Search Results: AJF Live

Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewelry

| August 26, 2014

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.

Gallery Funaki

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: Curated by Karen Lorene

| August 18, 2014

Karen LoreneTilling 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.

 

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Difference and Repetition

| July 24, 2014

This keynote address was delivered on July 5, 2014, at the Auckland Museum, during the Talkfest organized by Objectspace with the support of Creative New Zealand. The program began the day before, with a PechaKucha evening, and continued throughout the day with contributions by makers Pauline Bern, Warwick Freeman, Richard Orjis, and Lauren Winston; curators…

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Out of the Blue

| July 14, 2014

Myung UrsoGroup 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. 

 

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Discover, Dissect, Display

| July 10, 2014

Exhibition view, hands and machines, installation, Mikiko Minewaki, 2007, H.P. FRANCE, Tokyo, photo: Otto Künzli Makiko Akiyama: Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up, where did you train, what is your current occupation? Mikiko Minewaki: I was born in Akita prefecture in 1967 and grew up in Kitaakita, a…

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Beth Ann Gerstein and Fabio J. Fernández

| May 15, 2014

Fabio J. Fernández (left), Beth Ann Gerstein (right), photo: Céline Browning When I visited The Society of Arts and Crafts gallery space to interview Executive Director Beth Ann Gerstein and Exhibition Gallery Director Fabio J. Fernández, the comfortable, open three-room space looked like Christmas morning. Piles of discarded wrappings littered the floor and brightly colored…

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I am an Authentic Maker

| May 15, 2014

Benjamin Lignel and Namita Wiggers, Art Jewelry Forum Speakers Tour, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 22nd October 2013 In the fall of 2013, several contributors to the AJF book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective toured North America to present the publication. Editor Damian Skinner spoke at Pratt and at the Renwick Gallery. Museum of Contemporary Craft…

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A Mysterious “Test Drive” through Space

| May 13, 2014

Art Jewelry Forum Speakers Tour, Museum of Contemporary Craft (MoCC), Portland, Oregon, October 19, 2013 I am the intern, so I move and paint walls and plinths and arrange lights to temporarily showcase 10 works by 10 makers on a fine Indian-summer Saturday afternoon. A small group of jewelers was gathering in the lab space…

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Kete with Dodd, Haydon and Wilkinson

| May 7, 2014

Jane DoddCaroline Billing, owner of The National in New Zealand, participated in a fair with three of the artists she represents, and AJF took this opportunity to interview all of them about their work. They are articulate and smart. No wonder the New Zealand jewelers are making their mark internationally.

Susan Cummins: Can you describe the Kete fair and symposium event?

Caroline Billing: Kete was a four-day art fair and symposium that was recently held in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a new event (this was its second incarnation) and the first of its kind here for us. The concept is to bring together galleries to showcase their selected artists across different craft mediums. Talks around the subjects of collecting, artists’ practices, and current issues in craft were held, and it included keynote speakers during the daytime and evenings.

What part did you play?

Caroline Billing: I represented three of my jewelers at Kete with the aim of highlighting three distinct and successful current practices by New Zealanders in contemporary jewelry.

 

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Amsterdam 2013

| December 30, 2013

Art Jewelry Forum’s Trip to Amsterdam, the World’s Heart of Contemporary Art Jewelry October 10–14, 2013   Thursday, October 10  Marjan Boot and Dirk Jan Biemond, Rijksmuseum entrance hall, photo: Sofia Silfverstolpe Friday, October 11 After 10 years of renovation, the newly re-opened Rijksmuseum has a new and extended jewelry department. The author and collector…

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