April 2024, 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: Aaron Faber Gallery, New York, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Patricia Kiley (click the name for email)
Artist: Marci Zelmanoff
Retail price: US$850
A signature-style elongated ring by Marci Zelmanoff, made in the 1970s, hand fabricated in twisted sterling silver wire with a center dome of 14-karat gold. The ring is size 5.75/6. In excellent condition, a rare find.
Gallery: Platina, Stockholm, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Sofia Bjorkman (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Annette Dam
Retail price: US$3,900
The amber we find today is more or less 32 million years old. Traces from million of years ago tell us about the evolution of our planet. Looking 28 million years into the future, researchers predict that some plastic materials will remain on Earth. The non-degradable plastics will be left behind as fragments and imprints telling stories about Homo sapiens to future inhabitants. In this ring, Annette Dam has combined fragments from the past, represented in the amber, with today’s materials and traces from our current time—for example plastic hen rings depicting today’s animals and human-processed natural resources. What kind of treasures and imprints do we Homo sapiens add and leave behind?
Gallery: Gallery Loupe, Montclair, NJ, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Patti Bleicher (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Keith Lewis
Retail price: US$2,500
Keith Lewis is a master American jeweler residing in Washington state. He is a distinguished professor of jewelry/metals/design at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA, US, where he has taught for almost 30 years. Lewis states that he is drawn to the jewelry medium because of its intimacy and historical connection with sentiment, a distinctive characteristic of jewelry found in all cultures throughout the ages.
Gallery: Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry, Chicago, IL, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: The Pistachios Team (click the name for email)
Artist: Sowon Joo
Retail price: US$2,595
An absolutely stunning brooch that exemplifies Sowon Joo’s artistry. The delicate crocheted sterling silver elements are adorned with labradorite for added touches of sparkle. And with elegant floral details, this brooch is sure to turn heads.
Gallery: In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Brian Weissman (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Emily Culver
Retail price: US$300
“Journeying into unchartered territory is often preceded by a probe—an exploratory entity whose sole purpose is to survey and collect data. Whether it be the landscape of planet Earth, space, or the body, this machine always belongs away from ‘home.’ If given its own agency, would this tourist choose to become a part of this place? Perhaps it would desire to assimilate, set down roots, or dissolve into the atmosphere.” —Emily Culver
Gallery: Fingers Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Lisa Higgins (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Aaron Brown
Retail price: NZ$680
“I grew up in a pro–creative family,” states Aaron Brown. “Both my parents were self-employed, and the attitude was definitely you can do anything/be anything you want to be. Professionally this attitude has led me initially from bone and wood carving to architectural model-making then on to commercial sculpting, jade carving, jewelry design, and art sculpture.” This latest piece (one of three) is modelled on the Kauri snail shell using locally sourced carnelian. The pieces Brown loves to make are inspired by the natural world. He lives and works in Cambridge, New Zealand.
Gallery: Zu design (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Jane Bowden (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Michelle Taylor (Nawaz)
Retail price: AUS$960
Scape #1 PMS 698C PMS 700C was a response to our first exhibition for 2024 titled Zu design – IN FULL COLOUR. Michelle Taylor uses very subtle color changes on the surface of the hand-carved timber of this series, creating an intriguing otherworldly landscape. It’s a big sculptural piece that’s surprising in its lightness.
Gallery: Museum of Craft and Design (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Ken Irish (click the name for email)
Artist: Lynn Latta
Retail price: US$75
These colorful porcelain earrings enhance any outfit. They are made of sterling silver and porcelain thrown by the artist. Says the maker: “Growing up in the colorful and shifting urban landscape of West LA, I was exposed early and often to a wide variety of modern art and pop culture. I throw my porcelain forms on a wheel, which gives me the ability to create organic forms. The sculptural and translucent nature of porcelain is enhanced by a variety of surface treatments and firings. I strive to interact with the wearer in both a tactile and visual way. The cool surface of the porcelain and the unexpected layering of curves allow tactile exploration by the wearer.”
Gallery: Four Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Tore Svensson
Retail price: €320
Tore Svensson is one of the pioneers of Swedish jewelry art and has a long, impressive career. Experience sits in his back, in his arms and hands. Paving the way for a new art genre requires perseverance, artistic strength, and perhaps also a bit of a playful mindset. These characteristics are also found in Svensson’s works: large iron bowls shaped by thousands of hammer strikes and strict, geometric shapes with surfaces that give the works warmth and sometimes offer a well-balanced amount of humor.
Gallery: Tereza Seabra, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Tereza Seabra (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Svenja John
Retail price: €4,800, plus shipping
“I respond sensitively to my surrounding world and its changes. I extended my formal alphabet … ” says the artist Svenja John. Since 1994, John has worked with Makrofol® polycarbonate and computer-aided cutting techniques to produce individual parts for her creations. After manually re-working and coloring, the parts are transformed into complex, geometric pieces of jewelry. It’s a combination of high-tech and handcraftsmanship that is accomplished in a playful, natural manner. Computer designs and likewise designs created using paper and pencil. Additive production methods alongside paint box and paintbrush. The precision of industrial water-jet technology coupled with the precise use of hand files. This wonderful necklace is part of John’s solo show at Galeria Tereza Seabra until May 17, 2024.
Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, MD, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Allison Gulick (click the name for email)
Artist: Rebecca Strzelec
Retail price: US$450
Rebecca Strzelec serves as associate dean for academic programs and professor within the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. She earned her BFA and MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in metals/jewelry/CAD-CAM. Siblings E is part of 365 Grams, a body of work recently exhibited at Baltimore Jewelry Center. 365 Grams is part documentation, part reclamation. Strzelec created work both from, and inspired by, her grandmother’s costume jewelry. Siblings E uses 3D-printing, vacuum forming, and assembly to capture the form of a faceted bead necklace that belonged to her Gram within a uterine-like boundary to speak to reproduction, connection, and family.
Gallery: Galeria Reverso, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Paula Crespo (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Tanel Veenre
Retail price: €1,760
“How to tell the story of this ‘reverse’ in a light-hearted way?” asks Tanel Veenre. “For this, Valeria Accornero, journalist and curator, came to my aid. She found a very simple and direct key: colors. Orange, purple, fuchsia are my colors. So I took the colors and a heart from the prompt. I love deep burning tones, it correlates with the passion I live. I carved my heart for Reverso from inflamed purple reconstructed stone and added a glowing fire opal as the crown for this heart. It correlates also with the Catholic symbolism where the flames on the heart are symbolic of the burning love Christ has for all of humanity. Sounds a bit pretentious, but the hearts I carve are also my letters of compassion to humanity … I love humans.”
Gallery: Mahnaz Collection, New York, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Noelle Wiegand (click the name for email)
Artist: Gerd Rothmann
Retail price: US$2,100
The Vegetative Form brooches, in steel and colorful Plexiglas, are an early example of Gerd Rothmann’s work from 1968/1973. Pieces in this series were produced as brooches and earrings. Rothmann wrote of the jewelry made during this time, “It was a time of the student riots, the politically explosive times of 68. The Academy of Arts was the environment I was in, where the rebelling against the institutions [became] more important than art. One tried to create political art, which, of course, didn’t work. I was unable to continue the work that I had done as a goldsmith up to that point.” Working with inexpensive materials, like Plexiglas, allowed him to design his jewels while being more immediate and responsive with his work.
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 the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Terhi Tolvanen
Retail price: CAN$2,225
For Terhi Tolvanen, pearls are too perfect. Her goal? To break this perfection. She therefore decides to facet, to cut these pearls. To her surprise, the inner shine of the pearls remains inside. The faceting changes color depending on the quality of the pearls, from lighter to darker colors. These discoveries allow her to work on the process of transforming a piece of jewelry. For example, the metamorphosis of a flower not yet in full bloom until the moment it is finished, the flower is no more, only little remains before it turns into fruit. Creating a composition with dark and white pearls is like working with light and shadow, a feeling of drawing with the material.
Gallery: Galerie Viceversa (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: ilona Schwippel (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Terhi Tolvanen (FR/FI)
Retail price: 2’900 CHF
Nature is an inexhaustible source of inspiration, renewing itself with each dawn, each respiration, each season and weather condition. Terhi Tolvanen observes the evolution of hues, the almost invisible details of plant growth, and the subtle changes in the landscape. Her work is based on an experimental interpretation of nature. Tolvanen pursues her expressive research and raises the question of the materiality of light.
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