July 2023, Part 1
There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…
- Celebrate that hard-earned promotion
- Honor a once-in-a-lifetime occasion
- Pay tribute to a major accomplishment
- Commemorate the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one
- Pounce on the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection
- Or invest in 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 can’t live without! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)
Gallery: Four Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Linnéa Eriksson
Retail price: US$715
Linnéa Eriksson’s work is a reflection of her surroundings. Her creativity has its origin in the urban—in the rough surfaces of the city and in structured geometric shapes. She draws her inspiration from pieces of metal, from the feeling of a heavy beat, and from bursts of color from within spray cans. It’s when fusing traditional goldsmith techniques with modern street expression that her jewelry finds its meaning.
Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, bijoux et objets contemporains, Montreal, Canada (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Ambroise Degenève
Retail price: €1,400
For several years now, Ambroise Degenève has been conducting research centered on electroforming, a highly distinctive technique that allows him to “grow” metal. This new body of work includes pearls, which he sees as a response to a defect, a result of chance, and a defense mechanism. Indeed, when a foreign body is introduced into an oyster, the latter protects itself by encasing it in mother-of-pearl until it becomes an actual pearl, a parallel to the process used by the artist. Through the technique of electroforming, pearls are covered with thin layers of metal, until their delicate surface almost disappears under the dark and rough textures of the metal. Degenève’s practice consists of constant experimentation, which he is always enthusiastic about. He offers a range of possibilities through a series of rings and earrings.
Gallery: Zu design, Adelaide, Australia (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Jane Bowden (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Michelle Nawaz
Retail price: AUS$920
This is an early piece by Michelle Nawaz. Nawaz’s deliberate placement of components makes these pieces intriguing and sculptural. The white timber contrasts beautifully with the blackened steel chain.
Gallery: Quittenbaum Gallery, Munich, Germany (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Nadine Becker (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Danni Schwaag
Retail price: €700
This playful, poetic brooch from the blu-men series is a perfect example of Danni Schwaag’s intuitive approach to the medium of jewelry.
Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Tereza Seabra (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Typhaine le Monnier
Retail price: €400, plus shipping
Venus at Sea follows Venus’s journey to the seas, recounting the underwater treasures, the mythical creatures that emerge from the sand, and the enchanting pearls of rare colors that she encounters along the way.
Gallery: Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry, Chicago, IL, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Meg Nash (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Melinda Risk
Retail price: US$2,145
A dreamy addition to any outfit, this necklace features a gold deer prancing on top of a whimsical sterling silver and gold pendant. Deep blue tanzanite and bright rubies add to the liveliness of this gorgeous piece.
Gallery: Mahnaz Collection, New York City (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Noelle Wiegand (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Wendy Ramshaw
Retail price: US$12,000
Wendy Ramshaw (1939–2018) was the preeminent British artist jeweler, a ceramicist and sculptor who started her career making paper jewelry in London, moved on to invent stacking ring sets around 1965, and then went on to tie jewelry to sculpture by designing specific stands for earrings or ring sets to rest on when not in use. Out of the box. All Ramshaw’s jewelry evolved within the geometric confines of the circle and the square. Ramshaw also designed the monumental gates to Hyde Park in Knightsbridge.
Gallery: In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Brian Weissman (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Patricia Domingues
Retail price: US$2,650
“Through my artistic practice,” states Patricia Domingues, “I have been exploring fracturing movements in both artificial and natural materials. What specifically intrigues me is the tension between intentional acts, such as cutting into the material, and uncontrolled accidents, such as fractures. Through the will to control, the fractures develop and are liberated as the material inevitably cracks in release. The lines, fractures, and cuts visible in my work are always the result of repetitive gestures performed on the material and its responsive language.”
Gallery: Thereza Pedrosa Gallery, Asolo, Italy (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Thereza Pedrosa (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Stefania Lucchetta
Retail price: €1,120
Stefania Lucchetta’s works are the result of a long and deep research on shapes, materials, and new techniques. Since the late 90s, her research has been focused on overcoming the boundaries imposed by traditional materials and production techniques, creating jewelry—made of biocompatible resin, polyamide, titanium, or stellite—that keeps pushing the limits of new technologies.
Gallery: Galeria Reverso, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Paula Crespo (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Veronika Fabian
Retail price: €1,240
Veronika Fabian’s work poses as a two-way mirror between contemporary society and jewelry. Her work circulates around questioning the established and the conventional, stirring up the status quo. Chain tattooed brooches form part of the collection Chains for an Average Woman, which draws connections between women’s self-identity, popular culture, and mass media, exploring how identity develops against a background of economic and cultural conditions.
Gallery: Gallery Loupe, Montclair, NJ, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Patti Bleicher (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Timothy Veske-McMahon
Retail price: US$4,800
When is an air freshener a jewel? When it is the centerpiece of a necklace by American artist Timothy Veske-McMahon. As in his prior series, Glyph and Borne, Vanillaroma balances Dada humor with purposefully perplexing iconography. Combining intellect, emotion, signifiers, and things, Veske-McMahon impels us to view the world in all its variety and nuance. Persistently striving to make objects that are, as he states, “confounded enough to avoid … sudden definition and compartmentalization by prior experience,” he, nonetheless, draws his ideas from fundamental human needs: communication, relationships, and home.
Gallery: Viceversa, Lausanne, Switzerland (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: ilona Schwippel (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Petra Zimmermann (AT)
Retail price: 4’200 CHF
This brooch has been created for the ongoing exhibition Wild Grasses, Chance and Seeds of Desire, at gallery Viceversa. The Austrian maker Petra Zimmermann occupies a unique position among contemporary jewelry artists: she shares the exciting approach to the subject of jewelry and the quotable adoption of the (pop) culture label for defining the auteur jewelry concept.
Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, MD, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Allison Gulick (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Dongyi Wu
Retail price: US$700
Dongyi Wu is a Chinese-born contemporary jewelry artist based in San Antonio, TX, US. By using a wide range of unconventional materials, Dongyi creates her narrative jewelry pieces with expressive language that is inspired by literature, her own experiences, and research into psychology. Dongyi has had her works exhibited both nationally and internationally. She was a finalist for ENJOIA’T 2017 and in 2020 she won Preziosa Young as part of Florence Jewellery Week. Dongyi recently visited Baltimore for a one-month residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center.