The August 2021 Report, Part 2

Art Jewelry Forum shares the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, exhibitions, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on your participation. If you’re a member of AJF, you can add news and ideas to the monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJF by making a donation. Listings gathered with assistance from Carrie Yodanis.

AJF LIVE

We’re taking a brief break, but are currently finalizing this fall’s lineup of new AJF Live programming for you to enjoy. We post all the recordings on our website, so you can watch (or rewatch) anytime. Here are some you might like to revisit:

AJF Live with Erin S. Daily and Brian Weissman, of Brooklyn Metal Works
AJF Live: The Baltimore Jewelry Center Presents Site Effects: Jewelry on Both Sides of the Atlantic, Curated by Anja Eichler and Katja Toporski
AJF Live: Athens Jewelry Week Founders Niki Stylianou & Erato Kouloubi, with Special Guests Liana Pattihis and Sofia Björkman
AJF Live: Gallery Loupe—One World/40 Artists Respond to COVID-19
AJF Live with Robert Lee Morris

ANNOUNCEMENT—2022 YOUNG ARTIST AWARD

We’ve announced the the jury and guidelines for the 2022 Young Artist Award. The winner will receive US$7,500; four finalists will win US$1,000. The winner and finalists will be exhibited at Schmuck 2022. This award is open to contemporary jewelry artists age 35 and under. Get your work in front of this year’s jury: collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg, curator Chequita Nahar, and 2020 Young Artist Award winner MJ Tyson. Applications will be accepted starting November 1, 2021. Application deadline: January 9, 2022. Get information and guidelines.

ANNOUNCEMENT—SCHMUCK 2022

AJF will be attending Schmuck 2022. We will host AJF in Conversation, attend the Thursday night dinner at the Messe, and announce the Young Artists Award winner and finalists on the fair’s main stage. Hope to see you there!

FROM OUR MEMBERS

ARTICLE

Consultant and collector Helen Drutt is most impressed by jewelry that stops her in her tracks, she recently told the Financial Times. In the article “My Favourite Pieces: Contemporary Crafts with the Power to Surprise,” Drutt shares five of her most beloved pieces of jewelry and the stories behind them. Check them out!

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Yvonne Markowitz and Elyse Karlin, of ASJRA, and Libby and Jo Anne Cooper, of Mobilia Gallery, invited 44 international jewelry artists to create work reflecting on their experiences during the pandemic. The exhibition, at Mobilia in September and October 2021, is called Upended Lives: Jewelry in the Age of Covid. “During challenging times,” say Karlin and Markowitz, “artists occupy a unique position in society because of their exceptional ability to unearth, absorb, and illuminate what lies hidden or inchoate. Their creative efforts provide us with the means to understand, comfort, challenge, and seek solutions in troubling times.” An entire issue of Adornment Magazine will be dedicated to the exhibition.

EXHIBITION CURATION

Misun Rheem is curating an art jewelry exhibition as part of the main events at the 2021 Cheongju Craft Biennale, Cheongju City, Korea, September 8–October 17, 2021. With the biennial’s theme of Tools for Conviviality, the show presents art jewelry produced by 20 studio craftsmen from nine countries who utilize various materials such as gemstones, wood, ivory, rice, paper, hair, silicone, fiber, or who work on natural, daily, emotional, narrative, and structural research.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

During the Golden Days event in Copenhagen, September 3–18, 2021, Mette Saabye will be part of the Echoes of a Meal exhibition, at Galleri Goldfingers, that will present jewelry made by herself, Helen Clara Hemsley, Josefine Rønsholt, and Janne Krogh Hansen. They are promoting the exhibition with this video. Get more information here.

EXHIBITION RECOMMENDATION

Teresa Milheiro attended a particular interesting show: “Tudo o que eu quero (All I Want), at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation until August 23, 2021, which shows art by 40 Portuguese women artists from 1900 through 2020. The exhibition is an important retrospective and reflection on a context of creation that for centuries was almost exclusively male. You can travel from their point of view, feeling the many fights Portuguese women artists had to cross to liberate themselves from the roles that society imposed on them. The works explore the relationship between the body, others, and the space that surrounds them. The works include painting, sculpture, photography, and installation. Some of my favorite are by Helena Almeida, Maria José Oliveira, Patricia Almeida, Paula Rego, and Graça Morais.”

EXHIBITION RECOMMENDATION

Adriana Radulescu wrote in about a fantastic retrospective show on Faith Ringgold, at the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, MD, US, through October 24, 2021. “It was emotional and important for me to go back to museums in person, you could see it with the staff, too. I went to the exhibit with timed tickets, and I confess I enjoyed being able to go look at everything without lines and crowds… The Glenstone is a great museum, free, hard to get tickets, though.”

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Karin van Paassen is poring over Alexander McQueen again. She bought it in 2015 after seeing Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. “The exhibition absolutely blew my socks off!” she says. “Jewelry was always part of his collections and sometimes even incorporated into the garment or hair. Characteristic are the use of skulls, horns, bones, crowns, hair, and also clear influences from African and Asian cultures. Sometimes a piece of clothing was actually jewelry itself, like a dress inspired by the Asian ‘Giraffe women,’ who wear a lot of rings around their necks. He pushed the boundaries of jewelry.” See videos and photos.

PAGES

NEW BOOK

Ring Redux: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection accompanies the exhibition of the same name and includes 100+ one-of-a-kind pieces by international artists who subvert the traditional form of the ring, transforming it into a sculptural art object, and adorning wearers with pieces that reflect the diversity of craft, ideas, and aesthetic in an era of global connectedness. Culled from the collection of Susan Grant Lewin, the works, shown through original photography, reveal the keen eye and adventurous experimentation in her collecting. With texts by the collector, Ursula Ilse-Neuman, and Adam Grinovich.

BOOK

The Jewelry of Burning Man, by Karen Christians. $50. Each year nearly 70,000 participants gather at Burning Man. The author, an AJF member, emailed to recommend her 2015 book. It captures the culture and ethos of the event through the rich variety of artistic expressions. The jewelry brought to and made at Burning Man is shared through gifting—it’s neither bought nor sold. This book explores the gathering through the author’s compelling stories and the many artists profiled in the book. Each story reveals the maker’s inspirations and deep connection to Burning Man and its community. 192 pages.

NEW BOOK

Ute Eitzenhöfer: Subtext. US $30. The objects in the latest series by jewelry artist Ute Eitzenhöfer establish a relation between lasting, noble materials and our fast-paced times and their rituals of communication. Through their conceptual, social-critical aspiration, the works build a bridge from traditions of jewelry and gemstone art into the present. The artist juxtaposes longevity, a byword of precious metals and gemstones, with the rapid development of social realities. At the same time, she raises questions concerning our perception, which is increasingly overwhelmed by the speed and cacophony of news, images, and videos. From Arnoldsche.

NEW MONOGRAPH

Deganit Stern Schocken: How Many Is One. US$65. This book presents 50 years of Deganit Stern Schocken’s artistic production, in which the sociopolitical situation of the Israeli jewelry artist’s homeland flows in ever new ways. The book’s title poses the question significant to all design disciplines—how much of the universal resides in the individual and how much of the individual is anchored in the collective?—yet concerns a language seeking a form to articulate ideas. Four chapters, each named after a word from the title, refer to a particular artistic aspect of Schocken’s work. From Arnoldsche.

INTERESTING LINKS

VIDEO

Check out the recording of Perspectives on Patronage, featuring Dr. Joyce J. Scott in conversation with Susan Cummins, a talk hosted by WPA.

ARTICLE

The Jewelry Library took a walk around the neighborhood snapping photos in New York Blossoming. You’ll see jewelry from the TJL Collection, Biba Schutz, and Hatter’s Collection.

ACC PILOT PROGRAM

The lone jeweler among the American Craft Council’s Emerging Artists Cohort is Charity Ridpath, who works with single-use plastic and the wearability of jewelry to create work inspired by various imagined futures and presently endangered ecosystems. The ACC’s new three-month pilot program cultivates the next step for independent craft artists to advance their professional careers, supporting 13 innovative artists new to their careers who are expanding craft boundaries and challenging us to new perspectives. UPDATE: Samira Saheli, who works with talismans and amulets, was also selected. Her work focuses on symbolism and its deep-rooted importance in our everyday lives. (With apologies to the artist.)

UPCOMING TV PROGRAM

Craft in America is producing an episode called Jewelry for PBS. It’s slated to air in December.

JEWELRY IN THE MEDIA

Relive summer camp with the return of friendship bracelets; they’re not just for kids anymore, says the Wall Street Journal.

JEWELRY IN THE MEDIA

Companies are turning the ashes of loved ones, including pets, into stones and diamonds that could be mounted into jewelry. Read about it in Bloomberg.

JEWELRY IN THE MEDIA

The Guardian reports that jewelry helped scientists identify the 1,000-year-old body of a highly respected, high-status, nonbinary community leader. Researchers say that DNA suggests the body buried in feminine attire with swords had Klinefelter syndrome. Learn more.

JEWELRY IN THE MEDIA

This year, Boucheron delivered rainbow-hued pieces in rock crystal and white ceramic accented with diamonds and colorful centerpiece stones. To create the holographic effect, they tapped a French aeronautics company for a special material typically used to coat the lights on airport runways. Read more in the Robb Report.

JEWELRY IN THE MEDIA

Maybe jewelry can rescue Africa’s most fragile economies! “Africa has two main fantastic assets,” says Felix Hruschka, an independent consultant, “all the minerals and resources for jewelry, and great traditions in design and a talent for art. Both can be unleashed for the good of the African people.” The African Development Bank has commissioned consultants to identify where best to target investment in the jewelry value chain, in line with its goal of creating 25 million jobs over the next decade. Read more in the Financial Times.

EDUCATION

FIVE-DAY WORKSHOP, ONLINE

Foldforming with the Master, taught by Charles Lewton-Brain, November 15–­19, 2021. $850. Get info.

THREE-DAY WORKSHOP, IN-PERSON

Enameling Oddities, taught by Keith Lewis, November 12–14, 2021. $560. Get info.