This brief essay, written by Benjamin Lignel, dips into one of the different important ideas explored in art jewelry. It is excerpted from Skinner’s book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.▲ Skill is part of the magic of craft: an affirmation of virtuosity and an appeal to myth. When embarking on a new project, makers enter a […]
Does Skill Matter? Read More »
The critique of preciousness is an important idea in art jewelry. This concept questions the idea that the value of jewelry is tied to the precious materials from which it’s made. In his 2013 book, Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, Damian Skinner focuses on other points. In summary: Most jewelry ranks materials. It considers precious metals and gemstones
Precious Materials? No, Thanks! Read More »
Art jewelry resists easy definition. That’s because it explores, questions, and challenges the meaning of jewelry. The jewelry historian Toni Greenbaum says that art jewelry, like art, has embodied meaning. This means it is made to communicate an idea. Most jewelry is designed only for adornment. Without embodied meaning, it is not art jewelry. People call art jewelry by different names: contemporary jewelry, studio
Defining Art Jewelry Read More »
Art Jewelry Forum has expanded its efforts to connect more directly with the jewelry community by regularly hosting live chats online. We feature artist studio visits, talk with gallerists about shows they’re hosting, interview curators and authors, and have other programming tied to various jewelry weeks from around the globe. We record these all and
AJF Live with Pioneering Dutch Jewelry Artist and Collector Ruudt Peters! Read More »
These essays were originally published in Damian Skinner’s book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.▲ The Body as a Living Display In terms of contemporary jewelry, the space of the body is not so much a physical destination as it is a reference point and a vehicle. The body functions simultaneously as a platform or a vacancy
Jewelry and the Body Read More »
Namita Gupta Wiggers published this short essay in the book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective, by Damian Skinner.▲ Jewelry has long served as primary evidence of wealth and status throughout global cultures. From a dowry delivered by a father to secure his daughter’s future to polite Victorian-era references to male genitalia as the “family jewels,” connections
Jewelry as a Way to Transfer Wealth Read More »
This brief essay was originally published in Damian Skinner’s book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective.▲ Jewelry accompanies the individual into the public space and into the crowd. It’s in the street that jewelry operates in the tension between the personal and the public, at once an object of private use and an object with an immense
Art Jewelry as a Public Art Read More »
