December 2024, Part 1
Right now, we all could use a treat. It feels good to get a terrific piece of art jewelry for ourselves while celebrating and supporting artists and the galleries who show them!
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: Platina, Stockholm, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Sofia Bjorkman (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Sondra Sherman
Retail price: US$3,000
This pendant belongs to the new body of work, The Gemstone Apothecary, which weaves together themes of science, superstition, and the symbolic language of jewelry. The inspiration stems from a residency at Trier University Idar-Oberstein Campus. Immersed in the gemstone industry, which defines the city, Sondra Sherman sought to respond to the unique environment while continuing to explore her ongoing interest in “process as metaphor” and jewelry’s psychological and social roles. Though initially struggling to find a connection, Sherman became intrigued by the healing stones sold in local tourist shops. Through this lens, the healing stones became a new symbol within the work. The shape is inspired by the chemical structure of Sertraline, which is in a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. It works by increasing the amounts of serotonin, a natural substance in the brain that helps maintain mental balance.
Gallery: ATTA Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Atinuj Tantivit (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Beppe Kessler
Retail price: €1,700
Beppe Kessler, a two-time winner of the prestigious Herbert Hofmann Prize, is renowned for her wearable art pieces that blend storytelling with craftsmanship. She employs a distinctive collage technique, combining her miniature paintings with found objects to create pieces that evoke personal and universal narratives. Her Clear Sky brooch, for example, brings to mind a sunny beach vacation through its vibrant colors and carefully chosen elements. This versatile brooch is designed to serve both as wearable art and as a decorative wall piece when not in use, offering a beautiful reminder of relaxation and joy in any setting.
Gallery: Galerie Door, Mariaheide, the Netherlands (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Doreen Timmers (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Vanessa Arthur
Retail price: €525
With an almost carelessly painterly gesture, Vanessa Arthur captures the moment. Wearing this mesmerizing brooch lifts our impermanent body to a next level—at least for a moment.
Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Tereza Seabra (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Verena Sieber-Fuchs
Retail price: €300, plus shipping
Verena Sieber-Fuchs is an artist from Switzerland based in Zurich. She is a master of crocheting her everyday life. She is a furious collector of everything that surrounds her, from medicine blisters to orange paper, stamps, beads, etc. Everything is ritualistically kept with care to speak about pleasure, sorrows, or politics. It’s a game with all kinds of materials, and—above all—with no precious ones to make them precious. This piece is part of her solo exhibition at Galeria Tereza Seabra, The Year of the Revolution.
Gallery: Pistachios Contemporary Art Jewelry, Chicago, IL, US (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: The Pistachios Team (click the team’s name for email)
Artist: Austin Titus
Retail price: US$495
Virginia-based artist Austin Titus has expertly combined orange kyanite, oxidized sterling silver, and gold vermeil to create a unique pair of earrings unlike any other. There’s a beautiful push and pull between positive and negative space, all in a flattering teardrop shape. And with a great deal of movement, this pair is sure to turn heads.
Gallery: Zu design, Adelaide, SA, Australia (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Jane (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Leonie Westbrook
Retail price: (Left) AUS$2,750, (right) AUS$3,600
Leonie Westbrook’s Golden Rectangular brooches are inspired by the golden ratio, thought to produce the most aesthetically ideal proportions. “I combined these specific measurements with my intuitive and repetitive hand-making process,” says Westbrook, “inevitably resulting in satisfying imperfection. I handmake not in the pursuit of gaining skill to avoid mistakes and imperfections, but because of these, which seem more worthwhile than any prescribed ideal.”
Gallery: Four Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Zachery Lechtenberg
Retail price: €600
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, alive here and now.
Gallery: Baltimore Jewelry Center, Baltimore, MD, US (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Allison Gulick (click the name for email)
Artist: Andy Lowrie
Retail price: US$575
Andy Lowrie is a jewelry artist who makes wearable, sculptural, and functional objects, as well as works on paper. He is an Australian maker living and working in the United States. Utopia is a brooch from a series in which he reimagines destructive processes as generative ones. Lowrie’s work has been exhibited in Australia, China, Europe, and North America, and has been professionally recognized with awards from Brooklyn Metal Works, in New York, and My-Day By-Day Gallery, in Rome. From 2020–2023, he was the inaugural Teach Fellow at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Towson University, Johns Hopkins University, and Montgomery College (all in MD, US).
Gallery: Galeria Reverso, Lisbon, Portugal (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Paula Crespo (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Herman Hermsen
Retail price: €250
With this series of jewelry, exhibited for the first time at the 2nd Lisbon Jewellery Biennial last June, Herman Hermsen re-creates the theme of mirror jewelry so often used in different cultures and appreciated in antiquity for its mystical powers that offered protection and sharpness. Starting from a single shape, the circle—which the artist sometimes uses in overlays and to which he adds movement—Herman Hermsen enhances the light and reflection of the mirrors, where everything that surrounds us is reflected, creating a mysterious and fascinating game.
Gallery: Aaron Faber Gallery (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Patricia Kiley Faber (click the gallerist’s name for email)
Artist: Philipp Munsteiner
Retail price: US$9,850
Philipp Munsteiner, age 20 and heir to the Munsteiner legacy, has been sculpting gemstones under the mentorship of his grandfather Bernd Munsteiner (1943–2023) since the age of eight. This ring is set with his award-winning “Dragon Egg” cut citrine, a bold gem form inspired by the fantasy book Eragon, in which the dragon egg does not hatch until it meets its rider.
Gallery: Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, US (click the gallery name to link to its website)
Contact: Chloë Le Pichon (click the name for email)
Artist: Brienne Rosner
Retail price: $1,375
This brooch is part of a wall piece, so when it is not being worn it becomes a piece of that artwork.
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