Platina, Stockholm, photo: Rikard Westman Kellie Riggs: I’ve recently listened to your lecture at the 2014 SNAG Conference in Minneapolis. One of my favorite things you said was something so simple: “Jewelry gives us satisfaction, it enables another way of being, seeing…” Can you talk more about this satisfaction? Does your gallery function as a […]
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For the past 27 years, Galerie Marzee has held an annual show of graduate work from jewelry departments around the world. This year, 33 schools are represented. The amount of work Marie-José van den Hout, owner of the gallery, puts into assembling the show—year after year—is astonishing. She sees all the work in person and, when she can, actually visits each school to make her choices. This translates very little in the way of sales. Now, that is either very foolish, or an extremely passionate conviction about the need to show young jewelers’ work. She obviously believes that she is providing an important service to the whole field by assembling this show. Thank you, Marie-José, for your tireless efforts.
Susan Cummins: How long have you been doing the graduate show at your gallery?
Marie-José van den Hout: I began organizing the graduate show in 1987, when the gallery was still in the building on Ganzenheuvel. I started by showing graduate work from the departments of silversmithing, 3D design, and jewelry from only a few Dutch academies: Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Arnhem, and Maastricht’s Stadsacademie voor Toegepaste Kunsten. The exhibition has now grown into a major event and this year we are showing jewelry and some vessels by 74 students from 33 schools in 18 countries around the world.
Who received your Marzee prize this year? Where are they from?
Marie-José van den Hout: This year six graduates were awarded the Marzee Graduate Prize 2014. Their work really stood out to all of us here at Galerie Marzee, and we look forward to seeing how their work continues to develop as they begin their careers in the field of contemporary jewelry. As Marzee Graduate Prize winners, they will each be invited to participate in a workshop, Atelier Ravary, at the Ravary Estate in Belgium.
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Gallery Funaki recently launched the inaugural Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewelry to honor and recognize Mari Funaki, a unique and passionate advocate for contemporary jewelry in Australia. This award aims to celebrate Mari’s legacy by recognizing the skills and talent of jewelers, both local and overseas, and by providing a platform for outstanding new work to be shown in Australia. Artists worldwide, at any stage of their practice, were invited to apply for the award; over 530 entries from more than 35 countries were received. The work of 31 finalists was selected and is currently on exhibit at Gallery Funaki from August 13–September 13, 2014.
The winner of the established artist category is Kiko Gianocca, from Switzerland, with a series of three necklaces collectively titled Veneer. His work has been exhibited internationally since 2003 and he is currently represented by Gallery Funaki.
In the emerging artist category, two winners were selected: Patrícia Domingues, from Portugal, with her pendant from the Duality series, and Polish artist Sara Gackowska for her brooch, Membrane, from the Methamorphosis series. In addition, two commendations were given, the first to Inari Kiuru, a Melbourne artist, for her two brooches from the Evolution series, and Jiro Kamata, based in Germany, for his Spiegel necklace.
The recent announcement of winners provided an opportunity to speak with gallery director Katie Scott about the award and her vision for the gallery, as well as hear from the three winners.
Bonnie Levine: Mari Funaki was an important visionary and maker in the world of contemporary jewelry, particularly in Melbourne. Can you tell us about her and her legacy?
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Tilling Time/Telling Time is the latest jewelry exhibition held at the Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery. The exhibition is in conjunction with the launch of Karen Lorene’s newest novel of the same name. The show features jewelry artists Kit Carson, Jude Clarke, Kevin Crane, Marita Dingus, Robert Ebendorf, Cynthia Toops, Roberta and David Williamson, Deb Karash, and Anne Fischer. Karen loves words and jewelry separately and together, but always with a story in mind.
Susan Cummins: Karen, you have done a number of shows relating words and jewelry, such as Louder than Words, Woman Working Words, and your series of publications called Signs of Life. Now you have published your own novel called Tilling Time/Telling Time. Can you tell us what it is about?
Karen Lorene: The novel is based on a grandfather I never saw, never met. I knew only one thing about this man: he ran away with the neighbor lady. And so begins a made-up tale about a granddaughter and a grandmother, each telling her story about falling in love, marrying, and then how life, as life is wont to do, comes along and hits each upside the head and makes each a strong, independent woman.
Why did you decide to write this particular story?
Karen Lorene: Half of my life is writing. Ideas appear, and then words, and then, strangely enough, a novel. Creating a world, populating it, following where characters lead is like indulging in the finest chocolate, the finest meal.
Tilling Time/Telling Time: Curated by Karen Lorene Read More »
Although Anna Cheng grew up in a family of jewelers, she spent more than 10 years working as an interior architect before founding Ame Gallery. “Working in contemporary jewelry,” Anna says, “is a bridge between my education in architecture and my family heritage.” In a recent exhibition, Building Jewellery, Ame Gallery showcased a cross-pollination of the two fields by displaying architecture-inspired contemporary jewelry and hosting a jewelry workshop for six Hong Kong architects.
Olivia Shih: This project, Building Jewellery, intended to illustrate the relationship between architecture and contemporary jewelry. Can you discuss what that relationship is? What drew you to this particular topic?
Anna Cheng: Architecture is very close to me because of my previous profession as an interior architect. Since I started working in contemporary jewelry, I have noticed that there are many things in common between the two. To me, architecture is a way to perceive the world, and its concepts are not limited to building environments. I wanted to explore its concepts in contemporary jewelry and see how artists express elements of architecture in their work.
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Amber has a long and storied past as a material used in jewelry. From being called “the Baltic gold” to rarely being used in contemporary jewelry, today amber is experiencing a renaissance. This renewed interest in the material is the subject of an important exhibition at Gallery Putti in Riga, Latvia. Called Amber in Contemporary Jewelry and running from May 22–August 2, 2014, this exhibit demonstrates the possible range of application of amber in contemporary art jewelry as created by 20 artists from Latvia and Italy, as well as from countries along the ancient Amber Road (Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, and Hungary). It not only links the Amber Road geographically but also historically by connecting ancient times with the present, and by demonstrating the richness of amber jewelry creation today. Here Bonnie Levine speaks with Gallery Putti’s Eva Melnika, who is interning with the gallery this year.
Bonnie Levine: Amber has been around for 40 to 60 million years and there’s a real mystique to it—it’s been traded, worshipped, and used for healing and protective purposes going back in time. Can you elaborate on the history of amber and why it’s important today?
Eva Melnika: Amber has always been known as the Baltic Gold—it can feel warm and fragrant, and the Etruscans valued amber even more than gold for its beauty and the healing properties they believed it held.
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Group shows are tricky things. Taboo Studio has had a number of them in the past, with titles like Structure and Purpose, Color and Form, and Perspective and Invention, so a show called Out of the Blue isn’t surprising. The hard thing to do with a group show is to make an observation about something, anything really, that the artists or pieces of jewelry have in common, come up with a theme, and then assemble a grouping that makes sense within the theme you have chosen. Taboo has done this numerous times over the years and is practiced at it. For this post, I spoke with Jane Groover, one of the gallery’s owners, as well as with a number of artists who participated in the show.
Susan Cummins: Jane, in the exhibition Out of the Blue, you asked the following artists to interpret the theme as it relates to the sea and sky:
Brooke Battles • Marilyn Brogan • Susan Chin • Petra Class • Jane Groover • Sydney Lynch • Wendy McAllister • Christina Seebold • Cindy Sumner • Myung Urso
Did you imagine this to be mainly about landscape or color?
Jane Groover: I initially thought that the work in Out of the Blue would be about both landscape and color, while acknowledging that blue certainly means different things to different people. It felt like an intriguing title because of its ambiguity. And since it is common knowledge that the majority of people claim blue as their favorite color, I imagined the work for this exhibition would probably focus primarily on color.
Klimt02 has both an online platform for the art jewelry community and a gallery located in Barcelona, Spain. It is owned by Amador Bertomeu and Leo Caballero and has become an influential and informative source of information for everyone interested in contemporary jewelry. In this interview, Amador and Leo, speaking as one, provide us with
Portrait of Antonella Villanova, photo: Hugh Findletar Kellie Riggs: When did your interest in contemporary jewelry begin, and how did that transform into a desire to open a gallery? Antonella Villanova: The interest in contemporary jewelry was born about 10 years ago, at first with jewelry made by visuals artists, but I wasn’t satisfied. After,
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In 2012, Dutch cultural entrepreneur[1] Machtelt Schelling opened Ubi, a gallery for contemporary jewelry and ceramics. It is the first gallery of this kind in Beijing and one of the very few in China. The mainland is notoriously difficult to penetrate for Western small-to-midsize entrepreneurs and does not have a contemporary scene to speak of.
Exhibition photograph, Jewelers’Werk Galerie, Dittlmann-Jank (with reflection of Bettina Dittlmann in mirror!), 2010, photo: Michael Jank Missy Graff: Can you please explain how your gallery came to be located in Washington, DC, and how you chose your particular location in that city? Ellen Reiben: Jewelers’Werk Galerie started out as V.O. Galerie in 1984. It was
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ATTA Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand, is run by Atty Tantivit and shows an international selection of jewelers with local ones. It makes for an interesting mix worth looking in on from time to time. The exhibition Hardware Artware highlights five jewelers who have been showing together for a few years and who are experimenting with presentations. They have an interesting history.
Susan Cummins: Why did you choose these particular five artists–Francisca Bauzá (Germany), Lisa Björke (Sweden), Märta Mattsson (Sweden), Deborah Rudolph (Germany), and Nina Sajet (The Netherlands)—to be in this show?
Atty Tantivit: Though I have seen some of their works before separately, I first saw them working as a group at the exhibition Pin Up during Schmuck 2012. Their pieces are different in many ways but are of equal strength in terms of concept, technical quality, and their communicative languages. There was a synergy among them. I think the way they present their works together is fresh and exciting—a group of young female artists in a field that was dominated by men a decade or so ago. Also, all five of them are from northern European countries that are key players in terms of contemporary art jewelry. It was interesting for me to see similarities and differences in their works.
