Rory Hooper, Brooch, 2009, Textura #3, blackened iron, silver, 90 x 55 x 5 mm

At AJF we believe in the importance of an international perspective about contemporary jewelry. While some parts of the American contemporary jewelry scene have prioritized the regional over the global and developed a reputation (deserved or not) for insular practice, there are also some important stories of Americans looking far beyond their country’s borders. AJF member Helen Drutt English comes to mind as a collector and supporter of contemporary jewelry who has elegantly managed to balance the local and global. When the exhibition Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection went on tour a couple of years ago, the publicity rightly celebrated the international ambitions of Drutt’s activities, noting that her collection of over 700 pieces was made by 175 jewelers from from 18 different countries. (You can read more about the exhibition on the Houston Museum of Fine Arts website by clicking here.)

Gregory Larin, Necklace, 2009, Fragmentations: Invasion, silver, plastic, 110 x 50 mm

Thankfully, an exhibition called No Problem (?): Nine Israeli Jewelers at Gallery Loupe provides an opportunity to see what’s going on in one part of the world without traveling any further than New Jersey. (The exhibition closes on 14 March, and you can visit the gallery’s website by clicking here.) No Problem (?) is an opportunity to see new work by members of a group called INYANIM (the Hebrew word for ‘issues’) who are graduates of two Israeli art and design schools. Seeking to explore the possibilities of contemporary jewelry as a critical practice, No Problem (?) ‘contrasts the difficulty implied in the word “problem” with the nonchalance of the expression “no problem.”  The group’s work displays a wide spectrum of contradictions . . . between beauty and mutation . . . between substance and superficiality . . . between the ever-present problems in a country such as Israel – and the vernacular of indifference that is so common there.’

Aviv Kinel, Ring, 2009, Street Hearts, silver, PVC, 40 x 30 mm

While No Problem (?) doesn’t seek to play politics too overtly in the jewelry itself, this exhibition is part of a growing trend to give contemporary jewelry the freedom to claim some of the territory more usually covered by t-shirts and tin badges. We’ve previously featured the project ‘Middle East Portable Discussion’ by I Care A Lot on this blog (to read this post, click here), and while we’re not sure about jewelry’s efficacy as a political tool, we’re ready to march on the streets with any movement that pays respect to contemporary jewelry as an intelligent practice that matters.