Catherine Blackburn was born in Patuanak, Saskatchewan, of Dene and European ancestry. She is a member of the English River First Nation. Blackburn is a multidisciplinary artist and jeweler whose common themes address Canada’s colonial past, often prompted by personal narratives. In her practice, Blackburn merges mixed media and fashion to create dialogue between historical […]
Stitching Is Medicine Read More »
Svenja John and Petra Zimmermann originally developed Jewellery & Garment as a fashion-week side event. Their aim: to attract new audiences to author jewelry The curators paired jewelry by 10 makers with garments from 10 avant-garde fashion houses The jewelry is on loan from the artists The deliberately wearable garments are not catwalk showpieces. Some
Contemporary Art Jewelry and How to Wear It Read More »
Lyle Reimer, Lyle XOX: Head of Design. New York: Rizzoli, 2019. Let’s push the conversation about art jewelry by looking at a makeup artist from the drag and fashion world who photographs himself while wearing trash on his head, shall we? Lyle Reimer’s fantastic assemblages, captured with formal portrait photography, are collected in Rizzoli’s stunning
Fabulously Ordinary Read More »
Upper level gallery case study: Wedding Ensemble, Karl Lagerfeld for House of Chanel, autumn/winter 2014–2015 haute couture, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, 2016, photo: Courtesy of CHANEL Patrimoine Collection © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, the most recent fashion extravaganza of an
Are the Hand and the Machine Really Equal? Just Ask the Experts. Read More »
Outdoor view, Carolina Apolonia’s studio, Middelburg, Netherlands, photo: Galerie Beyond Carolina Apolonia is a jeweler based in Middelburg, Netherlands, whose work has been shown in a number of exhibitions in Europe as well as Asia. She trained at the Royal Academy of Art in Antwerp, Belgium, and was the owner of gallery io for contemporary
Carolina Apolonia: Of Things Unknown but Longed for Still Read More »
Maiko Takeda, Atmospheric Reentry, 2013, headwear, plastic film, acrylic, silver, dimensions variable, photo: Bryan Huynh Looking at the work of artists from a wide range of practices—artists like Yuka Oyama, Rachel Timmins, Lucy McRae, or Nick Cave—there seems to be a surge of interest for deploying ornamentation, or body art, over the whole body of
Travis Chantar, (left) Julian Woodhouse, 2015; (right) Ledom, 2015, both from Tribe by Chantar Cut flowers are an iconic representation of ephemerality, the cycle of beauty and the process of death. Flowers and Tribes, two photographic series by New-York-based Travis Chantar, depict young, nude sitters adorned with ephemeral petal arrangements and body-paintings. I was interested
The Ephemeral Art of Petals, Paints and Bods Read More »
Anna Lindsay MacDonald, brooch, 2014, sterling silver, acrylic, freshwater pearl, enamel, 90 x 90 x 15 mm, photo: artist Anna Lindsay MacDonald, a jewelry artist based in Canada, explores a multitude of paradoxes. MacDonald examines the reverence for tradition and allure of luxury versus the disdain for commercial pandering to the masses. She explores concepts
Anna Lindsay MacDonald: Re: Halcyon Dream Read More »
Alexander Blank, Bunny, 2006, gold, stag horn, 95 x 60 x 12 mm, photo: Stefan Heuser, modeled by Stefan Heuser Alexander Blank’s jewelry frequently riffs on the notion of pop-cultural-icons-as-cameo-portraits: bashed yellow “smiley-face” brooches, “skull” pendants seemingly made of the fossilized remains of Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil and, in this piece, a roughly
Blank Versus Anonymous Faun: Contemporary Jewelry and Male Eroticism Read More »
Damselfrau, Liorin, 2015, mask, mixed media, selfie Magnhild Kennedy, a.k.a. Damselfrau, is a Norwegian artist living in London. A self-taught maker of masks, Kennedy dances on the blurry lines of fashion, design, and craft, a space she isn’t wanting to define. Although she doesn’t consider herself a jeweler, her work has a strong dialogue with
In Conversation with Magnhild Kennedy Read More »
VALIE EXPORT, Tapp und Tastkino (Touch Cinema), 1968–1971, performance, photo: mumok, Vienna The late 1960s were turbulent times. Liberation, emancipation, and democratization were the truths of the day. Social codes were exceeded, and people enjoyed the freedom of the sexual revolution. Taking off one’s clothes publicly, for instance at festivals like Woodstock, was a sign
Boxed Nakedness: EXPORT Versus Bakker Read More »
Māris Šustiņš, Raining Stars, 2016, promotional image, Art Gallery Putti, Latvia, photo: Art Gallery Putti The infinite possibilities of metal as a material for exploration and the magical aspects of the creative process underlie and inform Māris Šustiņš’s jewelry. In Raining Stars, his latest solo exhibition on show at Putti, each jewel is charged with
Māris Šustiņš: Raining Stars Read More »
