It is difficult to overstate the influence of Dorothea Prühl on the field of contemporary jewelry or simply to trace its bounds. She taught many, inspired more, and enthuses seemingly everyone. It helps that her colliers straddle the fence between the figurative and the abstract. She is that bit of unmarked territory on your jewelry…
Ted Noten … well, what can you say? He is a phenomenon in this small world of art jewelry. He has become an atelier, not a lone maker; he has developed see-through purses and bags, not just jewelry; he has made videos; he designed the AJF pin in 2012; he cut up a luxury car and made the pieces into brooches; he has written a manifesto; and so much more. This show at Putti Gallery is a retrospective of 25 years of his work. We had to take the opportunity to interview him.
Susan Cummins: You said, “Your story can only get through to people if you rob them of their prejudices about jewellery.” How do you do that?
Ted Noten: I play with greed and seduce by aesthetics, using archetypes that people can recognize and loads of humor. These elements make my work possible to enter and then there are more layers of comments, criticisms, condensations of meanings. All this without being moralistic! But through absurdist mirroring.
AJF and Klimt02 Partnership —Benjamin Lignel It is fitting that the words “critic” and “crisis” share the same root: the Greek krinein, meaning to separate, decide, judge. Indeed, this is a decisive moment for critical writing, which is currently in crisis mode. While the amount of commentary on art, and on contemporary jewelry, has increased…
These podcasts are provided to you through the joint efforts of SNAG and AJF. There are eight lectures in all, recorded during the 2014 SNAG Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. At this time, you can listen to Tanya Herrod give the keynote address, followed by Sofia Björkman of Platina Galerie, art historian Jenni Sorkin, and…
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?
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.
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…
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.
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…
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…
