“Is there a place for installation-based works in the field of contemporary jewelry?” Is there? In 20 very brief minutes, Portland, Oregon-based artist and AJF contributor Courtney Kemp delivers a densely researched exposé in front of a humming audience. She picks at the scab of “jewelers that make no jewelry, but on a large scale” […]
Marina Abramović (left) performing The Artist Is Present, 2010, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, photo: Andrew Russeth Here’s a little guideline for art world success: If you’re an artist staging a performance in a gallery, do as little as humanly possible. For her exhibition The Artist Is Present, Marina Abramović famously held court
Demo Job: Craft, Art, and the Politics of Demonstration Read More »
Jasmin Matzakow, Base Unit: Object, 2016, necklace, tattooed linden wood, sawed silver, 250 x 400 x 200 mm, photo: Bettina Schwalm In Jasmin Matzakow’s body x necklace x intention = base unit, currently on show at Galerie Ra, words are equally as important as the work exhibited and foreground a tighter focus, in the artist’s
Jasmin Matzakow: body x necklace x intention = base unit Read More »
Norwegian Crafts’ annual crafts seminar is an important and popular date in the Baltic craft calendar: It has proved a fertile ground, in the past, for speakers to wrestle with specific themes, and a great means for Norwegian Crafts to participate in craft discussions at an international level. (The annual conferences tend to engage with
The Desire to Get Down and Dirty Read More »
While AJF is not multilingual, our readership certainly is, and we often hear how unfortunate it is that our articles are not translated into other languages. We cannot afford to do that—but what we can do, when a piece is supplied to us in its English translation, is publish it in the original language as
In Conversation with GianCarlo Montebello Read More »
Attendees fill the Washington State History Museum auditorium, photo: Lindsey Snell The SMG aims to assemble an annual event with diverse programming to support the metals community across the Northwest. The Protective Ornament curator and current Metalsmith editor, Suzanne Ramljak, was the welcome keynote to this year’s lecture series. Ramljak’s opening presentation, All Is Fair
Capture and Disarm Read More »
Art Jewelry Forum and Klimt02 partnership Hence my excitement when Pravu Mazumdar agreed to develop his own thoughts on the role of the critique, in a two-part essay titled Against Criticism. This is the second part of Pravu’s essay, in which he focuses on the critical writing of Bruce Metcalf. 6. In the following
Against Criticism: Seven Variations on an Unpleasant Theme, part 2 Read More »
Over the month of August (as part of our lighter summer reads!) we published a five-part series on criticality, as part of a partnership with Klimt02, under the label “the AJF feed.” The five essays, although diverse, all embraced the idea that criticality is a good thing, and that criticism is a necessary compost for
Against Criticism: Seven Variations on an Unpleasant Theme, part 1 Read More »
Yi cun guang yin (An Inch of Time) is a series of four pieces—four rectangles, two in gold, two in jade—seemingly abstract, aloof, distant. It’s a title that, from a Western point of view, alludes to a work by Otto Künzli. Is it an homage? First impressions may not do justice to the object of
Eastern Inch: A Western Story Read More »
In 2011, Fran Allison, with the aid of research funding from Manukau Institute of Technology, began conducting a series of videoed conversations with players from the contemporary jewelry scene. Makers, writers, and gallery owners in Europe, the UK, and New Zealand share with her their views on their own and current jewelry practices, with the
Jewellery Conversations Read More »
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
In Critical Condition Read More »
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
SNAG 2014 Lectures Read More »
