Articles

AJF takes its responsibilities as a forum for contemporary art jewelry seriously. We commission various kinds of critically engaged writing about the field, including thematic articles on topics that unlock the history, present and future of contemporary art jewelry. In this section of our website, you’ll find a variety of voices who, whether they agree or disagree with each other and the reader, are united by their conviction that contemporary art jewelry is a practice worth arguing about.

22 January 2012

Jewelry By Visual Artists in Italy: A Critical Review

Maria Cristina Bergesio

Italy is much more reluctant to allow jewelry the possibility of being a free creative expression, free to develop and interpret the spirit of the moment. In Italy, proposing jewelry as a creative medium of expression provokes stonewalling: the jewelry world doesn’t consider it jewelry and the art world doesn’t recognize its creative research value. more...

16 November 2011

Jacqueline Mina and the Problem of Contemporary Jewelry in Great Britain

Amanda Game

The response from informed and new viewers to Jacqueline Mina's 2011 exhibition was one of surprise and delight. Here was the art of gold at its most accomplished: expressive, sensuous jewels, understated (no Bond Street glitter here) yet commanding. Museum curators expressed a deepened understanding of her particular achievements. There were three loans from the V & A on show and a new work was acquired for the Alice and Louise Koch ring collection in Geneva. Other new private commissions and acquisitions have followed. more...

09 October 2011

For People Who Are Slightly Mad': American Modernist Jewelry

Jeannine Falino

The title of this talk was taken from the irrepressible Sam Kramer. His early Greenwich Village gallery was the center of activities both surrealistic and fun and he advertised his work as suitable for people who are ‘slightly mad.’ Kramer briefly studied jewelry with Glen Lukens in California. After a few years of travel, when he learned about gemology and Navajo culture, Kramer opened his gallery on Eighth Street in New York. From the start he worked with such unconventional materials as geodes and taxidermy eyes, used silver in a drip fashion and favored oddly compelling anthropomorphic and erotic shapes. All were calculated to startle and attract customers. more...

22 April 2011

The Mystery of Contemporary Jewelry in India

Kevin Murray

While the contemporary jewelry on display originated from all the world regions, India itself was represented exclusively with tribal jewelry. Elsewhere in Asia, I was pleased to find a bold new generation of contemporary jewelers emerging from countries like Indonesia and Thailand. The traditional Indian pieces were quite stunning works in silver that certainly commanded their place, but it did raise the question: Does Indian contemporary jewelry exist? Surely it must. Maybe our concept of contemporary jewelry is too limited. more...

19 March 2011

Loaded

Jillian Moore

Maybe it’s tempting to try to exploit the immediate dissonance caused by ‘gun as ornament,’ but to what effect? Popular culture is not known for being particularly considerate when it comes to appropriation. I told myself the artists in my community were sensitive to this. Maybe Etsy had let me down, but surely those artists in the art jewelry community who were appropriating the symbols of weaponry were doing so not just because guns were ‘in,’ but for the sake of subversion. Taking the piss out of guns I can handle. more...

24 February 2011

Art Jewelry 2.0

Gabriel Craig

The next decade will see a radical change – in fact a revolution – in the way our entire society views and uses technology to create and obtain objects. Needless to say then, art jewelry will be transformed as we enter the era of Art Jewelry 2.0. Now to some this statement might seem obvious – of course technology will continue to reshape our relationship to objects – while to others it may seem foolish – technology has done little to change centuries-old jewelry making techniques – but in actuality the great revolution that is upon us is a revolution in access; access to technologically enabled design, manufacturing and distribution tools. more...

14 January 2011

To Market, To Market

Jillian Moore

As universities cut funding and positions dwindle, more and more of us are going to have to figure out how to actually make a living through art jewelry if we want to see this field survive. Why continue to pretend that academia is the last best hope for artists wishing to create compelling, challenging and experimental work? more...

11 January 2011

How To Make A Lucky Charm

Kevin Murray

While there are certain routines, sometimes even rituals, that are seen to favor luck, it is the real, tangible object that offers greatest power. The being of the object exerts a stronger effect than a mere action such as casting a spell. But for the object to work, it cannot be an ordinary thing readily available in everyday life. To buy a toothbrush from a supermarket and then claim it as a lucky charm is about as plausible as proposing marriage on a crowded bus. more...