June 2022, Part 1
There are so many reasons to purchase art jewelry…
- You got that hard-earned promotion—celebrate!
- You’re experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime occasion—honor it.
- You wrapped up that major accomplishment—pay it tribute.
- You want to mark the beginning of a new relationship or the end of one—commemorate it.
- Perhaps it’s an investment—do it!
- It’s the perfect piece to round out an aspect of your collection—pounce!
- Or maybe it’s as 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 have to add to your collection! (Please contact the gallery directly for inquiries.)
Gallery: Galeria Reverso
Contact: Paula Crespo
Artist: Daniel Kruger
Retail price: €4,680
The jewelry made by designer Daniel Kruger is meant to adorn a person. Its place is the body, and its intention is to enhance the wearer. It should be a celebration, to make the wearing of it an occasion. It is also, when not worn, an object for reflection. It is both jewelry and an artefact conceived and made by one person for the enjoyment and gratification of another person. Kruger balances mathematical patterns with softer organic lines, and his choice of materials give his work an aura of ancient treasure.
Gallery: Galerie Elsa Vanier
Contact: Elsa Vanier
Artist: Martin Spreng
Retail price: €4,400
In this brooch, the beautiful topaz crystal is underlined by titanium lines and platinum layers. Chiseling and stamping seem to mimic the crystalline structure and offer a geological landscape. Martin Spreng followed a career path from cabinetmaking to jewelry. He usually mixes fine gold, platinum, silver, wood, and crystals. His unique pieces, forged or hammered, reveal a sculptor’s approach, moved by the beauty of precious matters.
Gallery: Four Gallery
Contact: Karin Roy Andersson
Artist: Flóra Vági
Retail price: €580
Flóra Vági works mostly in natural materials like paper or, as in this case, wood. In her hands the materials develop into something new. It is as if she is giving water to a seed that grows to be a tree or a flower; covering a worm in silk, making it become a butterfly; or lighting a log on fire, turning it into a black piece of coal. She finds and brings out the soul of the material, and she gives it a new identity.
Gallery: Galeria Tereza Seabra
Contact: Tereza Seabra
Artist: Marta Costa Reis
Retail price: €900, plus shipping
“There are images that survive over time and whose significance doesn’t survive with them,” says Marta Costa Reis. “The historical and archeological records show us objects and symbols whose meaning has 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
Contact: Shane Prada
Artist: Emily Cobb
Retail price: US$220
Emily Cobb says this about one of her transformed rings, which is included in the collaborative group exhibition Transforming the Prototype: “The transformation of this prototype was inspired by its visual similarity to columnar basalt, a volcanic rock formed from the molten magma that emerges as lava during an eruption, cools, and forms hexagonal cracks called columnar joints or basalts. Molten lava and the process of melting casting grain share similar visuals, so when I was deciding how to transform the prototype’s hexagonal texture, I decided to use bronze casting grain.” See Emily’s work and 50 other transformations as part of Transforming the Prototype, at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, May 20–July 2, 2022.
Gallery: Fingers Gallery
Contact: Lisa Higgins
Artist: Carmen Burgi
Retail price: NZ$1,035
“I’m a New Zealander from the south of the south,” says Carmen Burgi, “and as such much of my work derives from the spectacular landscape and botanical beauty around me. My work usually ends up in a feeling of ‘organic-ness,’ in an undefined sense. The wearer may be unsure what it is exactly. A piece may infer both the land and sea, darkness and light, the sinister and ethereal, budding beauty or that of decay. The result is part my observation, part whimsy, and I hope, conveys my love of our island … New Zealand.”
Gallery: Thereza Pedrosa Gallery
Contact: Thereza Pedrosa
Artist: Gigi Mariani
Retail price: €1,440
Artists who make art jewelry sometimes use goldsmithing and art techniques that are thousands of years old, and it is the combination of the history embodied in techniques such as niello, granulation, or fire enamels, and the contemporary style of the artists that create a unique and fascinating result. Gigi Mariani employs niello, a sulfide used since the 5th century BC, in a pictorial and material way. The artist, by entirely covering his works with black sulfide, creates precious jewels that appear as reminiscent objects of the past corrupted by time and by the weathering experienced, but at the same time illuminated by the fleeting apparition of golden light.
Gallery: Galerie Marzee
Contact: Marie-José van den Hout
Artist: Jonathan Boyd
Retail price: €1,325
Jonathan Boyd’s latest work is a continuation of his earlier work where texts were incorporated into typesetting as if they came right out of the printing press. Computer technology and electroforming now make it possible to incorporate written text into his jewelry. His current exhibition, Emergent Dialogues of the Topophilic Line, is on display at Galerie Marzee until June 15, 2022. Parts of the exhibition will be on display at Schmuck – Frame, in Munich, from July 6–10, 2022.
Gallery: Platina Stockholm
Contact: Sofia Björkman
Artist: Julia Walter
Retail price: US$2,000
Julia Walter works with condensed form for complex matters where intuitive drawings create her motifs. She likes to play with the vision and wants to leave space for the wearer of the work. This pendant is made of reconstructed lapis lazuli. The size is big, as if it could be a real snake. Do you dare to wear it? Walter is a jewelry artist based in Amsterdam.
Gallery: Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h
Contact: Noel Guyomarc’h
Artist: Takashi Kojima
Retail price: CAN$6,100
Takashi Kojima lives and works in Japan. Characterized by impeccable geometric structures in silver and cut stones, the artist’s creations are inspired by architecture as well as manga and anime culture, such as Transformers characters, which are very popular in Japan. His constructions are intriguing, with no visible settings, as if the stones were held together by magic, ready to unfold.
Gallery: Galerie Spektrum
Contact: Jürgen Eickhoff
Artist: Detlef Thomas
Retail price: US$5000
Detlef Thomas’s theme was “the ultimate ring.” For him, it meant reducing the “ring” to its essentials. And he came to a very good result.
Gallery: Gallery Loupe
Contact: Patti Bleicher
Artist: Yutaka Minegishi
Retail price: US$3,200
Yutaka Minegishi studied metalwork at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, in Tokyo, before moving to Germany, where he was a guest student at Fachhochschule, in Pforzheim. From 1996–2002, he studied under Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, from which he received a graduate degree in 2003. He has exhibited widely, including three solo shows at the prestigious Galerie Wittenbrink, in Munich, and group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria; and at Project Space as part of Radiant Pavilion, at RMIT University, Melbourne. Minegishi is the recipient of several awards, including DAAD Preis (2003); Bayerischer Staatspreis (2014); and Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt (2016), Munich. He is in several important collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Stichting Françoise van den Bosch, Amsterdam; Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo; Muzeum Českého Ráje, Turnov, Czech Republic; and Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Swiss National Museum, Zurich. In 2019 Minegishi was included in Schmuck, at the IHM, in Munich, where he was a recipient of the coveted Herbert Hofmann Prize.
