August 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 bi-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: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, bijoux et objets contemporains (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Bryan Parnham
Retail price: US$800
Constantly reflecting on his work and his choice of artistic disciplines, Bryan Parnham successfully ventured into the world of jewelry, winning AJF’s 2024 Young Artist Award. He has developed a photoengraving technique that enables him to explore different notions related to photography, another of his passions. More specifically, these pieces are, in part, a reaction to ideas of photo theory written by thinkers. For example, Barthes describes the interpretation of a photograph in terms of “studium”—the interest of the photo in relation to the culture of the viewer)—and “punctum”—the impregnable element that touches the viewer. Parnham experimentally presents the “punctum” dissociated from the “stadium.” He offers a detail, here in the form of a symbol, without the wider context of a photograph. Once the punctum has been worn, the context becomes the wearer. The wearer then becomes his own studium, his own intentional context.
Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Tereza Seabra (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Catarina Silva
Retail price: €1,800, plus shipping
“It all begins with the encounter. The idea of amor fati seems to be present, the love of destiny, that describes an attitude where one sees everything that occurs in life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at least, as necessary. It is characterized by the acceptance of the events or situations that occur in life[. And] perhaps humor, which is also present in these pieces, can be a certain form of love of destiny, a way of implicating and assuming oneself in a specific situation or denouement: the assumption and the overcoming. It seems to me that humor can be a pacifying agent and works as affirmation on the authorship and on the choice of the contours of our own story. Once again, it is very evident that, for Catarina Silva, that is a primordial vehicle to feel, experience, and aesthetically translate life.” —Carolina Quintela
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: Dierra Jones
Retail price: US$285
“Place and storytelling are important elements in my work,” says Dierra Jones. “Different silhouettes and colors allow those stories to come to life. Money in the Bank enabled me to travel to my childhood to a time where my family and I would watch wrestling in my parents’ bedroom as a form of entertainment. This brooch represents those memories, as well as symbolizes how ladders or stairs can be used to achieve an end goal or reach success.” Jones is an artist, jeweler, and teacher living in Savannah, GA. She was recently an artist-in-residence at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, where she created this piece.
Gallery: Fingers Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Lisa Higgins (click the name for email)
Artist: Joe Sheehan
Retail price: NZ$840
Joe Sheehan studied contemporary jewelry at Unitec in the mid-1990s, and since then has worked in carving studios throughout New Zealand. His interest in the historical, geological, and cultural context of stone has led to extensive on-site field work and exploration both in Aotearoa and overseas. The space between adornment and artifact has given him a wide field within which to operate. Sheehan’s artworks often twist the familiar and include everyday objects such as a working light bulb, a cassette tape, and batteries meticulously carved from Pounamu (New Zealand jade). In his most recent series, titled Tilted Perspective, Sheehan explores the world of optical illusions where two-dimensional objects appear 3D.
Gallery: Galerie Door, Marienheide, Netherlands (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Doreen Timmers (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Tatjana Giorgadse
Retail price: €355
Tatjana Giorgadse’s art is recognizable by its playfulness and freedom. Giorgadse mixes heavy materials with a rich and eventful history—such as stones—with light materials that, in a certain timeline, have “just come into play”: plastics. Giorgadse has the power to make strong and exciting compositions, reshaping past and present.
Gallery: Ornamentum, Hudson, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Stefan Friedemann (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Joan Parcher
Retail price: US$1,040 for each pair
Joan Parcher is an icon of the American jewelry scene. These Color Study Earrings are available in various colors. “My goal was to ‘make something out of nothing,’” says Parcher. “I collected 97 different colors of recycled trash plastic. I use this plastic to construct earrings. Each earring is a seven-sided hollow form with an arrangement of six different colors. Earring pairs are left and right—so each earring is a mirror image of its mate. This mathematical expression determines that I can get 494,086,184 pairs of earrings in different color arrangements and combinations from my ‘nothing’ trash plastic. No two pairs of earrings will be the same.” All earrings come on a 4 ½ x 4 ½-inch (114 x 114-mm) square of thin MDF board. The boards are painted in colors that contrast or complement the color of the earrings. The back of each board has a “hanging slot” for a nail. The earrings themselves are an around ¹¹⁄₁₆-inch (17.5-mm) cube, plus the finding. They are made of recycled plastic, stainless steel, and sterling silver, with 14-karat gold posts. They are very light and comfortable.
Gallery: Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry, Chicago, IL, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: The Pistachios Team (click the team’s name for email)
Artist: Sabine Müller
Retail price: US$1,295
Featuring a sizable faceted rutilated quartz with unique inclusions, this oxidized sterling silver ring is one-of-a-kind. Rich textures beautifully complement each other. And with an open design, this ring is as comfortable as can be.
Gallery: Zu design, Adelaide, Australia (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Jane Bowden (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Kath Inglis
Retail price: Each, AUS$200
Kath Inglis’s Skin Deep bangles reference a series made for her very first exhibition, If the Shoe Fits …, held at Zu design after her graduation from the South Australian School of Art, in 2000. That group show of recent graduates was where Inglis sold her very first piece, a Skin Deep bangle. This new series of bangles showcases techniques Kath has developed over 24 years, most recently printing cellophane onto the PVC. The multicolored Skin Deep bangles are part of the Zu, Me & JCB exhibition at Zu design that coincides with Zu design & Jane Bowden, at JamFactory. For 27 years, Zu design has sold and shown the work of 332 makers. The current exhibition showcases some of their South Australian makers and how they came to sell at Zu design.
Gallery: Platina, Stockholm, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Sofia Bjorkman (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Helena Lehtinen
Retail price: US$4,000
Helena Lehtinen describes her work as trying to find meaning in the meaninglessness. This is not just a typical Finnish mentality but a characteristic, human, and humorous way of working by one of Finland’s most active and respected jewelry artists. With great commitment and characteristic visual language, she has taken her place on the international stage, and her work has a high collector’s value.
Gallery: Aaron Faber Gallery, New York, NY, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Patricia Kiley Faber (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Michael Zobel
Retail price: US$2,975
This is a signature of German jewelry designer Michael Zobel and his master goldsmiths, who were able to compose the fine stripes of platinum fused to high-karat red gold in an otherwise stark vertical terminating at one end with a Tahiti pearl.
Gallery: Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, US (click the gallery name to link to the website)
Contact: Chloe Le Pichon (click the name for email)
Artist: Seth Michael Carlson
Retail price: US$3,990
The Mantis Ring is the ultimate statement of empowerment, and it will be sure to start a conversation! The ring is entirely hand crafted using traditional goldsmithing techniques, and it features a trillion-cut green tourmaline. When worn, the ring gives the appearance of climbing the finger. It can be oriented in either direction. Sculptural, one-of-a-kind, and made from sustainably and ethically sourced materials.
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: Kayo Saito
Retail price: €1,800
“Carnelian’s orange can be seeds,” says Kaiyo Saito. “The seeds for the fruits from a previous life and a starting point for the next generation. A celebration for the achievement of 25 years of Reverso Gallery and now cheering for the next decades to come.”
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: Veronika Fabian
Retail price: €1,300
This series of jewelry by Veronika Fabian is made up of flattened chains that create greatly enlarged jewelry clasps. Clasps play an important part in jewelry. They keep the piece together, attach it to a body, make it wearable. But often it is only the function that is noticed, while the clasp itself is hidden. Fabian’s pieces give them their rightful place in the spotlight. They inspire respect and radiate weight—status that also rubs off on the wearer. Fabian has a background as a risk analyst in the financial industry, and her work touches on issues of capitalism and its impact on everyday life and identity.
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