Benjamin Lignel, Bracito de Oro, 2011, mixed media, photo: Jonathan Keenan Susan Cummins: You are famous for your informative website, Klimt02.net. Please tell me the story of how and why you started it. Leo Caballero: I learned about this kind of jewelry in the 1990s by visiting a very good gallery in Barcelona called Positvra, […]
Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h Susan Cummins: Noel, in the May AJF newsletter you talked about your recent move to a larger space. Congratulations! You have been in the business for sixteen years and I am wondering if you can tell me how the contemporary jewelry field has changed during that time. Noel Guymarc’h: From the beginning,
Nature/ Artificial curated by Luzia Vogt Read More »
Otto Kunzli, Himmel II, 2009, stainless steel, 121 x 60 x 12 mm How adept is contemporary jewelry at negotiating a world in flux? Making the most of flux requires fluidity, an ability to embrace movement and change with ease and grace. The opposite of fluidity is fixity, a quality that, in the globalized world
All The World Over: The global ambitions of contemporary jewelry Read More »
Agita Putane and Maris Sustins Susan Cummins: Congratulations on being AJF’s first Latvian gallery. Agita Putane: I am excited and happy about it. This is the best birthday present for our gallery. I would like to thank you for this fantastic opportunity. This is a great chance to tell the world that Latvian jewelry designers
Maris Sustins: Sphere Read More »
Susan Cummins ‘What is your favorite piece of jewelry and how does it reflect your whole collection?’ I am thrilled to answer the question. In truth I have many favorite pieces of jewelry that are held in a trust called the Rotasa Collection Trust. But I rarely get the chance to talk about any of
Lola Brooks, charted territories (installation view), photo: Lola Brooks Susan Cummins: Where did you study? Did you have a mentor there? Lola Brooks: I studied with Myra MImlitsch-Gray and James Bennett at SUNY New Paltz, where I got my BFA. It was inspiring to work with two professors who were as engaged in their
Lola Brooks: charted territories Read More »
Susan Beech from Tiburon, California, wears jewelry with elegance and finesse. She is a passionate collector of art jewelry and a good friend. Early on in her quest for pieces to add to her collection she stopped into my gallery in Mill Valley, California and started buying things. Since then she has explored many parts of the world looking for things that make her heart go pitter pat. For a complete interview with her see the Collecting section of our site. In the meantime you can read about her Collector’s Choice.
Over the years I have collected paintings, art deco everything, photographs, sculpture and ceramics. I didn’t intend to collect jewelry until I saw some original studio jewelry, pieces very different than what my friends were wearing. As I became more educated about the field, I gravitated toward more challenging work, unconventional jewelry materials and subject matter. Soon I realized I was a collector of contemporary jewelry. It is not possible to wear a painting or sculpture, but I do wear jewelry from my collection every day, even some of the more demanding pieces. Some might say I wear too many pieces at the same time but it speaks to my passion.
I have a great respect for the jewelry artists and it has been honor to meet and talk to so many of them about their ideas. When I wear a piece from my collection, I feel I am promoting their work in particular and contemporary jewelry in general by taking it our in the world, sharing my passion and encouraging people to ask questions.
Yasuki Hiramatsu (1926-2012), photo Miriam Künzli ‘My aim is to create forms with force and grace, which are built to bring the potential innate in materials into full play.’ Yasuki Hiramatsu, as we now know, passed away on April 11, 2012, in Tokyo. The Dutch jewelry designer Onno Boekhoud, one of the earliest protagonists of
Yasuki Hiramatsu (1926 – 2012) Read More »
Group photo: [left to right] Francois Macerola, director SODEC; Jean-Pierre Dion, Quebec Trade Office; Annegret Morf; Pierre-Yves Paquette; Jean-Pierre Gauvreau; Elise Bergeron; Gustavo Estrada; Barbara Stutman; Matthieu Cheminee; Patricia Kiley Faber; Roland DuBuc; Lynn Legare; Antonio Serafino; Laurie Dansereau; Janis Kerman;Claudio Pino; Edward S. Faber; Jean-Francois Hould, Quebec Trade Office Susan Cummins: Can you give
Innovation and Craftsmanship: The Jewelers of Quebec Read More »
In 2011 AJF hired two Contributing Writers to produce texts on a regular basis for the AJF website and blog. Jillian Moore and Gabriel Craig wrote eight texts each on a variety of subjects, including exhibition and event reviews and thematic articles about the state of contemporary jewelry. The Contributing Writers program is intended to
2011 Contributing Writers Read More »
Portrait of Atty Tantivit Susan Cummins: What is your background? Where are you from? Where did you attend school? Where do you live now? Bernhard Stimpfl-Abele: I am a goldsmith and jewelry artist with a master’s degree from the Konstfack University in Stockholm, Sweden. I live between Italy and Sweden and I was born in
Bernhard Stimpfl-Abele: Organic Metal – The Old, the New and the Ambivalence in Between Read More »
Françoise Vanderauwera opened Vander A Contemporary Art Jewellery in November 2011 in Brussels, Belgium. She is young and energetic and comes at jewelry from a design perspective and it will be interesting to watch the course she charts in the coming years. Her current show is Jewels Stories by Delphine Joly. It is a very curious and unique collection of jewelry – qualities that also apply to Delphine herself.
Susan Cummins: You are really new on the scene. Can you give me some background what lead you to decide to open a jewelry gallery?
Françoise Vanderauwera: Yes, I am very new on the scene. I knew four years ago that I wanted to open a gallery to show much more of these wonderful artworks to a wider public. The starting point for me was design. I grew up using cutlery by the architect-designer Arne Jacobsen, which my father, who was also an architect, received personally from him. A few years ago, when a Brussels design shop I used to visit closed I began looking for contemporary creators and was amazed by how many high profile gold- and silversmiths, object designers and new jewelers I could recognize. I learned and traveled a lot and now the gallery is up and running.
Delphine Joly: Jewels Stories Read More »
