Perhaps it’s an investment—do it!
• It’s the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection—pounce!
• Or maybe it’s as a treat for yourself—just because.

Art Jewelry Forum’s international gallery supporters celebrate and exhibit art jewelry. Our monthly On Offer series allows this extensive network of international galleries to showcase extraordinary pieces personally selected to tempt and inspire you. Take a look. You’re bound to find a fantastic piece you simply have to add to your collection! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)

Gallery: Tereza Seabra
Contact: Tereza Seabra
Artist: Bettina Speckner
Retail price: €2,800, plus shipping

“In my work I am particularly fond of photographs,” says Bettina Speckner. “Sometimes they are old and show bygone places or people of times past, but quite often I use photos I took myself of trunks, flowers, lonesome lanes, or landscapes. These pictures turn into pieces of jewelry. To turn photos into gems, the motifs are etched on small metal plates or burned on enamel. Combined with precious or nonprecious stones and objects, they become part of an individual composition. I never work with the intention to decorate things or to make them look prettier. I try to discover the soul of an object or the essence of a photograph and want to shape something new, beyond the visual appearance. My pieces do not talk about situations but give a kind of access to their ‘own’ stories. But who owns them? We, the beholder, or the piece itself?” This brooch is part of Speckner’s solo exhibition, Navegar É Preciso.

Gallery: Galeria Reverso
Contact: Paula Crespo
Artist: Daniel Kruger
Retail price: €4,680

The mastery of the great artist Daniel Kruger shows in a pendant necklace made of intricately painted silver strips that cross almost randomly and give the piece that “feeling of looking old, as if it has always existed” so characteristic of Kruger’s work, and so to his taste.

Gallery: Galerie Marzee
Contact: Marie-José van den Hout
Artist: Carla Nuis
Retail price: €5,100 (includes VAT)

Carla Nuis’s daughter Bloem (Flower) proudly wears one of the PlumFlower-necklaces from her mother’s exhibition, currently on display at Galerie Marzee. This new necklace stems from Nuis’s 2014 Golden Cuddles-series, Flower Brooch 1 (also for sale at Galerie Marzee for €1,100, including VAT), made using the artist’s children’s drawings of flowers. “The new collection comprises four series of necklaces made from European fruit tree wood,” says Nuis. “Wood is pure, solid, and tender, just like precious metal. My form language is continued in reverse. Whereas in previous collections I formed hollow objects from gold and silver plate, the necklaces from fruit tree wood were created by removing excess material. This releases the piece of jewellery from its block of wood. An unprocessed precious metal alloy is impersonal and cold; only the forging makes it into a jewel. Each piece of wood, on the other hand, already has its own character. It has lived, has borne fruit, has its own compactness and fiery drawings. The challenge is to preserve that character when working—by finding the right cuts and chop surfaces, the wood grain, a crack. With each cut, there is always the risk of [it] being [one] too many, of breaking. Wood forging requires sharp craftsmen’s tools. The designs expand on themes in my earlier work, such as baroque pearls—in LittlePotatoes (2004) and RedPotatoes (2007)—and children’s drawings—in Golden Cuddles (2014) and FlowerRing (2019). I have ‘sculpted’ my previous shapes. The wood is not sanded and [is left] untreated to keep [its] rawness.” The current exhibitions at Galerie Marzee—featuring Stefano Marchetti, Carla Nuis, Sondra Sherman, Luisa Kuschel, and Peleg Matityahu—will be on display until August 27, 2022. Galerie Marzee is at Schmuck FRAME 2022 at the IHM July 6–10, 2022.

Gallery: Galerie Spektrum
Contact: Jürgen Eickhoff
Artist: Ramon Puig Cuyàs
Retail price: €1,200

Ramon Puig Cuyàs’s new series has lots of desire and romance in its artistic expression. At the same time, it is very fresh and optimistic—something we need in these times.

Gallery: Sculpture To Wear
Contact: Lisa M. Berman
Artist: Greg Orloff
Retail price: US$80,000

The Twisted corset is the grand prize winner of the international exhibition Wearable Expressions, hosted at Rancho Palos Verdes Art Center, CA, in 2017 and curated by Gabriella. This artwork was painstakingly created by twisting heavy-gauge steel wire into “metal thread” with accents of brass to create a wearable corset/body armor. The piece is especially poignant now, with the overturning of Roe v Wade. Women’s bodies are bound like a human chastity belt/covering to shield themselves from the government’s “devices.”

Gallery: Platina Stockholm
Contact: Sofia Björkman
Artist: Felieke van der Leest
Retail price: US$2,000

This necklace was made for the exhibition Pictureware, held at the SIERAAD Art Fair, international jewellery design fair 2022. Extranalities is a group of established jewelry artists who challenge each other with unusual assignments. The participants sent each other something unattractive from their own possessions to turn into something beautiful, for example. And vice versa. All kinds of assignments, even entire mood boards, ended up on the workbenches of unsuspecting colleagues. This time an old jewelry photo and the captions were the inspiration for this piece.

Gallery: Fingers Gallery
Contact: Lisa Higgins
Artist: Cheryl Sills
Retail price: NZ$250–$290

Cheryl Sills’s fascination with combining the traditional with the modern started during her four-year honours degree course in Dundee, Scotland. “I enjoy the process of making,” she says, “of building and constructing three-dimensional objects. My current body of work explores the faceted form. I am constantly trying to evolve this concept by using alternative materials and inventing different methods of construction.” Sills lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is a member of Workshop 6, an artist-run jewelry initiative based in the city.

Gallery: Galerie Door
Contact: Doreen Timmers
Artist: Hartog & Henneman
Retail price: €350

A witty, lightweight connection from the Dutch artist duo Hartog & Henneman, this buckle is part of the exhibition Buckle Up, at Galerie Door. The show is part of Munich Jewellery Week and on display July 6–10, 2022, at Seidlvilla, Nikolaiplatz 1b, in Munich, Germany.

Gallery: Gallery Loupe
Contact: Patti Bleicher
Artist: Yutaka Minegishi
Retail price: US$4,800

Yutaka Minegishi studied metalwork at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, in Tokyo, before moving to Germany, where he was a guest student at Fachhochschule, in Pforzheim. From 1996–2002, he studied under Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, from which he received a graduate degree in 2003. He has exhibited widely, including three solo shows at the prestigious Galerie Wittenbrink, in Munich; and group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria and at Project Space as part of Radiant Pavilion, at RMIT University, Melbourne. Minegishi is the recipient of several awards, including DAAD Preis (2003); Bayerischer Staatspreis (2014); and Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt (2016), Munich. He is in several important collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Stichting Françoise van den Bosch, Amsterdam; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo; Muzeum Českého Ráje, Turnov, Czech Republic; and the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich. In 2019 Minegishi was included in Schmuck, at the IHM, in Munich, where he was a recipient of the coveted Herbert Hofmann Prize.

Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center
Contact: Shane Prada
Artist: Anja Eichler
Retail price: US$550

Anja Eichler is a Berlin-based jewelry artist who recently completed a three-month, mid-career residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. About this body of work, Eichler says, “Hardware Plus is about looking beyond the obvious, imagining something beautiful in the ordinary. Wearable objects made from hardware plus enamel, named in honor of the shop Hardware Plus on Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Avenue and the avenue itself.”

Gallery: Quittenbaum Gallery
Contact: Claudia Quittenbaum
Artist: Helga Zahn
Retail price: €5,400

We are very pleased to show you an exhibition of around 30 works by Helga Zahn on the occasion of Munich Jewellery Week. All the jewelry objects and silk-screen prints come from the estate, administered by the family, to whom we are deeply indebted. This necklace is a perfect example of Zahn’s jewelry development. Her works have been characterized by great creative freedom and innovative processing of simple basic materials such as silver, sheet silver, pebbles, and gemstones such as agates.

Gallery: Jewelers’werk Galerie
Contact: Ellen Reiben
Artist: Kimiaki Kageyama
Retail price: US$6,800

A treasure.

Gallery: Galerie Elsa Vanier
Contact: Elsa Vanier
Artist: Marianne Anselin
Retail price: €3,120

“Springs, gears, spanners, washers … collected during my wanderings,” says Marianne Anselin. “Objects of our daily life which hold my attention because they inspire me: maybe because they are beautiful or maybe because they have become useless to our society … They carry a story, made from our earth, used to make, eat, work, move forward, live,and they don’t appear to me as waste at all. Twisting, putting a silver ball where it pricks, inserting a stone to give it a look. I question the jewel, I am pushing the borders established by the classic codes but keeping in mind the first function of the jewel: to adorn the body, and make others read a story about it.”

Gallery: Thereza Pedrosa Gallery
Contact: Thereza Pedrosa
Artist: Nicolas Estrada
Retail price: €1,090

The subjects that Nicolas Estrada takes inspiration from for his pieces directly address the humanity and sensibility of those who view them. His pieces do not seek to defend or take positions on situations that are undeniably central and significant in his country and his continent. Instead, they are the pure and clear gaze of an artist who seeks, through the tools offered by his artistic work, to provide new perspectives.

Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h
Artist: Silvia Walz
Retail price: CAN$1,360

Silvia Walz materializes emotions much more than a conventional representation of nature.

“Impressions of nature.
Shapes, lines and colors.
Movement through the wind and the falling rain.
Fascination and meditation at the same time.”

Gallery: Four Gallery
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson
Artist: Sanna Svedestedt Carboo
Retail price: €950

Sanna Svedestedt Carboo works with leather, a material strongly connected to traditional Scandinavian craft. She treats the leather with ancient techniques in search of a contemporary look. The expression is fragile, but the material is strong.

The post On Offer appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

July 2022, Part 1

Art Jewelry Forum is pleased to share the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, news, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on YOUR participation. If you’re a member of AJF at the Silver level or above, you can add news and ideas to this bi-monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJFhere.
Listings gathered with assistance from Carrie Yodanis.

JOIN AJF AT SCHMUCK FOR THESE EVENTS

AJF will be there with: a joint book presentation by AJF and Arnoldsche: Taming the Beast. Silver by Earl Krentzin (presented by Dirk Allgaier), In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture: Political Jewelry in the 1960s and 1970s (AJF/Susan Cummins), Eleanor Moty: Quiet Elegance  (Matthew Drutt), North by Northwest: The Jewelry of Laurie Hall (AJF/Susan Cummins); Friday, July 8, 2022,10am – 12pm, Galerie Handwerk, auditorium, 80333 München, Max-Josef-Str. 4, Tel. +49 089 5119 298. AJF in Conversation: Collecting: The Next Generation. Detailed information is coming soon. Saturday, July 9, 2022, 10am-12pm, coffee/pastries included, Galerie Handwerk, auditorium, 80333 München, Max-Josef-Str. 4, Tel. +49 089 5119 298. AJF Presents the 2022 Young Artist Award Winner: Join AJF as we introduce and celebrate winner Mallory Weston. We’ll also give a brief slide show of the four finalists’ work at the IHM (Internationale Handwerksmesse) Main Stage on Saturday, July 9, 5:15 p.m. This important biennial competition offers a prize of US$7,500 for the winner and US$1,000 for each finalist, as well as an exhibition at Platina Stockholm during Schmuck.

FEEL LIKE SEEING A JEWELRY SHOW?

Find these listings and many, many more on our dedicated exhibition page:

• Galaxy by Kimiaki Kageyama (shown at left), at Jewelers’Werk Gallery, Washington, DC, through July 15, 2022
• Gésine Hackenberg, Jeannette Jansen, Julia Maria Künnap, and Takayoshi Terajima, at ViceVersa, Lausanne, Switzerland, through July 23, 2022
• Tatjana Giorgadse’s solo exhibition, at Galerie Door, Mariaheide, The Netherlands, through July 30, 2022
• Stefano Marchetti, Carla Nuis, Sondra Sherman, Luisa Kuschel and Peleg Mercedes Matityahu, at Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, through August 28, 2022
• Iris Eichenberg: Where Words Fail, at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, through October 30, 2022
• Jewelry Stories: Highlights from the Collection 194–Now, at Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, July 12, 2022–April 16, 2023

FROM OUR MEMBERS

BUCKLE UP FOR A WILD RIDE WITH GALLERY DOOR!

The “buckle” in the exhibition’s title refers to belts and pins, Roman fibulae, and other beautiful jewels we use to fasten our clothes. The jewelry and other art pieces on display will have a wide range, varying from literal belts and clasps to pieces that are more conceptually connected to the theme. Hosted at Seidlvilla (Nikolaiplatz 1b; take U6 – Giselastrasse) during Schmuck/Munich Jewellery Week, July 5–10, 2022. Info.

LISA M. BERMAN’S EXHIBITION WEARABLE ART: A CATALYST FOR CONVERSATION IS NOW ON VIEW
Throughout history jewelry, wearable art has been used to convey nonverbal messages, whether marital status, social commentary, a celebration of notable events, or a direct political stance. Often wearable art has a more profound message than what initially meets the eye. Chief curator at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center & Museum and renowned Sculpture To Wear gallerist Lisa M. Berman has put together an eye-popping exhibition of award-winning artists who convey messages with their creative art. Features work by Teri Brudnak, Bridget Parlato, The Vigneri’s, Marc Cohen, 2Roses, Greg Orloff, Swinda Reichelt, Stevie Love, Lonna Keller, Sherri Madison -The Cardboard Queen (from the HBO show), and Emma Trask, founder of Chrysalis Lab and stylist to Carrie Underwood. Painter Deborah Paswaters Gorgeous “Goddess” diptych painting is also on view/for sale. A portion of the sales benefit the 42 educational programs at the non-profit MUCK. Now through July 16, 2022. Info.

THE JEWELRY JOURNEY INTERVIEWED CAROLINE MORRISSEY

The podcast with the director and head of jewelry at Bonhams in New York is called The Intangible Beauty of Gemstones.

CRAFTING A STATEMENT: HOW TO TALK AND WRITE ABOUT YOUR WORK

For many artists, writing an artist statement seems daunting at worst, complicated at best. This four-week class aims to demystify the process of writing an artist statement and find ways to better communicate the concepts behind the work. Shane Prada will teach the workshop at the Baltimore Jewelry Center on Mondays, August 8–29, 2022, 6:30–8:30. Online and in person. Register.

ORIZZONTE D’AUTORE BIENNIAL

Conceived by Thereza Pedrosa, the biennial includes a group exhibition, a Giampaolo Babetto retrospective, a lifetime achievement award, book presentations, an artist’s talk by Giovanni Corvaja, a guided tour by Eliana Negroni, and several conferences. At the Civic Museum of Asolo, in Italy through July 24, 2022. Info on Instagram; museum website.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION: JEWELLERY & GARMENT

This exhibition project, presented within the context of Frankfurt Fashion Week, links contemporary author jewelry to avant-garde fashion of the 90s. Curated by Svenja John and Petra Zimmermann. At the Bröhan Museum, Berlin, July 8, 2022­–January 15, 2023. Website; museum website.

45 STORIES WILL REOPEN AS JEWELRY STORIES: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION 1947-NOW

If you missed 45 Stories, you get another opportunity to see it! Jewelry Stories is the same show in the same space. At the Museum of Arts and Design, in NYC, July 12, 2022–April 16, 2023.

MALLORY WESTON IS A JUROR FOR THE WIND FELLOWSHIP 2022

The fellowship serves artists under 30, providing one year of artist membership at InLiquid—an organization that provides free contemporary art programming throughout Philadelphia—plus extensive marketing, career services, an exhibition, and more. Weston won the 2022 AJF Young Artist Award.

SCHMUCK // JEWELRY 2012_2022 ON VIEW AT PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE

See donations and acquisitions from the last 10 years. Most of these are being showcased in an exhibition for the first time. At the entrance to Die Neue Sammlung, through July 10, 2022.

THE LOCATION SERVICES EXHIBITION PRESENTS PERSPECTIVES ON PLACE

The crafting of jewelry and objects is a means to profoundly support and express identity. Motoko Furuhashi, Kerianne Quick, and Demitra Thomloudis observe site, place, and origin within historical and contemporary contexts of craft and the inseparable bond place has to individuality, society, and culture. At the Craft in America Center, June 25–September 10, 2022. Info.

EVENTS

LISA M. BERMAN WILL MODERATE AN ARTIST PANEL

Hear from jewelers Teri Brudnak (TMD Studios), 2Roses (Corliss and John), Greg Orloff, costume designer Swinda Reichelt and—just added!—Sherri Madison, aka The Cardboard Queen (from the HBO show), and Emma Trask, founder of Chrysalis Lab and stylist to Carrie Underwood. The ultimate makers/artist panel will be moderated by Lisa M. Berman, of Sculpture To Wear gallery and chief curator at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center & Museum. A portion of the sales benefit the 42 education programs at the MUCK, a nonprofit. July 16, 2022, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. RSVP here.

Pop-up sale: Work from the panel and other artists: Marianna Baker, Marc Cohen, Bridget Parlato, Stevie Love, Lonna Keller, Yves Amu Klein, and the Vigneri’s, from 12–2 p.m.

ART WEAR EXHIBITION

Features contemporary jewelry by 24 Dutch jewelry designers selected by the Haarlem jewelry collective. The relationship to the body is the connecting element in the works on display. Photos were taken especially for this exhibition showing the pieces worn by artists from other disciplines. At Industrial Museum Jakob Bengel, in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, through October 6, 2022.

HARD ROCK SUMMIT

The Hard Rock Summit calls itself the most significant US trade show in fall. Both Evolution, the fair’s mineral and fossils section, or Sparkle&Joy, dedicated to fine jewelry and gemstones, are open to trade professionals and the general public. In Denver, CO, September 8–11, 2022.

STOCKHOLM CRAFT WEEK—OCTOBER 6–9, 2022

Last year’s program offered visitors more than 100 craft events around the city and nearby. Info.

SYDNEY CRAFT WEEK—OCTOBER 7–16, 2022

Celebrates creativity and the handmade in all its forms. Creates the opportunity for the whole community to engage with craft, experience the benefits of making, and purchase local handmade work. 2022’s theme: the climate emergency that the planet faces. Events will focus on sustainable practice and making a difference for the environment. Info.

MILANO JEWELRY WEEK—OCTOBER 20–23, 2022

Through different types of events, Milano Jewelry Week will create moments of exchange that will return a fascinating and accessible image of the jewel even to non-experts who can easily get passionate. Takes place at exclusive and evocative locations in the city. October 20–23, 2022.

GOLDSMITHS’ FAIR CELEBRATES 40 YEARS IN EXISTENCE

From wire work to 3D printing, traditional goldsmithing to intricate engraving, the 136 exhibitors from the UK combine ancient techniques with modern-day technologies. At Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, September 27­–October 9, 2022. Info.

BUDAPEST JEWELRY WEEK: SEPTEMBER 12–18, 2022

Info.

ROMANIAN JEWELRY WEEK: OCTOBER 6–9, 2022

Applications are now open to designers in Romania and worldwide—emerging as well as established artists. Deadline: June 17, 2022. Learn more.

ISRAEL BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY: NOVEMBER 10–14, 2022

Hosted by the Geological Museum, in Ramat Hasharon. AJF is an official sponsor. Info.

OPPORTUNITIES

DO YOU HAVE CURATORIAL AMBITIONS? A GREAT IDEA FOR AN EXHIBITION?

The Baltimore Jewelry Center is currently seeking exhibition proposals for its 2023/2024 gallery schedule. Proposals are not limited to jewelry and might include thematic exhibitions or exhibitions showcasing an artist or group of artists. They want exhibitions that explore the gallery setting in an unexpected way, seek to place jewelry and craft within a larger context and expand connections in our community at large. The goal is to demonstrate unique curatorial viewpoints, expose their audience to fresh and emerging makers and ideas, and present art jewelry and metalsmithing in a broader art context. They’re especially excited to see proposals that create a diverse and inclusive gallery space in order to elevate underrepresented voices. Deadline: July 8, 2022. Info. Email with any questions.

TAKE A BROOCH WORKSHOP WITH VICKI MASON

You’ll learn how to make a colorful textile brooch using simple knotting techniques. Work with beautifully colored hemp cord, knotting, and stitching to create a unique brooch that you can wear immediately. August 27, 2022, 10:00–3:30, at The Windsor Workshop, in Prahran, Australia. Info.

APPLY FOR THE HALSTEAD GRANT

For this annual award for emerging silver jewelry artists, applicants submit answers to 15 business questions + their design portfolios. The experience is designed to help jewelry entrepreneurs create a strategy to kick-start their careers. $7,500 cash grant plus other benefits. Postmark deadline: August 1, 2022. Info.

ARTIST CALL FOR ADOC VII CONTEMPORARY GOLDSMITHING EXHIBITION

The VII Contemporary Goldsmithing Exhibition, presented by AdOC, will take place at the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas of Madrid, within the Madrid Design Festival, simultaneously with the Semana del Arte-ARCO. Its goal: the international diffusion and promotion of contemporary goldsmithing and jewelry design. Deadline: September 13, 2022. Info. Application form.

DO YOU MAKE WOOD JEWELRY?

If so, apply for the James Renwick Alliance for Craft (JRACraft) Chrysalis Award for Emerging Artists. This year’s focus is wood. $5,000 unrestricted award, plus other perks. Deadline: August 1, 2022. Info.

PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFT WINTER RESIDENCIES

A short-term residency for artists seeking to work independently in one of Penland’s 16 studios during the quiet season. Practicing artists of all backgrounds and at any stage of their career are encouraged to apply for a 2-week or 4-week session. Shared studio access is provided. Residents’ time is their own; there are no workshops, critiques, or required activities. Application deadline: August 1, 2022. Info.

OPEN CALL: JUST IN MY HEAD EXHIBITION

The jewelry objects must be thematically linked to the exhibition title, Just in My Head. The show will take place at Plattform Schmuckkunst, in Graz, Austria, in mid-August. Deadline: July 17, 2022. Info.

2023 QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP PROGRAM NOW TAKING APPLICATIONS 

The program supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists in four different creative fields: film, literature, performance, and visual art. Deadline: July 31, 2022. Info.

APPLY FOR THE GLOBAL DESIGN GRADUATE SHOW IN COLLABORATION WITH GUCCI

Yes, THAT Gucci! Open to all art and design undergraduate or postgraduate students internationally who graduated in academic year 2021–2022. Note that jewelry is specifically called out as a category. Deadline: August 31, 2022. Info.

AUSTRALIANS, APPLY FOR A GRANT FROM THE CULTURAL TRUST

Committed to encouraging excellence and supporting a vibrant, world-class arts scene in Australia, the Cultural Trust offers grants up to $10,000 to assist talented emerging and early career artists to take up professional development opportunities, usually overseas. Deadline: September 6. Info.

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Miriam Mirna Korolkovas is a force of nature. She has been a driving power of Brazilian artistic jewelry for decades. She started as a visual, body, and musical artist who used jewelry as one of her main forms of expression. In the 1980s, she opened one of the first schools in São Paulo. She exerted herself as a devoted teacher and mentor, sharing her knowledge of the intricacies of art jewelry, extending the boundaries of the Brazilian production, and bringing the community of jewelry artists together. Lately, and in addition to her other roles, she has served as a prominent curator of national and international exhibitions. These have already joined the history of contemporary jewelry in the country. I talked to Korolkovas about her extensive career, her plans, and her thoughts on the Brazilian art jewelry scene. Our conversations took place right after the closing (in June 2022) of the sixth exhibition of the REFLECTION series, which took place at A Casa – Museu do Objeto Brasileiro, in São Paulo.

Ana Passos: Miriam, how do you feel after another successful exhibition, one that brought together 36 Brazilian jewelry artists from various regions and backgrounds?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: First, I have to explain the curatorial direction in this edition. I wanted to bring together people who have solid thinking and great experience with those who are just starting out and make very promising works. They are pioneers, like Reny Golcman, the honoree of this edition with a retrospective of six decades of work. Or researchers, like the young Raquel Amin, who worked with me to curate the exhibition.

I wanted to put the references and the future side by side. It’s not a matter of age or precedence, but of relationship with the jewelry universe. I also tried not to repeat names that already participated in previous exhibitions. After all, there have been six exhibitions since 2011. Like new shoots on a large tree, jewelry has a new breath. The growth is exponential and at the same time slow and fast.

I’m delighted with the result! There is more representation. The audience is growing.

As a researcher, I’m always curious about what makes a person become a jewelry maker. What is the oldest memory you have of a piece of jewelry? I would go even further: Can you establish the circumstance in which your relationship with jewelry began?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: My earliest memory is when my cousin and I played with a kit of plastic bits and pieces, making necklaces and bracelets, probably at age five or six. My relationship with jewelry starts with the gifts I used to receive from my grandmother, of Hungarian Romani origin, and my mother. Jewelry is important among the Romani. I always got a gold piece on special occasions. They were bought from a German lady who sold jewelry door to door. I remember with sadness a chunky pearl ring that I lost when I was young, left on the sink counter of a restaurant.

You are a dancer and a musician, too. Did your experience and knowledge of body expression determine your approach to jewelry? Did your interest in contemporary jewelry come from there?

 Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: My jewelry has color, movement, and sound. My relationship with the body determines my approach. The jewelry is worn by us. Its support is the body in motion. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and anklets benefit from the movement.

There is another aspect to this issue. As an immigrant of European origin, in childhood I felt uncomfortable, different. I had to build a way of being in the world, of integrating myself. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been interested in various aspects of Brazilian culture. There are so many influences. They all have a special relationship with the body. For example, the adornments of native peoples usually make noises when the body moves. An unparalleled colorfulness is another characteristic. My jewelry is the result of all this.

In 1982, you’ve founded Oficina Escola de Joalheria, one of the first schools of art jewelry in São Paulo. What was your motivation?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: I had been teaching in the backyard of my parents’ house for a long time. It was simple. There was a great demand and I decided to formalize this aspect of my professional life. The school was set up based on the metal studios I attended during my high school years in the US and the architecture art labs at university. Artistic jewelry flourished in Brazil. There was great interest. I had 100 students enrolled at one point.

What led you to study architecture and urban planning at university? How did that formal education contribute to your identity as a jewelry artist?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: All my family used to draw and paint. I had an artistic education from the beginning. It was a natural choice. As a second-generation immigrant, I had to have a formal career. I fell in love with geometry, the three-dimensionality of solid forms. My pieces of jewelry began to show a greater concern with the occupation of space and the quality of construction. They started to have volume and sharpness of thought and execution.

You carried out your master’s studies in the US, your PhD studies in Brazil, and your post-doc studies again in the US. What were the themes of your research? Were they reflected in your jewelry practice?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: Colored refractory metals and the influence of native peoples’ adornment production. Solid geometry. The five Platonic solids.

It was an evolution that is visible in two moments. In 2002, I presented the research Object Seed: Poetic Essays with Measure, Proportion, Harmony, and Rhythm. In 2009, it was the time for Seed: An Architectural Study for a Shelter. Both are reflected in the shapes and volumes of jewelry produced since then.

You once wrote that you considered yourself a blacksmith. What was your experience with metals? Do you still work with those materials?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: Since I was a teenager, I’ve worked with multiple materials, but metals—all of them—have always been a predominant medium. I started with lost wax. I worked with silver, copper, brass, and gold. I worked a long time with metal engraving, sculpture, and anything related to metals. Then I specialized in anodized titanium, niobium, and tantalum.

Nowadays, I consider myself more of a carpenter, because of my work with reclaimed wood. The metals are still there, but only as a support.

You have had a great involvement with the cause of Indigenous and riparian populations in the Amazon for many years. How did that happen? Did anything from the jewelry universe permeate this relationship? Did this experience change your relationship with jewelry?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: It all started with an expedition organized by a group of researchers with different specializations. The objective was to get to know extractive reserves. (Note: These are state-owned areas intended for sustainable development through natural resource extraction activities carried out by local populations.) We’d expected to understand how the culture of ancestral extractive activities preserved the social structures and the environment. We also saw illegal logging, gold panning, and digging in the region. Witnessing all those large-scale predatory activities impacted us all forever.

Since then, my role as an activist has emerged in my artwork. I’ve been in the Amazon region on five occasions. I learned a lot about the native people’s way of thinking and working with seeds, wood, and natural fibers.

What are currently your main sources of inspiration, both as maker and as curator?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: Sustainability issues, my findings as an urban collector or urban miner, and the ascendancy of the new generation. My jewelry is my speech as an activist. My work as a curator is to establish a dialogue with the artists and to promote contemporary jewelry.

How would you describe the Brazilian scene in the 21^st century?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: It is vibrant. Many new talents are emerging. However, it remains very concentrated in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais. Other regions struggle to increase their presence. We need more collective projects, exhibitions, and publications to improve our knowledge and its expression. Research and experimentation should be expanded and deepened. Our experience can be enriched by looking at our culture and history. Nowadays, it is still very oriented to the European tradition.

Based on your experience, what is the role of an art jewelry curator when it comes to much-needed audience growth and artist qualification?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: A curator mediates the exhibition experience at all its stages. The artist needs exposure. The public needs clarity. An artist draws growth from being with other artists, learning to present and defend their work, receiving critiques and negative responses, being invited to work with pre-established themes, exchanging knowledge and experiences with other artists and the public.

I also like to mix different artistic expressions because it is challenging and enriching. As for the audience, the exhibitions are a didactic way to introduce the fundamentals of art jewelry and to increase interest by offering high-quality pieces of jewelry.

I imagine you follow the contemporary jewelry scene around the world. In recent times, what has caught your attention the most?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: I really appreciate works that reflect cultural identities, that establish a relationship with ancestry and the land itself. Lately, I’ve seen works with that sensitivity in Finland, Chile, and Japan. Identity is key in understanding contemporaneity.

What would be your advice for those who want to pursue a career in contemporary jewelry?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: Study. The first step is to study history. Art history. And after that the history of jewelry, too. Research. Never stop researching. Tirelessly question your own practice. Get to know your own culture in depth. And, of course, build your own language based on profound knowledge of selected materials, tools, and techniques. It’s a kind of literacy process. It takes an inquisitive spirit that never stops investigating to become a good jewelry artist.

One last question. What would you like to see happen in art jewelry in the near future?

Miriam Mirna Korolkovas: I’d like to see more exchange and collaboration among artists. We need to respect different approaches and expressions. There is a lot of prejudice, which prevents us from exploring new possibilities. I’d like to see even more curiosity and interest about the land we live on and about our ancestry. We should reach broader audiences by truly representing ourselves. I hope I can see the young people take over. We nurture them and we must trust them.

Miriam, thank you so much for this conversation about your career and ideas, and for all the time we’ve spent together. I look forward to your next projects!

The post In Conversation with Miriam Mirna Korolkovas appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

July 2022, Part 2

Art Jewelry Forum is pleased to share the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, news, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on YOUR participation. If you’re a member of AJF at the Silver level or above, you can add news and ideas to this bi-monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJF here.

Listings gathered with assistance from Carrie Yodanis. 

AJF LIVE WITH DOURIEAN FLETCHER: JULY 27, 12 P.M. EST

The multidisciplinary artist Douriean Fletch specializes in metallurgy, precious stones, and overall adornment. Her practice lies where aesthetics and energy work intersect, forging the tools to root and reimagine ourselves according to shared ancestral and cultural traditions. Her work has been featured in the Roots reboot and the films Black Panther, Coming2America, and the upcoming Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever. Through her work, Fletcher invites women to envision themselves as deities of our era and of the future. This event is free and open to all. Register here.

FEEL LIKE SEEING A JEWELRY SHOW?

Find these listings and many, many more on our dedicated exhibition page:

• Plan B, at Ombré Gallery through July 30, 2022. A portion of the sales benefits Planned Parenthood
• Todo lo Que Brilla No Es Oro: The Story of Stones, at Mobilia Gallery through July 31, 2022
• Shakkei—Borrowed Scenery by Mari Ishikawa, at Jewelers’werk Galerie through August 5, 2022
• Namkyung Lee, at Galeria Alice Floriano through August 13, 2022
• Bird, fish or somewhere in between: Karin Roy Andersson and Sofia Björkman, at Not Quite through September 11, 2022

FROM OUR MEMBERS

JEWELRY JOURNEY INTERVIEWED TONI GREENBAUM

The jewelry historian explains why collectors are connecting with modernist jewelry. Once misunderstood as an illegitimate art form, modernist jewelry now fetches five and six-figure prices at auction. It likely wouldn’t have come this far without Greenbaum’s work. Listen to the podcast.

CARINA SHOSHTARY HAS CURATED FASHION FOR BANK ROBBERS

The exhibition will present masks by the jewelry artist, as well as hundreds of photos and videos by artists from around the world who address the subject of the contemporary mask. At Maximiliansforum, in Munich, August 3­–October 16, 2022.

THE JEWELRY & METALSMITHING DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY OF OREGON IS HIRING A VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

This position teaches six courses (in a three-term quarter system) and shares responsibilities for teaching both BFA and graduate students. We hear that the one-year fixed-term mentioned in the job description could well turn into three. Interested? Apply TODAY: The application review begins tomorrow, July 20, 2022.

ARTIST TALK: LOCATION SERVICES

In this virtual panel discussion, Motoko Furuhashi, Kerianne Quick, and Demitra Thomloudi—the artists featured in the Location Services exhibition—will discuss their perspectives on place, site, and origin through the lens of their unique contemporary jewelry practices. August 12, 12­–1 p.m. PST. Register here.

DO YOU KNOW WHO MADE THIS NECKLACE?

Its owner would love to find out, and wrote to the librarian at the American Craft Council. Stumped, the librarian in turn contacted AJF. “My sister purchased this in Carmel, CA, 25 years ago. She unexpectedly [died] and left me this piece,” writes the new owner. “We haven’t found any information about it in her belongings.” The necklace measures 24 inches long and is stamped “925.” If you can identify the maker, email Beth Goodrich.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AT GOLDSCHMITTE  

Taught by Anita Tarnutzer, Barbara Schrobenhauser, and Otto Künzli in Zürich. Info.

CALL TO APPLY: NYC JEWELRY WEEK 2022

The two themes for the fifth anniversary are joy and human connection. The global jewelry community is welcome to join in submitting proposals for compelling and creative programs or events. Info.

SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET: AUGUST 17–21, 2022

For the past century, Santa Fe Indian Market has brought together the most gifted Native American artists from the U.S. It ranks as the world’s largest and most highly acclaimed Native American arts show.

PAGES

BABETTO

With contributions by Fred Jahn, Friedhelm Mennekes, Andrea Nante, and Thereza Pedrosa. Produced in conjunction with a retrospective on the occasion of the 55th jubilee of the Italian artist, as part of Orizzonti d’Autore. See more.

DIAMONDS: THE QUEEN’S COLLECTION, NEW EDITION

Caroline de Guitaut’s book explores the undeniable appeal of diamonds and the many royal uses to which they have been applied throughout the centuries. These precious stones have long played a part in royal ceremonies and gift-giving, and the book features numerous photographs, including close-up views of each piece.”

INTERESTING LINKS

EVA VAN KEMPEN IS AN ARTIVIST

The day US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, Aid Access’s FB feed featured work by Dutch jewelry artist Eva van Kempen: Lady Liberty. The crown is made partly with expired abortion pills. Van Kempen examines the impact of regulation on the recent control humans have over fertility: abortion laws, which act as the thermometer of a democracy and the respect for human rights. Learn more in “The Artivist,” by Ilaria Ruggiero.

JOURNEY CONNOISSEUR PODCAST

Award-winning writer and curator Melanie Grant explains the criteria aficionados of wearable art should keep in mind when looking for pieces to buy. Listen.

THE NYT WROTE ABOUT NON-PRECIOUS METALS IN JEWELRY

The article mentions the use of non-precious, recycled and repurposed materials in jewelry—they’re catching up to us! It includes the work of Eunseok Han and Adele Dejak, among others. Read it here.

COLLECTING ARTIST’S JEWELRY IS FASHIONABLE

Increased attention is being paid to the jewelry made by artists. Read about it in the Financial Times.

UKRAINE

An update on the ongoing daily challenges and survival of jewelers in Ukraine from the New York Times.

THE SMCK ON REEL VIDEOS ARE ONLINE

You can watch them here.

DID CATHERINE OF ARAGON USE JEWELRY TO ASSERT SHE WAS HENRY VIII’S ONLY LEGAL WIFE?

A scholar theorizes that a pendant designed by Hans Holbein was commissioned not by Henry but by Catherine during the period when he was trying to divorce her to marry Anne Boleyn. The design appears in Jewellery Book, a collection of sketches for jewelry and other ornaments held by the British Museum. It’s not clear whether the pendant was ever fabricated. Learn more.

STORAGE AS STYLISH AS YOUR JEWELS

Boxes, trays, mini-shelves. Check out these ideas.

ON THE MACLE

The history and continued popularity of the macle, a rough diamond used in jewelry. Read the article.

AN ARTIST STRINGS, REPAIRS, AND REDESIGNS WITH PEARLS

“I never wanted to string,” said Renata Terjeki. She thought pearl necklaces were the preserve of octagenarians, and stringing was an easy pursuit: “I assumed all they do is just chuck the pearls on a string, tie it somehow, and that’s it.” Wrong.

HEART AND HANDS: THE CLADDAGH RING

In modern times, this piece of jewelry has come to symbolize Ireland. Read about it.

The post OMG, Have You Heard appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

July 2022, Part 2

There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…

• You got that hard-earned promotion—celebrate!
• You’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime occasion—honor it.
• You wrapped up that major accomplishment—pay it tribute.
• You want to mark the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one—commemorate it.
• Perhaps it’s an investment—do it!
• It’s the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection—pounce!
• Or maybe it’s as a treat for yourself—just because.

Art Jewelry Forum’s international gallery supporters celebrate and exhibit art jewelry. Our monthly On Offer series allows this extensive network of international galleries to showcase extraordinary pieces personally selected to tempt and inspire you. Take a look. You’re bound to find a fantastic piece you simply have to add to your collection! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)

Gallery: Zu design – jewellery + objects
Contact: Jane Bowden
Artist: Sim Luttin
Retail price: AUS$4,600

Sim Luttin lives and works in Melbourne as a contemporary jeweler, craftsperson, artist, and arts producer, and also works as curator and gallery manager at Arts Project Australia. She is the co-founder of the international platform Art et al. Having always drawn inspiration from nature, Luttin’s current interest is in exploring year-long time-based projects that respond to the everyday to create elevated and conceptual bodies of work. She has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and has work in public and private collections worldwide. She is represented by Charon Kransen, New York. Luttin has presented seven solo shows in Australia and the US. She was Deputy Chair at Craft Victoria for three years, stepping down in 2021, and is currently a board member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria.

Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h
Artist: Silvia Walz
Retail price: CAN$1,360

Silvia Walz materializes emotions much more than a conventional representation of nature.

“Impressions of nature.
Shapes, lines and colors.
Movement through the wind and the falling rain.
Fascination and meditation at the same time.”

Gallery: Four Gallery
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson
Artist: Zachery Lechtenberg
Retail price: 800€

Enamel has been used since the Byzantine era to create religious icons, and the time-consuming and technically complicated craft is often associated with historical motifs and jewelry. Zachery Lechtenberg uses the technique to create something completely different. This brooch is a three-dimensional drawing with attitude and humor, and it is very much alive here and now.

Gallery: Galerie Elsa Vanier
Contact: Elsa Vanier
Artist: Marianne Anselin
Retail price: €3,120

“Springs, gears, spanners, washers … collected during my wanderings,” says Marianne Anselin. “Objects of our daily life which hold my attention because they inspire me: maybe because they are beautiful or maybe because they have become useless to our society … They carry a story, made from our earth, used to make, eat, work, move forward, live, and they don’t appear to me as waste at all. Twisting, putting a silver ball where it pricks, inserting a stone to give it a look. I question the jewel, I am pushing the borders established by the classic codes but keeping in mind the first function of the jewel: to adorn the body, and make others read a story about it.”

Gallery: Jewelers’werk Galerie
Contact: Ellen Reiben
Artist: Kimiaki Kageyama
Retail price: US$6,800

A treasure.

Gallery: Quittenbaum Gallery
Contact: Claudia Quittenbaum
Artist: Helga Zahn
Retail price: €5,400

We are very pleased to show you an exhibition of around 30 works by Helga Zahn on the occasion of Munich Jewellery Week. All the jewelry objects and silk-screen prints come from the estate, administered by the family, to whom we are deeply indebted. This necklace is a perfect example of Zahn’s jewelry development. Her works have been characterized by great creative freedom and innovative processing of simple basic materials such as silver, sheet silver, pebbles, and gemstones such as agates.

Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center
Contact: Shane Prada
Artist: Anja Eichler
Retail price: US$430

Anja Eichler is a Berlin-based jewelry artist who recently completed a three-month, mid-career residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. About this body of work, Eichler says, “Hardware Plus is about looking beyond the obvious, imagining something beautiful in the ordinary. Wearable objects made from hardware plus enamel, named in honor of the shop Hardware Plus on Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Avenue and the avenue itself.”

Gallery: Galerie Viceversa
Contact: ilona Schwippel
Artist: Gésine Hackenberg
Retail price: 1,060 CHF (Swiss francs)

For Gésine Hackenberg, ornaments, these objects which enrich our daily life, are a fantastic source of inspiration. Using their form, diverting their functions, or transforming their use, she seizes their materiality with candor, questioning their identity. The Pillow brooch is one of the key pieces of our current exhibition, Pépiements, Omamori et Bruissement de Roche.

Gallery: Gallery Loupe
Contact: Patti Bleicher
Artist: Yutaka Minegishi
Retail price: US$4,800

Yutaka Minegishi studied metalwork at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, in Tokyo, before moving to Germany, where he was a guest student at Fachhochschule, in Pforzheim. From 1996–2002, he studied under Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, from which he received a graduate degree in 2003. He has exhibited widely, including three solo shows at the prestigious Galerie Wittenbrink, in Munich; and group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria and at Project Space as part of Radiant Pavilion, at RMIT University, Melbourne. Minegishi is the recipient of several awards, including DAAD Preis (2003); Bayerischer Staatspreis (2014); and Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt (2016), Munich. He is in several important collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Stichting Françoise van den Bosch, Amsterdam; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo; Muzeum Českého Ráje, Turnov, Czech Republic; and the Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich. In 2019 Minegishi was included in Schmuck, at the IHM, in Munich, where he was a recipient of the coveted Herbert Hofmann Prize.

Gallery: Galerie Door
Contact: Doreen Timmers
Artist: Caroline Thomas
Retail price: €665

This piece of art jewelry by Caroline Thomas was part of the Buckle Up exhibition at Galerie Door on display at Munich Jewellery Week 2022. The artist says, “This necklace is inspired by saddlery and the tack we dress and adorn domestic horses with, to work with them and show them off. A few years ago I acquired a vintage leather saddle and deconstructed it. I created a number of works based on the materials I discovered. These saddlery works imply ‘buckle’ both in the forms they use and [in] the connections they make.”

Gallery: Fingers Gallery
Contact: Lisa Higgins
Artist: Jacqueline Morren
Retail price: NZ$1,750

“This piece is part of a collection that consists of tensile, extremely lightweight, elegant structures which I created from refurbished gold and Pounamu,” says Jacqueline Morren. “Mindful of dwindling resources, together with the high ecological cost of mining gold, I consciously challenged myself to minimise my use of materials in creating these durable pieces without sacrificing design. The titles reflect the weight of each piece; in general, they are less than a third of the weight of my usual work.” Originally from The Netherlands, Morren now works full time from her studio in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Gallery: Platina Stockholm
Contact: Sofia Björkman
Artist: Felieke van der Leest
Retail price: US$2,000

This necklace was made for the exhibition Pictureware, held at the SIERAAD Art Fair, international jewelry design fair 2022. Extranalities is a group of established jewelry artists who challenge each other with unusual assignments. The participants sent each other something unattractive from their own possessions to turn into something beautiful, for example. And vice versa. All kinds of assignments, even entire mood boards, ended up on the workbenches of unsuspecting colleagues. In this instance, an old jewelry photo and the captions were the inspiration for this piece.

Gallery: Sculpture To Wear
Contact: Lisa M. Berman
Artist: Greg Orloff
Retail price: US$80,000

The Twisted corset is the grand prize winner of the international exhibition Wearable Expressions, hosted at Rancho Palos Verdes Art Center, CA, in 2017 and curated by Gabriella. This artwork was painstakingly created by twisting heavy-gauge steel wire into “metal thread” with accents of brass to create a wearable corset/body armor. The piece is especially poignant now, with the overturning of Roe v Wade. Women’s bodies are bound like a human chastity belt/covering to shield themselves from the government’s “devices.”

Gallery: Galerie Spektrum
Contact: Jürgen Eickhoff
Artist: Ramon Puig Cuyàs
Retail price: €1,200

Ramon Puig Cuyàs’s new series has lots of desire and romance in its artistic expression. At the same time, it is very fresh and optimistic—something we need in these times.

Gallery: Thereza Pedrosa Gallery
Contact: Thereza Pedrosa
Artist: Clara Del Papa
Retail price: Rings each €350; double rings each €410

Clara Del Papa’s plastic and architectural works are extraordinarily comfortable to wear. Each creation springs from a journey, geographical or intellectual, and from the observation of nature or the spirit of places and people in the data that has most affected her soul.

Gallery: Galerie Marzee
Contact: Marie-José van den Hout
Artist: Carla Nuis
Retail price: €5,100 (includes VAT)

Carla Nuis’s daughter Bloem (Flower) proudly wears one of the PlumFlower-necklaces from her mother’s exhibition, currently on display at Galerie Marzee. This new necklace stems from Nuis’s 2014 Golden Cuddles-series, Flower Brooch 1 (also for sale at Galerie Marzee for €1,100, including VAT), made using the artist’s children’s drawings of flowers. “The new collection comprises four series of necklaces made from European fruit tree wood,” says Nuis. “Wood is pure, solid, and tender, just like precious metal. My form language is continued in reverse. Whereas in previous collections I formed hollow objects from gold and silver plate, the necklaces from fruit tree wood were created by removing excess material. This releases the piece of jewellery from its block of wood. An unprocessed precious metal alloy is impersonal and cold; only the forging makes it into a jewel. Each piece of wood, on the other hand, already has its own character. It has lived, has borne fruit, has its own compactness and fiery drawings. The challenge is to preserve that character when working—by finding the right cuts and chop surfaces, the wood grain, a crack. With each cut, there is always the risk of [it] being [one] too many, of breaking. Wood forging requires sharp craftsmen’s tools. The designs expand on themes in my earlier work, such as baroque pearls—in LittlePotatoes (2004) and RedPotatoes (2007)—and children’s drawings—in Golden Cuddles (2014) and FlowerRing (2019). I have ‘sculpted’ my previous shapes. The wood is not sanded and [is left] untreated to keep [its] rawness.” The current exhibitions at Galerie Marzee—featuring Stefano Marchetti, Carla Nuis, Sondra Sherman, Luisa Kuschel, and Peleg Matityahu—will be on display until August 27, 2022. Galerie Marzee is at Schmuck FRAME 2022 at the IHM July 6–10, 2022.

Gallery: Galeria Reverso
Contact: Paula Crespo
Artist: Ruudt Peters
Retail price: €500

For fans of contemporary jewelry, here’s a wonderful piece by the Dutch artist Ruudt Peters, one which is almost off the market. This is a unique opportunity to acquire one of the last bracelets of this remake series in aluminum and rubber.

Gallery: Tereza Seabra
Contact: Tereza Seabra
Artist: Bettina Speckner
Retail price: €2,800, plus shipping

“In my work I am particularly fond of photographs,” says Bettina Speckner. “Sometimes they are old and show bygone places or people of times past, but quite often I use photos I took myself of trunks, flowers, lonesome lanes, or landscapes. These pictures turn into pieces of jewelry. To turn photos into gems, the motifs are etched on small metal plates or burned on enamel. Combined with precious or nonprecious stones and objects, they become part of an individual composition. I never work with the intention to decorate things or to make them look prettier. I try to discover the soul of an object or the essence of a photograph and want to shape something new, beyond the visual appearance. My pieces do not talk about situations but give a kind of access to their ‘own’ stories. But who owns them? We, the beholder, or the piece itself?” This brooch is part of Speckner’s solo exhibition, Navegar É Preciso.

The post On Offer appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

350 Words for Jewellery isn’t the kind of a book you’d bring on vacation. Instead, jewelry designer and researcher Barbara Schmidt’s deliberate prose leads the reader on an intellectually stimulating journey that roams broadly through the expansive world of jewelry.[i] Referencing 75 different languages, Schmidt follows the deep connection of jewelry to all aspects of human history, with Neanderthals, Ancient Greek and Egyptians, and more modern cultures making appearances. By examining the origins of words for jewelry, the book invites a multi-layered perspective for understanding what jewelry is and why we, as humans and as jewelry lovers, are so drawn to it.

The term “art jewelry” confounds simple definitions. Enthusiasts and collectors alike are flummoxed by the lack of consensus around what exactly is included in this vague category. Author jewelry, craft jewelry, studio jewelry, contemporary jewelry, and art jewelry (the preferred usage by this platform) represent more or less the same thing, with minute differences. Other books have addressed this conundrum: Liesbeth den Besten’s 2011 book On Jewellery: A Compendium of International Contemporary Art Jewellery and Kellie Riggs’s 2013 article “What Is It that You Do Exactly?”[ii] both attempt to clarify the complexity of the term and the resulting objects, which also defy simple definitions.

Schmidt rightly points out that naming a thing is the first step to understanding it. Within the context of Art Jewelry Forum’s 25th anniversary year, this book introduces how culturally relevant jewelry is to humans, now and in past millennia. It supports the very reason that art jewelry exists as a field of creative research and study, which is to explore, question, and challenge the meaning of jewelry through and across culture.

Structurally, 350 Words for Jewellery is broken up into chapters and then titled subsections that ease and coax the reader through the book. Each chapter heading is a single word— “Introduction,” “Language,” “Scripture,” “Symbol,” “Impact,” “Composition,” “Perception,” and “Thanks”—followed by a simple phrase alerting the reader to the content. So, the subheading for the chapter called “Language” is “Whoever wears jewelry has something to say.” The chapter subsequently explains how jewelry and language are connected, how jewelry speaks without words, how jewelry and writing are connected, and many other fascinating connections between jewelry and language.

To support these ideas, the text features the voices of many experts, from archaeology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, ethnology, and every other -ology imaginable, to explain and contextualize jewelry across culture and history. Wonderfully, jewelry artists are also included in these expert voices, sharing their research through images and artist statements, as well as inline quotes and references from their publications.

The “Perception” chapter includes the voices of Indologist Jutta Jain-Neubauer and jewelry artist Amina Rizwan to discuss in depth how Zierrate—Vedic silver jewelry—were traded from India and Sri Lanka along Roman trade routes and informed the evolution of the Dutch word for jewelry, sierrad. In “Composition,” Schmidt uses online religious resources to discuss “the string–with its interwoven potential for infinity” (page 121), connecting this humble material with prayer beads and other religious objects like Christian rosary beads, Buddhist mala beads, Jewish zizit (tassels on prayer shawls), and Islamic misbaha or shuha (prayer cords). In “Perception,” she analyzes the “spatial expansion of the Roman Empire” (page 159), including the organization of battle troops and the equipment of soldiers, to make a connection between the terms “arming oneself” and “adorning oneself.” The wide-ranging topics in each section are in danger of being too dense for comfort. However, every few paragraphs the headings of the subsections act like breadcrumbs, leading the reader further through the text, providing a guide. In this way, Schmidt makes digestible the variety of ideas presented by and supported by historians, psychologists, and ethnographers.

Differentiated by color and dividing lines in warm orange ink, etymological definitions sprinkle a different kind of knowledge throughout the text. These linguistic definitions support the discussions of the origins of the words, providing additional connections between languages, people, materials, and culture. Like the subheadings, these interruptions keep the text from getting unwieldy and are poetic in their sparse directness. In a discussion of the “innate and thus culture-independent” (page 69) human fascination with glitter, a statement backed up by behavioral psychologists, she introduces the word origin of “spark” and follows it from Czech to German to English. This linguistic definition supports the text’s discussion of humans’ fascination with light, specifically how it flashes on material surfaces, capturing our attention.  Polished silver, copper, and gold; gemstones and pearls; and man-made materials like glitter all have the capacity to reflect light. In a sense, jewelry objects with these or similar materials capture light, briefly holding the brilliance of the sun. This chapter includes discussion of such words as luster, shimmer, shine, brilliance, dazzling, and illuminate in their relationship to jewelry and culture.

Which brings us to the most visually exciting element of this book: the jewelry. Interspersed throughout 350 Words for Jewellery are gorgeous, full-page color images of delightful jewelry. Selected exceedingly well and placed with care by Schmidt, each piece illustrates the discussion happening on the pages surrounding it. A bright red brooch by Beppe Kessler appears in the “Perception” chapter in a section about the symbolism of color; a brooch by Donna Brennan made of a variety of pearlescent materials echoes the conversation about light in the “Impact” chapter; and three pieces made of thread by Mari Ishikawa, Sayumi Yokouchi, and Mikiko Minewaki illustrate the “Composition” chapter with a focus on the spiritual power of the cord. The back of each illustrated page gives the artist’s name, a short artist statement that resonates with the text, and an image caption. These pieces are beautiful, object-based expansions of the text, taking the ideas and definitions into a materiality that leaps off the page.

There are additional supplemental materials that may be of interest to the deep reader, including an alphabetical list of the 350 words studied that is 88 pages long and several pages of detailed references of both the print and online sources. Printed on orange paper that correlates with the linguistic definitions placed within the text, these are great resources for jewelry aficionados titillated by the ideas in the book. Strangely missing, however, is a listing of the 28 artists included in the text. For this particular audience, which is, presumably, more visually- or object- oriented, a reference page to find a specific brooch would be helpful.

While 350 Words for Jewellery isn’t a summertime, beach-vacation type of read, it is an excellent introduction to many of the reasons that jewelry captivates us as humans. Those who read this book will be equipped with more ways to express what they like, why they like it, and what draws them to explore this culturally rich creative practice that defies easy definitions. The book also serves as a bridge to understand what artists who use jewelry as a medium are referencing with material choices, historic references, and cultural resonances in their work. The jewelry that so beautifully illustrates the ideas in 350 Words for Jewellery didn’t do so accidentally. Many of the artists who made these objects actively study the same anthropologists, psychologists, and theoreticians that Schmidt references in the book to explain the many ways jewelry, culture, and language intersect. Instead of writing dissertations, these artists put their cultural research into the objects they create. Through Schmidt’s merging of the expertise of people who study culture and behavior, whether academic or artistic, we can understand what we already know in our very being: jewelry is irresistible.

US-based readers interested in purchasing this book may contact Charon Kransen Arts for pricing and shipping. All other readers, contact Barbara Schmidt directly.

[i] 350 Words for Jewellery was translated from German using the British spelling “jewellery,” but AJF style uses the American “jewelry” when referring to ornament, while keeping original spellings in titles—hence the multiple spellings in this essay.

[ii] https://artjewelryforum.org/articles/what-is-it-that-you-do-exactly/

The post What’s in a Word appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

Art jewelry—wait, is it called contemporary jewelry? Studio jewelry? Author jewelry? Hang on, we’ll get to that!

Art jewelry defies easy definition because it explores, questions, and challenges the meaning of jewelry. In his 2013 book, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, Damian Skinner gave the definition for contemporary jewelry that shaped his thinking in putting together the tome:

Contemporary jewelry is a self-reflexive studio craft practice that is oriented to the body.[1]

He then unpacked what that sentence means. We give you that here, edited and condensed, with Skinner’s permission:

Contemporary jewelry: In her book On Jewellery: A Compendium of International Contemporary Art Jewellery, art historian Liesbeth den Besten identifies six different names for the type of jewelry she’s interested in: contemporary jewelry, studio jewelry, art jewelry, research jewelry, design jewelry, and author jewelry.[2]

To paraphrase her conclusions, contemporary indicates the present and “of our time,” yet describes a practice that includes 70 years of objects and some dramatic shifts in framework. The term studio places too much emphasis on where and how, and thus is too limited. Art implies an acceptance by the fine art world that just isn’t true, as well as overlooking the true potential of jewelry as a specific kind of object with its own history that’s different from fine art. Research points to something interesting about the artistic process but the term is limited to Italy. Design is a term that arose as part of specific debates in the Netherlands, and the distinction between concept and handwork has been theoretically dismantled, as well as not seeming like such a big issue in the present. Author invokes a sense of isolation and pride, and is also limited to the object and thus overlooks conceptual practices. Ultimately, den Besten settles on contemporary jewelry, art jewelry, and author jewelry, moving between these three terms because they represent the status quo in the field.

Self-reflexive: Contemporary jewelry is concerned with reflecting on itself and the conditions in which it takes place. In general, contemporary jewelers work in a critical or conscious relationship to the history of the practice, and to the wider field of jewelry and adornment. This is what makes contemporary jewelry different from other forms of body adornment, and it isn’t found just in the way contemporary jewelry objects and practices engage with the history of jewelry, or the relationship to the body and wearing. Contemporary jewelry is shaped by a distinct awareness of the situations in which it exists, meaning that jewelers engage directly with the spaces in which their work circulates—the gallery or museum, for example, or books and catalogs. Not all contemporary jewelry is equally self-reflexive, but as a field, this is one of its notable characteristics.

Studio craft practice: While many different kinds of objects and practices belong to the term contemporary jewelry, the field has been deeply shaped by the values and history of the studio craft movement. As curator Kelly Hays L’Ecuyer writes, studio craft is not defined by particular artistic styles or even particular philosophies, but rather by the circumstances in which the work is produced. “Studio jewelers are independent artists who handle their chosen materials directly to make one-of-a-kind or limited-production jewelry … The studio jeweler is both the designer and fabricator of each piece (although assistants or apprentices may help with technical tasks), and the work is created in a small, private studio, not a factory.”[3]

Built on the platform of studio jewelry, contemporary jewelers favor the unique or limited production model, and tend to shy away from the idea of the multiple or mass-production; skill and an investment in the special qualities of materials are central to the idea of the contemporary jeweler; individuality and artistic expression are the priority, for both the maker and the wearer/owner; and contemporary jewelers follow the model of the art world, rather than mainstream commercial jewelry production, in distributing their work through dealer galleries, accompanied by artist statements, catalogs, etc.

Oriented to the body: This is essentially the “jewelry” part of the term contemporary jewelry, and it’s important because most, even if not all, contemporary jewelry is designed to be worn, or can be worn. When it can’t be worn, or wearability is suspended, the body is still invoked as an important subject or limit.

The wearer is often forgotten: the contemporary jewelry field spends much more energy thinking about being contemporary (e.g. a form of artistic expression, all about the ideas of the maker) than it does on the idea and possibilities of jewelry (one of the oldest forms of human creativity, which is a rich archive of object types, materials, and relationships to the body and to wearers).

But the cluster of ideas around the wearer, wearing, and the body remain the key way in which the objects and practices of contemporary jewelry distinguish themselves from other kinds of craft and art practices. And jewelry is a cultural symbol that links the private and public body, allowing contemporary jewelers to engage, as art historian Linda Sandino writes, “with definitions and critiques of the body which reinvigorates the possibility of the applied arts as a critical practice, rather than merely a supplementary, decorative one.”[4]

As anyone familiar with contemporary jewelry will know, it’s surprising how many kinds of objects and practices can fit under that term. [The] definitions in this book won’t always agree with each other. It isn’t easy dealing with ambiguity, but it’s precisely the contradictory, in-between nature of contemporary jewelry objects and practices that makes them interesting. Certainly, this is where contemporary craft theory is heading.

[1] New Zealand jeweler Areta Wilkinson first proposed a version of this definition.

[2] Liesbeth den Besten, On Jewellery: A Compendium of International Contemporary Art Jewellery. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2011, pp.9-10.

[3] Kelly L’Ecuyer, ‘Introduction: Defining the field’, in Kelly L’Ecuyer (ed.), Jewelry by Artists in the Studio. Boston: MFA Publications, 2010, p.17.

[4] Linda Sandino, ‘Studio jewellery: Mapping the Absent Body’, in Paul Greenhalgh (ed.), The Persistence of Craft: The Applied Arts Today. London: A&C Black, 2002, p.107.

The post A Definition of Art Jewelry appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

Histories of contemporary jewelry are usually organized around the critique of preciousness, which divorces the value of the object from the value of the materials used to create it. By transforming the conventional idea of value, jewelers liberated contemporary jewelry for artistic expression and experimentation, a deeper engagement with society, and a new awareness of the body and the wearer.

The following explanation of the concept comes from Damian Skinner’s 2013 book, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.[1] The texts—mainly written by Skinner, with quotations from Kevin Murray, Kelly Hays L’Ecuyer, and Chang Dong-Kwang, as noted—are drawn from various texts in the tome. It is. It has been edited and condensed with Skinner’s permission.

One of the most notable characteristics of contemporary jewelry is that it’s a self-aware practice. Contemporary jewelers critically investigate the idea of jewelry in the objects they make, using different techniques to consciously explore how their new work fits into a heritage of jewelry (potentially all the different kinds of jewelry and adornment made by human cultures) and jewelry-related concerns.

At its core, the critique of preciousness is a desire to put into question the idea of preciousness—particularly the idea that the value of jewelry is intimately tied to the precious materials from which it’s made. A diamond solitaire is about value, skill, status, and tradition, but it takes all these things as givens, seeking to extend or comfortably inhabit the conventions that have developed around such rings. A contemporary jewelry version of a diamond solitaire ring is different precisely because it tackles the conventions—of value, skill, status and tradition—that make such rings meaningful, usually by choosing forms or materials that disrupt expectations and raise questions.

The critique of preciousness emerged in the 1950s and 60s as a challenge to the prevalent notion that jewelry’s value emerged from, and was equivalent to, the preciousness of its materials. Beginning with German goldsmiths, who in the 50s [had] continued to use precious materials such as gold but who emphasized the central role of artistic expression (thus introducing the division between conventional and contemporary jewelry), the critique of preciousness was fed by Dutch jewelry experiments in the 60s that introduced culturally relevant materials and a new willingness to explore the body as a site and to align jewelry with contemporaneous visual arts movements. The critical project encapsulated by the term critique of preciousness is the conceptual platform on which subsequent contemporary jewelry has been produced.

Freed from a limited and tyrannical notion of value, contemporary jewelry was born, and a number of jewelers over the next 30 years made a multitude of arguments (verbally and in the objects themselves) about where the value of the jewelry object could and should be located. Generally, most proposals favored artistic expression, novel engagements with the body, or the social possibilities of contemporary jewelry as a democratic practice as the best way to evaluate the worth of this new kind of jewelry. “Radical American jewelers of the 1960s,” writes Kelly Hays L’Ecuyer, “expanded this idea to attack the preciousness of good taste and elegant design.”[2]

Once jewelers shrugged off their preoccupation with valuable materials and an alliance with privilege, contemporary jewelry became available for an entirely different kind of investigation. As jewelry became more democratic, it grew more alert to the relationship between the object and the body on which it was worn. The body was placed at center stage within contemporary jewelry practice. In Australia there was a connection between the freedom of the critique of preciousness and new expressions of national identity. The critique of preciousness and the introduction of new materials opened up two new avenues for Japanese jewelers to explore: references to traditional Japanese forms and materials that could not be achieved using precious materials, and various challenges to conventional jewelry values by the use of unexpected materials such as cement. This led to the investigation of the relationship between the jewel and the body and the psychological and spiritual dimensions of adorning the body.[3]

The critique of preciousness established a critical attitude to jewelry conventions and traditions, and the field of contemporary jewelry has maintained a sense of questioning and taking nothing for granted as the most productive way of inhabiting the visual arts and contributing to new thinking around objects and the body. As a core mission in the contemporary jewelry movement, the critique of preciousness [also] has a strong political dimension. [For example,] Dutch jewelers have used the traditional association with prestige as a target for conceptual pieces, such as in the 1977 Queens series of necklaces by Gijs Bakker that, made from laminated photographs of royal jewels, mock their pretension.[4]

In their 1985 book, Trends + Traditions, Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner described the characteristics of the movement they termed “the new jewelry” as “a desire to avoid clichés in design; a desire to make exciting, robust and, where possible, cheap ornament; a desire to make adornment that can be worn by either sex; a frequently expressed distaste for jewelry which is vulgar and merely status-seeking; and always an interest in ensuring that the ornament works with and complements the wearer’s body.”[5] An outcome of the energy and experimentation produced by the meeting of Dutch and British contemporary jewelers in the late 1970s, the new jewelry movement was concerned with artistic expression and experimentation, a deeper engagement with society and a new awareness of the body and the wearer.

The new jewelry is the high point in the critique of preciousness, a critical moment in the development of contemporary jewelry as we know it today, and, as Dormer and Turner’s book demonstrates, a central narrative in the shaping of contemporary jewelry history.

“While conceptualism has become an important framework for contemporary jewelry,” writes Kevin Murray, “materials continue to play a critical role in setting the creative agenda. Materiality helps define most of the contexts in which jewelry has artistic value.

“Conventional jewelry approaches materials in terms of hierarchy, ordering precious metals and stones above all other substances. The art critic Peter Fuller saw this order as grounded in nature, and therefore an authentic language for expression. By contrast, German philosopher Karl Marx viewed it as a social construct: the value of gold and gems is derived from their relative rarity. Contemporary jewelry is defined by a material relativism. Gold and silver can be valued purely by their aesthetic qualities, and this opens up the possibility of using other materials less common in conventional jewelry.[6]

“There’s also the potential to invert this hierarchy to include materials that are at the bottom of the value chain, such as those defined as rubbish. This evokes the alchemic quest to turn base metal into gold, the ultimate mystery of classical goldsmithing. In a modern context, this use of poor materials functions as a political symbolism.[7]

“Beyond the hierarchical value of materials, there’s a context for their use as a language of expression. The ‘truth to materials’ modernist credo reads the work in terms of the qualities of the substances used—ductility and color, for example. The evocative nature of certain materials, such as the relation of stone to nature, can be handled poetically. And materials can be associated with place, as when artists use an indigenous plant or shell as a way of identifying their place in the world.[8]

“Thus, in contemporary jewelry, one of the first questions to ask is, “What’s it made of?” This is at odds with conceptual art, where the message overrides the material. Recently, the core value of materiality has also been challenged by relational jewelry, in which objects function primarily to connect people together rather than to stand alone as examples of artistic expression or material investigation.”[9]

At different moments contemporary jewelry has engaged with this heritage in more or less interesting ways. At its weakest, the critique of preciousness becomes a search for novel materials, as though a justification for contemporary jewelry can be established by making the jewelry object from a substance never before used in jewelry. (This dead end is closely related to the emphasis on contemporary jewelry as a form of artistic expression and the focus on the actions and desires of the maker.) At its most productive, the critique of preciousness encourages contemporary jewelers to continually question the field itself, to renew the arguments about value that sit close to the heart of jewelry’s legacy, and to draw on the techniques of art and craft to explore how the jewelry object can propose new conclusions about the body and society.

[1] Skinner, Damian. Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective. New York: Lark, 2013.

[2] L’Ecuyer, Kelly Hays. “North America.” In Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective. New York: Lark, 2013.

[3] Dong-Kwang, Chang. “East Asia.” In Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective. New York: Lark, 2013.

[4] Murray, Kevin. “The Political Challenge to Contemporary Jewelry.” In Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective. New York: Lark, 2013.

[5] Dormer, Peter, and Ralph Turner. The New Jewelry: Trends + Traditions. London: Thames & Hudson, 1985.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

The post The Critique of Preciousness appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

These brief essays, written by Damian Skinner, Benjamin Lignel, and Namita Gupta Wiggers, dip into some other important ideas in art jewelry. They are excerpted from Skinner’s book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.

The Body as a Living Display, by Damian Skinner

In terms of contemporary jewelry, the space of the body is not so much a physical destination as it is a reference point and a vehicle. The body functions simultaneously as a platform or a vacancy poised for adornment, a space and an environment in which pieces of contemporary jewelry deliberately do not blend into the wearer’s body. The history of contemporary jewelry can be summarized as a sequence of movements that swing, pendulum-like, between embracing and rejecting the possibility of wearing the jewelry object, and thus challenging the collective understanding of how jewelry has to relate to the body.

Arguably the body is the most challenging. site in and on which to appreciate any artistic object, because on a living display there’s little ability to control the conditions of presentation and reception. The space of the body complicates perception but activates objects in a transformative way. Considered from the point of view of the
body, contemporary jewelry becomes something that’s not merely an image or a three-dimensional sculpture but a conceptually driven artwork that can move fluidly between spaces and both carry and create meaning through such travels.

The Body as a Contested Site,

The body as a site for jewelry raises a number of questions about adequacy (or the relationship with the tradition of body adornment), dependence (or the possibility of use and personal meaning) and even incompatibility (the tension between autonomous or applied object). Because it’s a critical, questioning practice, contemporary jewelry puts the body in question, both as the “natural” site for jewelry and as a problematic, portable host.

The body is a contested but irreducible site where individuals can make statements about their identity. Not only jewelry makers but also fine artists and fashion designers are aware of the existential, aesthetic, and political dimensions of the body as a theme.

One could ask which body is the subject of contemporary jewelry, as well as suggesting that the body is a space that remains indispensable to the field precisely because it represents the intersection of the physical body and various conceptual and social forces. When worn, jewelry adorns and socializes the body, mediating its encounter with society. Questions regarding whose body, which body, and from where the body originates are open arenas for contemporary jewelry to explore in the next decades.

The Skill Trap, by Benjamin Lignel

Skill is part of the magic of craft: an affirmation of virtuosity and an appeal to myth. When embarking on a new project, makers enter a deliberation with available techniques. They throw questions at the work in progress and modify their plan of attack according to its responses. Skill thus describes a maker’s technical repertoire as well as her capacity to successfully overcome unexpected and unknown technical obstacles. It’s part ruse, part accumulated knowledge.

The rebuttal of a skill-based definition of craft in the 1990s prolonged the critique of preciousness leveled at conventional jewelry three decades before. Its point was to distance contemporary craft from the time-intensive techniques that once defined it. Producing low-tech (or no-tech) work meant leveraging the tension between conventional forms and unconventional methods in order to expand the definition of artistic skill and encompass new forms of competence: transgressive appropriation, assemblage, co-production, conceptual work. A ring by Karl Fritsch using a claw setting but cast from barely shaped putty is thus both technically coherent with the tradition and completely at odds with its ambition. It’s at once radical and reactionary.

Often called upon to describe a meaningful difference between those who make with their own hands and those who do not, between the intentional and the formless, skill has become a rallying call for a certain branch of craft. It’s a refuge not only because it makes good on the promise that craft objects and practices are fundamentally tied up with manufacturing competence, but also because its evaluation appeals to our sense of wonderment rather than the arbitration of specialized critics. Skill is simply a more accessible quality than is artistic merit.

Between High and Popular Culture, by Damian Skinner

Jewelry accompanies the individual onto the street and into the crowd. It’s in the space of the street that jewelry operates in the tension between the personal and the public, at once an object of private use, and an object with an immense capacity to interact and seduce.

As a space, the street has both negative and positive connotations. The street is where objects leave social life, to be thrown into bins or washed down gutters. To live on the street is to occupy the lowest rank of society. But the street is also a positive field of social interaction, where individuals emerge from their private spaces to mingle, parade, and connect with each other. The street is the home of popular culture, the place where people can shape and display their identity through acts of consumption, affiliation, activism, or leisure.

Jewelry plays a key role in these acts of identification, from the piercings of youth cultures to the showing off of bling and luxury jewelry by rappers and bankers alike. The street can be a carnivalesque space where existing order is upturned. Unlike the tightly controlled and copyrighted clothing brands found in shopping malls, street fashion is largely unauthored, just like stencil art or graffiti. The domain of street jewelry extends from cheap objects like badges to so-called ethnic souvenirs, the simplified versions of traditional, non-Western jewelry sold in street markets.

The street hosts both amateur and professional practices in a nonhierarchical manner. Contemporary jewelry does circulate in this space to a limited degree when it’s discreetly displayed in gallery windows or worn by members of the contemporary jewelry scene. However, though objects like ready-mades might be sourced from the street, in the gallery they become art objects through a strict separation from their roles in the world outside. The gallery or museum as “white cube” frames the art inside as distinct from street life beyond its walls.

Inheritance, by Namita Gupta Wiggers

Jewelry has long served as [primary evidence of wealth and status throughout global cultures. From a dowry delivered by a father to secure his daughter’s future to polite Victorian-era references to male genitalia as the “family jewels,” connections between jewelry and inheritance are gendered and familial. Each successive generation bears the responsibility of stewardship, as proclaimed in recent ads by a luxury watch company: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation.”

Contemporary jewelry challenges long-held traditions of intergenerational transfers of wealth through jewelry. Contemporary jewelry isn’t necessarily created with traditional luxury materials and collecting such work can be highly subjective. “Investment” in such works is contingent on the artist’s status and reputation, which is developed and maintained through specialized galleries and art fairs, modeled after contemporary art markets. The value of private collections, therefore, isn’t necessarily apparent from generation to generation. If the next generation doesn’t appreciate the work for its aesthetic qualities and can’t justify caring for it for sentimental reasons, where will it go?

As a relatively young form of jewelry—and of visual production—there is no secondary market for contemporary jewelry, as there is for contemporary art, decorative arts, or even mid-century design. This leaves current jewelry collections at risk of being lost as collections scatter between generations.

The post Some Other Concepts appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

Art Jewelry Forum has expanded its efforts to connect more directly with the jewelry community by regularly hosting live chats online. We feature artist studio visits, talk with gallerists about shows they’re hosting, interview curators and authors, and have other programming tied to various jewelry weeks from around the globe. We record these all and post them on our website.

The post AJF Live with Douriean Fletcher appeared first on Art Jewelry Forum.

August 2022, Part 1

There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…

• You got that hard-earned promotion—celebrate!
• You’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime occasion—honor it.
• You wrapped up that major accomplishment—pay it tribute.
• You want to mark the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one—commemorate it.
• Perhaps it’s an investment—do it!
• It’s the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection—pounce!
• Or maybe it’s as a treat for yourself—just because.

Art Jewelry Forum’s international gallery supporters celebrate and exhibit art jewelry. Our monthly On Offer series allows this extensive network of international galleries to showcase extraordinary pieces personally selected to tempt and inspire you. Take a look. You’re bound to find a fantastic piece you simply have to add to your collection! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)

Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center
Contact: Shane Prada
Artist: Andy Lowrie
Retail price: US$1,600

Andy Lowrie began his art- and jewelry-making practice in Australia at the Queensland College of Art, Jewellery and Small Objects Studio, where he earned his BFA in 2011. He moved to the United States in 2016 and earned an MFA in craft/material studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. Lowrie joined the BJC team in the fall of 2020 as the inaugural teaching fellow. Order #1 is part of Fulfillment, an exhibition that explores the experience of teaching a craft and sharing a passion juxtaposed in stark contrast to the extreme physical output demanded of American manufacturing and logistics.

Gallery: Gallery Loupe
Contact: Patti Bleicher
Artist: Annamaria Zanella
Retail price: US$3,000

Italian jeweler Annamaria Zanella’s focus is research into materials, the inherent poetry of the design process, and the subversion of commonly held assumptions about beauty and value. Some writers have referred to her jewelry as povera (poor), to Zanella a welcome contradiction in terms since her “microsculptures” are often crafted from distressed metal and banal substances. Nonetheless, Zanella also excels at working with the traditional mediums of silver and gold, and techniques like enameling and niello. Zanella is represented in numerous museums, including Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin; Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim; Museo degli Argenti, Florence; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Palazzo Fortuny, Venice; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; and Swiss National Museum, Zurich.

Gallery: Sculpture To Wear
Contact: Lisa M. Berman
Artist: Teri Brudnak
Retail price: US$950

This piece was inspired by the Webb Telescope—the hexagonal shape is the same as the telescope’s. Brudnak was watching a documentary about the building of the telescope and has always been fascinated with space. “The moveable parts represent cosmic objects,” says Brudnak, “because everything in the universe is in motion.” The pendant/brooch is comprised of some of the elements from the 1980s used in TDM Studios designs (with Karen McCreary) for Star Trek: The Next Generation TV shows and films.

Gallery: Galeria Alice Floriano
Contact: Alice Floriano | Mariana Tostes
Artist: Namkyung Lee
Retail price: €780

Namkyung Lee has received a lot of awards in the last few years. She has developed a unique work style, mixing different techniques to create a very interesting final result. Her approach gives a sense of transparency to the photographic images in the pieces. Her pieces explore dimensions and shapes, but they are also very light, so the jewels are not heavy at all. Her work intends to talk about different points of view through pictures taken from windows.

Gallery: Fingers Gallery
Contact: Lisa Higgins
Artist: Peter Deckers
Retail price: NZ$1,325

Peter Deckers has developed an international reputation as a ground-breaking conceptual artist. While he’s a highly skilled craftsperson, it is ideas—rather than beauty—that drive his practice. “He looks for what he calls the ‘surprising complexity’ of things,” wrote Stevan Eldred-Grigg, a historian and novelist, in his 2006 survey about Deckers, Choices of the Hand, “and then seeks to work his way into that complexity beneath a surface which at first can seem a kind of commonness, a sort of normality, neutrality or simplicity. Consequently, each work is unique. Deckers never repeats a design.” Originally from the Netherlands, Deckers immigrated to New Zealand in 1985 and has been the driving force behind many up-and-coming jewelers over the past 30+ years.

Gallery: Galerie Door
Contact: Doreen Timmers
Artist: Tatjana Giorgadse
Retail price: €3,100

The art of Tatjana Giorgadse (1987) is recognizable by its playfulness, frivolity, and the occasional wink. In her works, Giorgadse builds a story of contrasts: heavy materials with a rich and eventful history—such as stones—mixed with light materials that, in the greater timeline, have “just come into play”—plastics—or, as in this case, wooden blocks from children’s toys. This makes the composition exciting and contradictory. Giorgadse’s jewelry is not easily categorized. It moves between surrealism, expressionism, and pop-art, and is characterized by a particularly free spirit.

Gallery: Galeria Reverso
Contact: Paula Crespo
Artist: Heejoo Kim
Retail price: €984

The growth that occurs in nature is a process in which invisible things are piled up to make it hard and strong. This work captures the process of how pearls and corals form in the blue ocean. Electroforming, a modern technique designed to replicate or protect the surface of metals like plating, performs the process of pearl formation made up of accumulated particles. Electrolyzed metal particles in a blue sulfuric acid solution repeatedly accumulate, thereby form a new shell. Running on electricity but very analogue, electroforming requires time and craftsmanship as if taking care of life.

Gallery: Four Gallery
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson
Artist: Yojae Lee
Retail price: €2,800

Insects are a classic motif throughout the history of jewelry. Scarabs, butterflies, and dragonflies swarm all over. The insects made by South Korean artist Yojae Lee have a size that changes the relationship to the wearer. The robotic creatures are both captivating and terrifying. By mixing different types of metals and leather, Lee creates artwork that captures you both figuratively and literally.

Gallery: Galerie Spektrum
Contact: Jürgen Eickhoff
Artist: Ruudt Peters
Retail price: €2,900

“I just presented the BARA-serie, by Ruudt Peters, on the art-Karlsruhe with great success,” says Jürgen Eickhoff. “I can offer you this brooch from the BARA series, with its deep and intense aura, which it has for everyone.”

Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra
Contact: Tereza Seabra
Artist: Tereza Seabra
Retail price: €3,300, plus shipping

We have all let ourselves get seduced by the magic of our childhood fairy tales: frogs that turn into princes, genii who grant us wishes, godmothers who save us from curses, or princes who heal us with kisses of love. But in the reality of our adult lives, when faced with events beyond our understanding and which we would make disappear like magic, our childhood heroes do not come to our rescue. The unintelligible and the manifestations of evil spirits and supernatural forces have always weighed on the destiny of men. For this reason and to fight the unknown, human lives have been sacrificed, temples built, gods invoked, and objects of protection, amulets, and talismans made to overcome the fear of the unknown.

Gallery: Zu design
Contact: Jane
Artist: Mio Kuhnen
Retail price: Pendant AUS$2,400; small brooch AUS$2,400; large brooch AUS$2,800

Mio Kuhnen’s intricately enameled collection is based on electron microscope images of the “scales” that make up butterfly wings. “This series is based on a recent scientific publication which highlights that few butterfly taxa are explicitly listed for protection by Australian legislation (Geyle et al., 2021). When I am not practicing as an artist, I am a scientist assessing major developments in relation to the federal environment legislation. As these butterflies are not listed under legislation, they aren’t ‘protected’ and, devastatingly, are not considered during the assessments even though they are critical in many ecological processes.” From the current exhibition at Zu design, Entwined – Mio Kuhnen and Helen Aitken-Kuhnen.

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August 2022, Part 1 

Art Jewelry Forum is pleased to share the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, news, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on YOUR participation. If you’re a member of AJF at the Silver level or above, you can add news and ideas to this bi-monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJF here.
Listings compiled with assistance from Carrie Yodanis.

FEEL LIKE SEEING A JEWELRY SHOW?

Find these listings and many, many more on our dedicated exhibition page:

• Shakkei—Borrowed Scenery by Mari Ishikawa, at Jewelers’werk Galerie, closes August 5, 2022
• Namkyung Lee, at Galeria Alice Floriano through August 13, 2022
• Earrings Galore, at Ombré Gallery through August 27, 2022
• 20 Years Ornamentum, at Ornamentum through August 28, 2022
• Stefano Marchetti, Carla Nuis, Sondra Sherman, Luisa Kuschel and Peleg Mercedes Matityahu, at Galerie Marzee through August 28, 2022
• Lobe: An Exploration of the Earring, at Fingers

AJF LIVE WITH DOURIEAN FLETCHER

If you missed our most recent AJF Live event or want to watch it again, we recorded it, as we record all AJF Lives. Watch it here.

FROM OUR MEMBERS

ORNAMENTUM GALLERY CELEBRATES 20 YEARS

Congratulations! For this milestone, Stefan Friedemann and Laura Lapachin have organized an overview exhibition, aptly named 20 Years Ornamentum, on view through August 28, 2022. View the show online.

CHECK OUT FELICIA MÜLBAIER’S EXHIBITION CATALOG FROM LEGNICA

Although this year’s Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER has come to an end, you still have the opportunity to admire the jewelry presented during the event thanks to the catalogs, the pages of which are filled with photos, texts, and memories giving a picture of the jewelry exhibitions in Legnica. You’re invites to view the publication which accompanied the solo exhibition Encounters: A Reflection on the Nature of Time, by Felicia Mülbaier.

MOBILIA HAS ORGANIZED A TRAVELING JOYCE J. SCOTT EXHIBITION

The 35 new beaded objects in Messages are unique, vibrant, challenging works made with imagination, wit, and sly humor. Scott pushes the boundaries of beadwork, reflecting her narrative of what it means to be Black in America. The show will travel to three venues between January 17, 2023, and June 23, 2024: University Museums, Iowa State University; Fuller Craft Museum; and Crocker Art Museum. Arnoldsche will publish an accompanying book by the same name. Email Mobilia for info.

THE JEWELRY JOURNEY INTERVIEWED 2ROSES

The artists Corliss Rose and John Lemieux Rose discuss their efforts to get business classes included in art school curricula, why polymer clay jewelry has grown in popularity, and how they balance business with their artistic vision. Listen to the podcast.

SOLO EXHIBITION BY ANDY LOWRIE: FULFILLMENT

At Baltimore Jewelry Center July 22–August 26, 2022, with an artist talk on August 25. Info.

PENLAND WILL HOLD ITS AUCTION AUGUST 26–­SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

The Benefit Auction is Penland School of Craft’s major annual fundraiser. The Penland Benefit Auction is a joyous celebration of craft and community that welcomes collectors, curators, artists, and friends from far and wide. Over 200 invited artists have generously donated their work.

JEWELRY AND GEMSTONE DEPARTMENT DESTROYED

On July 18, 2022, flames consumed the jewelry and gemstone department on the Idar-Oberstein campus of the Trier University of Applied Sciences. “I still can’t find [any] words when I see this image,” says Theo Smeets, the department’s head on Facebook. “It is an incredible disaster. [The place] I’ve been working for almost 25 years has been destroyed.” A photocopier caused the conflagration. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. “We certainly will rebuild our university on another spot in Idar-Oberstein,” said Smeets. “On every level this is clear: university, city, county, ministry: everybody wants our story to continue. So we are working on interim solutions so our students can continue to study from October 4 on (next winter semester).” Smeet says it’s too early yet to know how people who want to help can do so. “By the way,” he added, “we also had some excellent graduation works shown at Schmuck under the title Catch 22.”

GET A SNEAK PEEK AT DOURIEAN FLETCHER’S JEWELRY FOR BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

The teaser came out last week. Watch it on YouTube.

ELEANOR MOTY EXHIBITION OPENS AUGUST 17, 2022

Quiet Elegance: The Jewelry of Eleanor Moty, at Racine Art Museum, will showcase 35+ works created throughout her career—with 12 pieces from RAM’s collection alongside recently completed jewelry and sketches borrowed from the artist. Through January 28, 2023.

TRACEY BEALE IS EXHIBITING IN ALL THAT GLITTERS

The exhibition takes its cue from the aphorism “All that glitters is not gold.” The dazzling works in this exhibition use embellishments of glitter and gold to question notions of value. Six contemporary artists celebrate that which is often deemed to be of lesser worth than money, success, or power. They examine the weight of inheritance and illustrate the importance of human contact, chosen family, and hope. At Chautauqua Visual Arts Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, through August 7, 2022.

SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET: AUGUST 17–21, 2022

Performers, a fashion show, an auction, and jewelry jewelry jewelry! Get the schedule of events here.

$ULO BEE SELECTED AS AN ACC 2022 EMERGING ARTIST

The American Craft Council will connect Bee and nine other selected artists with craft leaders including gallerists, curators, marketplace artists, exhibiting artists, and others. After the program is complete, each receives an incubator grant of $10,000. Bee is an interdisciplinary maker and metalsmith. Brian Fleetwood, an interdisciplinary and collaborative jewelry artist, served as one of the jurors. Learn more.

ASHLEY BEBLEY WON THE JEWELRY CATEGORY OF THE 2022 ETSY DESIGN AWARDS

In her shop, called ItsAllCultureJewelry, the artist sells work mostly made of polymer clay.

CHRISTIAN HOEDL INTERVIEWED ON THE GLANZ & KANTE PODCAST

The director of a new gallery for contemporary jewelry called C and the Artist, Hoedl talked about what is needed in the field, how he understands his role as a curator, and in which way he brings his attitude into the project, the room, and the social interaction. In English. Listen.

SARAH SCHLEUNING INTERVIEWED ABOUT CARTIER AND ISLAMIC ART: IN SEARCH OF MODERNITY

The exhibition centers on the grandsons of Cartier founder François-Louis Cartier, Louis and Jacques, and their roles in shaping the brand in an exciting era when technology, culture, the past, and the future blurred. Curator Schleuning talks Art Deco, terminology, and her favorite piece in the show. Check it out in artnet news.

OPPORTUNITIES

OPEN CALL: NEW YORK CITY JEWELRY WEEK
For its fifth anniversary, NYCJW22 has two themes: Joy & Human Connection. The organizers will consider a broad spectrum of programs and events that contribute to the culture of jewelry: exhibitions, experiences, thought leadership, and programs and events that encourage industry and consumer interaction with contemporary, cultural, artistic, and critical ideas. Deadline: August 15, 2022. Info.

LOEWE FOUNDATION CRAFT PRIZE 2023

Submissions are now open. First prize is €50,000. The winning work, as well as that of the shortlisted finalists, will be exhibited in New York in spring 2023. Deadline: October 25, 2022. Info.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: ALLIAGES

Alliages’s 2023 exhibition will be called Missing Memories. “As artists we are especially obliged to find more memories, to find those memories that are hiding behind known memories, and that sometimes, by themselves, appear and disappear again. Sometimes through associations, sometimes through certain moods, and sometimes we can’t even fathom why.” Open to students, new graduates, and established artists. Deadline: November 6, 2022. Info.

OPEN CALL: ARTE Y JOYA AWARD 2022

Deadline: August 31, 2022. Info.

CALL FOR ENTRY: INTERNATIONAL PEARL DESIGN COMPETITION

The Cultured Pearl Association of America’s goal is the creation of compelling new pearl jewelry designs worthy of recognition, media exposure, and possible sales. Open to emerging designers and seasoned artists. Deadline: October 7, 2022. Info.

CALL FOR ENTRY: ACJSNI

The Association for Contemporary Jewellery & Silversmiths Northern Ireland seeks applications for its Collectables & Curiosities exhibition at Craft NI in November/December 2022. Deadline: August 12, 2022. Info.

INSTRUCTION

CLASSES AT BJC

Baltimore Jewelry Center has a large selection of online and in-person courses this summer and fall, to hone a range of techniques or learn new ones.

FANTASY, FAKE, OR FAUX: THE FABULOUS HISTORY OF COSTUME JEWELRY

Bella Neyman—curator, jewelry historian, and co-founder of NYC Jewelry Week—will give a 6-week course with four lectures and two virtual visits with costume jewelry aficionados. Curator John Stuart Gordon will introduce the costume jewelry in the collection of the Yale University of Art Gallery. Explore the glitz, the glamour, the technological breakthroughs, and the connection to Hollywood and beyond. Online, September 19–October 31, 2022. Info.

L.A. OBJECTS: LEATHER-FORMING WORKSHOP WITH KERIANNE QUICK

Quick will lead participants through a storytelling exercise, and teach how to form leather using traditional techniques, leather tooling, leather finishes, and attaching hardware to create a functional piece. Each participant will commemorate their own LA story by making a formed leather brooch or key chain to take home. August 27, 2022, at Craft in America Center, Los Angeles, $50. Register here.

MÄRTA MATTSSON LECTURE: MAKING A LIVING AS AN ARTIST

Mattsson will cover how to push your work further, how to use photography to make your work stand out, how to price your work, how to work with contemporary art galleries as well as design shops, how to use social media to reach a wider audience, and how to write contracts and loan agreements. Offered online via Pocosin Arts, September 9 and 16, 2022, $130.

LOCKSMITHING WORKSHOP

Here’s a metals course you don’t see every day! Australia’s Centre for Rare Arts & Forgotten Trades will host a one-day class in which participants will make their own brass padlock and cut their own key using original techniques and hand tools that haven’t changed since the early 1800s. September 17, 2022. Info.

OBITUARY

TERRY CASTRO

The Castro NYC jewelry designer’s work was featured in Sotheby’s Brilliant & Black: A Jewelry Renaissance exhibition last year. He suffered a fatal heart attack on July 18, 2022, in Istanbul, where he lived. He was 50. Castro NYC’s Instagram.

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Art jewelry’s rock-n-roll designer, Terry Castro, of Castro NYC, unexpectedly passed away on July 18, 2022, of a heart attack. He died in Istanbul, where he was based. Through his originality in mixing antiques with African design, Castro pushed his work to always live up to his artistic ideals. He often went without commercial prominence in order to stay true to his vision of displaying Black excellence in jewelry design.

Castro was born in Toledo, OH, in 1972, to a family of black, Mexican, and Native American heritage. Religion played a big role in his early life. He grew up with a Christian mother and a Jewish stepfather. Although he himself did not follow any organized religion, he retained a spirituality and interest in religious matters that was greatly influential in his work.[i]

After growing up in Toledo, he moved to Chicago to pursue a career in fashion. He then moved to New York in search of his big break. There, he found some success having his garments carried at Barney’s New York, contributing as a designer to the Japanese brand IF SIX WAS NINE, and having his work featured at several trade shows around the world.[ii] At the same time, he began designing jewelry and selling it on a sidewalk table in SoHo to support himself. He stated in an interview that his inspiration to work with jewelry came from a conversation he had with a jewelry store owner, who, after Castro asked how to get into the business, suggested he “learn how to repair jewelry” because it provides steady income for a jewelry shop.[iii] This skill allowed him to become more inventive with his pieces.[iv] Eventually, one of his clients suggested he start his own jewelry line, and he founded Castro NYC in 2006.

Castro’s work often featured antique objects he found in flea markets, which he combined with gemstones and references to African abstraction and medieval reliquaries. Often his pieces used historical European techniques to expose their African influences. Castro once stated, “As I was doing […] research, for example on [Gothic] cathedrals, where did that influence come from in Spain? Oh, it came from the people who crossed over from Africa. […] So, I am not really doing Gothic, I am actually doing African.”[v] Noting the Islamic influences in Spanish Medieval architecture, this bold remark critiqued a Eurocentric understanding of history that obscured the more complex origins of design.

From Castro’s spirited mind often tumbled pieces containing cartoon-like figures or parts of nineteenth-century porcelain dolls, adorned in expensive rubies and emeralds. Many of his subjects contained symbolic themes, from his use of monkeys, which served to remind us to embrace movement, to the presence of masks that challenged us to reveal what hides behind the exterior personas we perform throughout our lives.[vi]

The whimsy of his designs and his fun in the process paired with a sense of serious passion. He always tried to make the 35 one-of-a-kind pieces he created each year “at the highest possible level.”[vii] In a recent interview published in Metalsmith magazine, Castro noted that “making [creates] a relationship with your piece.”[viii] His statement demonstrates the care and dedication Castro took in making each of his pieces with the quality and playfulness that defined his brand.

The beautifully unique hallmarks of Castro NYC certainly found an audience of patrons and supporters. Notable clients included Steven Tyler, Whoopi Goldberg, and Billy Gibbons, of the band ZZ Top. Although not a musician himself, Castro’s work and persona had a rock star quality that questioned convention and lived for authenticity, attributes appreciated by his customers. His works were featured on the covers of Forbes, Vogue Latin America, Vogue Mexico, and many other magazines. Castro’s jewelry was also featured in the book Rock Star Chic and on television shows. Woody Harrelson wore Castro’s jewelry in the 2013 film Out of the Furnace, which starred Christian Bale in the main role.

Castro was among the artists exhibited in Sotheby’s 2021 show Brilliant & Black: A Jewelry Renaissance. The show was the first produced by a major institution to focus on Black jewelry makers in America. It aimed to show the “pinnacle of Black excellence” in art jewelry.[ix]

Castro is survived by his family, including his son, Sir King Castro, who announced Castro’s death.

[i] Drawn from answers to questions the author emailed to Sir King Castro, Terry Castro’s son, on August 1, 2022.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Mazzi Odu, “Castro NYC: For the love of Jewellery,” Magnus Oculus, last modified September, 2021. https://magnusoculus.com/castro-nyc-for-the-love-of-jewellery/.

[iv] A recent article in Metalsmith magazine that interviewed Castro described him as a self-taught metalsmith. Leslie Shershow, “Flow: Searching for Infinity,” Metalsmith Vol. 42, No. 1, 2022.

[v] Odu, “Castro NYC.”

[vi] Taken from an Instagram repost on @CastroNYC from @journaldesbijoux, posted January 13, 2021.

[vii] Odu, “Castro NYC.”

[viii] Shershow, “Flow.”

[ix] Alice Kemp-Habib, “Celebrating the Brilliance of Black Designers,” Sotheby’s, Last modified 2021. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/celebrating-the-brilliance-of-black-designers-1.

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