September 2023, Part 2
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: Gallery Viceversa, Lausanne, Switzerland
Contact: ilona Schwippel (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Volker Atrops
Retail price: 480 CHF
“The desire to wear jewelry is an innocent, pure, and sensual act,” says the German maker Volker Atrops, “but it’s also an ancient desire. As hair becomes ornaments, adornment is linked to life, to our bodies and to the refusal of death. One of the qualities of jewelry is that it is so close to the body that it participates in its existence. Where art is concerned with representation, jewelry is part of life, blending into the present. With this accessory, we add a detail to life in all its mortal aspects, enriching it. And we unite it with the human. By making pieces that will be worn, I add something to your person.”
Gallery: Gallery Loupe, Montclair, NJ, US
Contact: Patti Bleicher (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Vered Kaminski
Retail price: US$600
Israeli artist Vered Kaminski delights in detail and often follows a mathematical approach to the process of jewelry-making. She employs the meditative aspects of repetition to create delicately intricate structures that feature meandering wire lines and/or the myriad forms found in nature, utilizing diverse materials—both precious and plain. The pieces often have architectural associations, such as fencing, or ornamental connections, for example Islamic tracery.
Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, bijoux et objets contemporains, Montreal
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Tore Svensson
Retail price: CAN$740
With a visual language guided by the use of simple, streamlined geometric forms, the well-known Swedish artist Tore Svensson works primarily in thin steel sheets. Given the simplicity of the contours used, he relies instead on surface treatments, which give his works depth. Ypsilon is not just a letter of the Greek alphabet; in this work, it can represent a choice, a choice between two propositions, between two paths to take.
Gallery: Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry, Chicago
Contact: The Pistachios Team (click for email)
Artist: Emanuela Duca
Retail price: US$3,745
Emanuela Duca’s signature “earth-bound” texture is evocative of volcanic ash and the ancient ruins of her native Rome. This organic texture comes to life in this expressive 18-karat yellow gold and oxidized sterling silver cuff.
Gallery: In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, NY
Contact: Brian Weissman (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Patricia Domingues
Retail price: US$1,700
“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: Galeria Tereza Seabra, Lisbon, Portugal
Contact: Tereza Seabra (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Marta Costa Reis
Retail price: €280, plus shipping
“There are images that survive over time and whose significance doesn’t survive with them,” states Marta Costa Reis. “The historical and archeological records show us objects and symbols whose meanings have 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: Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, MD, US
Contact: Allison Gulick (click name for email)
Artist: Andy Lowrie
Retail price: US$2,400
Andy Lowrie is an Australian maker currently based in Baltimore, MD, where he was the inaugural teaching fellow at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. Working with adornment and decoration in relation to the body, he makes sculptural and wearable objects, works on paper, and paint-based installations. He pursues contemporary expressions of jewelry making that embrace a theatrical and reflexive exploitation of material and process.
Gallery: Zu design, Adelaide, Australia
Contact: Jane Bowden (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Catherine Truman
Retail price: AUS$420
First seen in the 2013 Fictional Science exhibition, shown at Galerie Ra, Amsterdam, this brooch represents a speculative hybridization of marine and plant life-forms that perhaps might be found along the shoreline where the land meets sea and where nature is shaped by human industry. The leaf forms in this brooch have been impressed on actual South Australian scallop shells. Light and bright, this iridescent piece will intrigue and provoke conversation.
Gallery: Four Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Helena Sandström
Retail price: €750
Helena Sandström likes to work with classic jewelry materials such as gold, silver, and pearls. She works with her hands and moves freely between more traditional jewelry and larger sculptural works. The expression is fine-tuned and poetic, often with a shimmer that whispers about other stories that might hide in the shadows.
Gallery: Platina, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact: Sofia Björkman (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Hanna Liljenberg
Retail price: US$250
With a background as a painter, Hanna Liljenberg uses paper or blank metal sheet as a starting point for her jewelry. This foldable material insists on attention. Inspired by brittle lichens and seaside barnacles, her jewelry becomes a man-made growth that dresses the body. These ornaments, with their fragile sharpness, bring a need to adapt to what you are wearing, and in that way enhance the importance of attendance in the present.
Gallery: Mahnaz Collection, New York City
Contact: Noelle Wiegand (click name for email)
Artist: Giorgio Facchini
Retail price: US$2,850
Giorgio Facchini, the modernist Italian jeweler and sculptor, achieved mastery in goldsmithing as a child. Facchini studied with sculptor and painter Edgardo Mannucci, and followed in the tradition of Arnaldo and Gio Pomodoro, being first a goldsmith and then a sculptor/artist. He is best known for his spatialist jewelry made first in the 1960s, followed by the development of exceptional kinetic jewelry in the 1970s. He has won numerous awards and continues to create forward-thinking, abstract designs in gold and precious stones, which reside in important collections worldwide. Facchini’s sculptures explore the interplay of light, time, and architectural space, characterized by futuristic, dynamic designs with geometric elements. Today, he works from his studio in Pesaro, Italy.
Gallery: ATTA Gallery, Bangkok
Contact: Atty Tantivit (click gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Takashi Kojima
Retail price: US$2,800
Takashi Kojima is deeply sympathetic to the spirit of William Morris’s “social movement” in the late 19th century through decorative design. The motif of the brooch came from Morris’s design. The Arts & Crafts Movement was born as a counter to the modern industrial revolution. Our era, with the development of digital technology, is said to be the second industrial revolution. We need to rethink the importance of the use of digital technology to create and perform handwork in this era. This piece was included in the Schmuck 2023 exhibition in Munich, Germany.
Gallery: Museum of Craft and Design, Museum Store, San Francisco
Contact: Ken Irish (click name for email)
Artist: Brooke Battles
Retail price: US$700
Bay Area artist Brooke Battles is inspired by nature, architecture, the feminine spirit, and the human form. She strives for each of her pieces to “seem like a dear friend who, for some special and perhaps indiscernible reason, captures a heart and lives on there.”
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