July 8th, 2010 06:07
Should you find yourself in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the next four days we suggest you make a visit to SOFA West and check out the high-end craft and contemporary jewelry on display from 8-11 July 2010. If the only sofa you have ever heard of is a kind of couch, let AJF be your guide to one of the major institutions of the American craft scene. According to the SOFA website:
SOFA Chicago has been running annually since 1994, and was joined by SOFA New York in 1998. SOFA West: Santa Fe is the new kid on the block, now in its second year. (You can find out more about SOFA by clicking here.)
Contemporary jewelry lovers attending the fair should look out for ‘My hands are my favorite tools: conversations with four jewelers – Robin Waynee, Kenneth Johnson, Pat Pruitt and Cody Sanderson’, taking place on Friday 9 July 2010. The organizers are branding this event as ‘A panel discussion on Southwest jewelry today featuring four artists whose work is contemporary and individualistic, but at the same time a continuum of the art inspired by the vast cultural and natural landscapes of the American Southwest.’
We asked AJF gallery member Charon Kransen if he could tell us a little bit about why he attends SOFA West, and what he was intending to show this time around. Here’s what he told us:
AJF will be publishing a review of SOFA West: Santa Fe on our website in the next month, so if you want to know more (including the color of the Charon Kransen booth), keep watching this space.
June 16th, 2010 10:06
A late night last October doesn’t feel so long ago. In the studio, burning the midnight oil, polishing off my online submission for Talente. At the time it felt like one of those lotteries – ‘gotta be in to win’. I had only recently realized I was actually eligible (you have to be 30 and under). Little did I imagine that five months later I’d be walking the snowy streets of Munich.
As an emerging jeweler, being selected for Talente is a tremendous encouragement and endorsement. It suggests someone somewhere thinks you might have an inkling of promise. So I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity, from Creative New Zealand, the national arts funding body, to attend the show in person and experience this jewelry pilgrimage. The week of events was one of exhilarating (and slightly dizzying) full jewelry immersion. Aside from Schmuck and Talente there was a multitude of satelite exhibitions, showcasing a work from many countries. As a result people had journeyed from all over Europe, the UK, USA, Australia and our six-strong contingent all the way from New Zealand.
Talente was naturally our first stop in the week of events. To provide a bit of background, Talente is organised annually alongside Schmuck by the Handwerkskammer für München und Oberbayern. Both are part of Munich’s International Trade Fair. Located at the outskirts of Munich, the trade fair occupies a sprawling former airport and includes everything from plumbingware to specialty sausage. Needless to say most of us never left Trade Hall A (the handcrafts hall).
Unlike Schmuck, Talente focuses on young and emerging talent from a range of craft and design fields. This includes jewelry (which always has a strong presence), ceramics, glass, furniture, lighting design, textiles, fashion, product design and technology. This year 99 entries were selected from the 400 submissions, representing 24 countries. The diversity of work in itself is impressive – from vessels, lamps and furniture, to a boat, a burial urn and almost everything in between. I would estimate close to half was jewelry.
Memorable examples included the hyper-realistic fake flower corsages of Jihye Lee (South Korea), the tack-a-rama fake nail and LED flower ensembles of Lisa Juen (Germany/China), the subtler stone and photograph assemblages of Berta Riera (Spain), and the lightweight realistic boulder brooches of Barbara Schrobenhauser (Germany). In truth, there was so much to see in Talente alone (not to mention the neighboring Schmuck, Exemplar and gallery shows) that it was a little overwhelming. Despite visiting three times, I was relieved to have the color catalogue to go back to at a later date.
With the week’s packed lineup, I was keen to see different approaches to exhibiting jewelry. In Talente and Schmuck, the challenge of displaying such variety understandably meant the exhibition design was fairly innocuous. The works were laid out in well-lit glass and steel cabinets, or hung from the steel partition system – tidy industrial design but more in the spirit of the trade show it was part of.
Many of the satellite exhibitions, however, were sited in more unusual locations or featured inventive displays. One of the most experimental shows was Eternal Shine – it’s not a Pony, by four current and former students at the Academy. This was a kaleidoscopic treat with mirror plexiglass display boxes hung on the grungy walls of a painting studio. These boxes were arranged at various heights that forced you on your our tippy-toes or demanded you squat down for a good look. Their entertaining optical effects certainly held people’s attention but, surprisingly, without detriment to the jewelry. Melanie Isverding’s enameled structures and Nicole Beck’s stitched body-part assemblages were particularly memorable. The mirrors were quite pragmatic, offering 360-degree view of the pieces, and, if anything, the ambient visual noise moved you in to focus on the pieces.
The overall jewelry highlight was Karl Fritsch’s revival of the Pinakothek der Moderne’s contemporary jewelry collection. (To read more about this exhibition, click here.) The collection itself was awe-inspiring – certainly a contemporary jewelry hall of fame – and I admired the fact that Fritsch curated this volume of work without resorting to museum conventions of logical groupings and labels. Arranging works into meandering lines in a seemingly random order, Fritsch successfully put the works into dialogue with one another (reflecting, I like to think, the vibrant diversity of the contemporary jewelry field). Rather than focusing on individual works, their close proximity drew attention to the connections between them. The lack of labels deemphasized who-made-what, though it was still fun to play a guessing game wrestling with the oversized list of works.
Other memorable shows included the Dialogue 8 show (UK) in an old foundry, spatialPalace (Estontia) in a cemetery, and the walls of shirts in Nicht dass du mir von der bluse fällst. Interestingly, the work I enjoyed most the often was part of more conventional displays.
Glancing back through my journal, I see I went to twenty-two exhibitions that week, and many of them twice. This meant I was shifted from my usual role of maker/wearer to the full-time role of jewelry viewer. On one level, seeing the jewelry in person (without the texts to dictate our response) permitted appreciation of craft for craft’s sake – enjoyment of the material and formal possibilities of jewelry. On another level, it made aware of the particular kinds of interaction a viewer has with jewelry. Within the tight schedule, many works were consumed at a glance while others stood out because they demanded prolonged attention. Pieces that commanded a second look, included Fabrizio Tridenti’s complex structures (in the Pinakothek der Moderne), Bettina Dittlmann’s intricate wire works (at Galerie Isabelle Hund and Danner-Rotunde) and Mirjam Hiller’s intriguing folded constructions (at Galerie Stühler). For me, these tended to be complex forms that resisted a quick glance. They somehow confused my eye, forcing me spend time, running over their surfaces and structures with a visual sense of touch. It made me wonder how jewelry (or an exhibition such as Eternal Shine) might intentionally prompt this haptic way of looking to slow a viewer down, and hopefully compelling them to wear it.
Exhibitions were not the only places to see jewelry. Teeming as Munich was with jewelry devotees, the week was equally a spectacle of jewelry wearing. Each morning in the hotel we would anticipate what the collectors and critics might be wearing while doing our own jewelry swaps for the day. Over the week, Fran Allison (New Zealand jeweler and Talente mentor) and I documented some of this jewelry-in-action which you can see on our photo blog Moveable Feasts. (To visit this blog, click here, and feel free to contribute more photographs.) Being surrounded for a week by other jewelers, students, gallerists, critics and collectors made you really feel part of a larger international community.
So, how does one cope with seeing so much great jewelry in one week? For a start, it prompted a bit of soul searching. Mike Crawford, a fellow New Zealand Talente participant and glass artist, raised this issue. At the Pinakothek der Moderne he poignantly asked, ‘How does it make you feel, seeing so much amazing work? Is it totally discouraging – does it make you want to give up?’ He had an important point. At the beginning of our careers, how do we position ourselves in relation to these pinnacles of the field? Do we aim to attract the attention of European institutions and collectors, striving to have work shown alongside the grand masters? Do we succumb to Munich’s magnetic pull and try for the Academy? What are the alternatives?
A heartening answer seemed to lie in the radical exhibition of students from Maastricht. Their portable ‘jewelry in a bag’ format enabled the group to piggyback on the opening at the Pinakothek, usurping an audience in the process. This was echoed by Willy Van De Velde, a jeweler who drove his van over from Belgium and parked outside another show as a mobile gallery. These actions seemed an inspiring message for emerging jewelers: You don’t need to rely on institutions for public exposure. Do it your own way! It really drove home that our practices must extend beyond the production of jewelry to the production of wearer/audiences.
Otherwise, there comes a point when seeing so much jewelry simply makes you SICK OF SCHMUCK. The remedy, care of the students of the Munich Fine Arts Academy? A night of drunken jewelers dancing to German techno.
Surprisingly, after this marathon week, I wasn’t completely sick of schmuck. I still had stamina to visit the Amsterdam galleries and Galerie Marzee and was itching to get back to the bench.
June 14th, 2010 10:06
If you are looking for excellent ceramics you will find lots to admire at the British Crafts Council’s COLLECT art fair. But really the reason to go to London in May is the jewelry. Dodging volcanic ash spewing from Iceland, Art Jewelry Forum made its first international trip. For many, it was the first time to see the high end craft fair that is now housed in the beautiful light filled rooms of the Saatchi Gallery in West London. Twenty of the thirty six galleries at COLLECT exhibited jewelry, many of them exclusively. To give an idea of what COLLECT feels like I took photos of many of the galleries showing jewelry.
The exhibiting galleries were given a lot of space to display the work, with most of the Saatchi’s large rooms having only three stands per room. Some galleries such as Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon (not pictured) built a room within a room to show small precious objects such as Giovanni Corvaja’s gold fur pieces. The Scottish Gallery had a pavilion with silver work and a single rare piece of jewelry by Peter Chang (sold). But most galleries took a minimal (sometimes austere) stance with display. Galerie Marzee’s awesome collection was shown in an enormous double row of steel and glass tables that required glass installer suction handles in order to remove the pieces. This provided great drama when looking at work and admirable upper body strength in the sales staff.
A few of the galleries displayed mini-exhibitions of a single artist such as Wendy Ramshaw at Lesley Craze Gallery, Kevin Coates at Ruthin Craft Centre, and Iris Eichenberg’s wonderful pink pieces at Galerie Louise Smit. Rome-based Alternatives Gallery showed an especially strong group including terrific jewelry and objects by Fabrizio Tridenti.
Two of the oldest jewelry galleries showed why they are at the top of the field with Galerie Ra (est. 1976) from Amsterdam showing beautiful new pieces by New Zealander Warwick Freeman made of laminated slabs of precious colored stones, and also a great selection of international artists. Electrum Gallery (est. 1971) had a large stand with established artists such as Gerda Flockinger, Charlotte de Syllas, and Bryan Illsley, and colorful paper work by youngish Angela O’Kelly.
Two of the newer galleries were Galerie SO from Switzerland (and also a great new space in London) and Amsterdam based Galerie Rob Kouldijs. Koudijs showed an installation by Alexander Blank called The Gathering of beautiful (and large!) black lacquered brooches of stylized animal heads. Galerie SO, in a minimal and elegant display, showed a combination of jewelry and objects. There were good challenging pieces by Bernard Schobinger and Manuel Vilhena as well as new work by silversmith Simone ten Hompel and metalsmith bad boy David Clarke. There were also a few non-gallery organizations exhibiting at COLLECT. Craft Scotland showed all craft media with strong jewelry by Stacey Bentley, Leah Black and Misun Won. Cockpit Arts, who house two large artist studio centers in London, featured good work by studio members Ruth Tomlinson and Kelvin Berk.
In contrast to the prevailing modernist architecture of most of the stands at COLLECT Galerie Sofie Lachaert built a witty (and all very white) display of wooden tables and wall mounted dress shirts in boxes with the jewelry neatly displayed on well starched white shirts. Mostly jewelry, Lachaert featured terrific work by David Bielander, Flora Vagi, John Iversen and Giampaolo Babetto and many others. Rosemarie Jager had a long table with a casually displayed array of ceramic and metal cups and vessels looking like the most amazing jumble sale ever. It was a fresh contrast to the everything-is-very-precious-object-on-plinth mentality of most of COLLECT. She had amazing new pieces from Bettina Dittelmann and Annamaria Zanella. Norwegian Galleri Format showed some of the most adventurous jewelry at the fair in the work of Anna Talbot, Hedda Bjerkeli and Elise Hatlø. Format also exhibited intriguing ceramics by Heidi Bjørgan.
It was hard to see all the great work at COLLECT. Even going every day of the run of the fair there was lots to miss. The galleries exhibiting jewelry moved things around and pulled new pieces from drawers so that the stands seemed to have new things you wanted each time you passed by. Add to this the many artists that attended COLLECT, it was a rich and exhausting experience. If you haven’t been, you should go. If you have been, I’ll see you there next year!
June 13th, 2010 08:06
There was a lovely chill in the air as the AJF London trip got off to an appropriate start with a tea and scones event at the traditional Draycott Hotel. Most of the participants had not been to the COLLECT fair before and so we asked Liesbeth den Besten, a writer and curator from Amsterdam to give a talk about the galleries and jewelers we were about to meet. She had done her research well and not only talked about what we might see but also showed a number of pieces of jewelry that we actually saw at the show.
Then it was off to the event itself. The Saatchi gallery is in a beautiful stately building just off King’s Road near Sloane Square. As we entered the high ceilinged rooms a beautifully diffused light illuminated it all. It was evident that these spaces were made to show off artwork in a particular way. This light was very much of a presence and perhaps even a distraction in viewing the displays but of course that didn’t stop anyone one from looking. We all scattered to look at the fantastic jewelry and make our decisions about what to add to our collections. There was lots of excitement expressed about our discoveries.
Then we were on to Tom’s Kitchen for dinner in a large private room. We were joined by a British couple Jacqueline and Jonathon Gestetner, who livened up the evening by asking us questions about the group and about our collections. It was a dinner filled with laughter and important transatlantic exchange and by the end of the evening we were all completely worn out.
On the second day of the trip we were invited back to COLLECT for a VIP Breakfast and most of the group found that they needed a second look. We met for an early Italian lunch across the street from the Victoria & Albert Museum and were subjected to the Italian sense of timing so arrived late for our appointment with Beatriz Chadour, David Watkins and Wendy Ramshaw. Once back on track we were taken through the permanently installed William and Judith Bollinger Jewelry Center and the temporary retrospective of David Watkins. The V&A is an overwhelming visual experience and jewelry is intense enough in it’s own right but when there are 35,000 pieces in one display it literally takes your breath away. Beatriz tried to orient us to the historical things in particular which was helpful but only served to make us wish we had the whole week to learn more. The David Watkins display was located in the midst of a long, long hall of silver work and stained glass windows from throughout the ages. It was actually shocking to come upon the very cool and minimalist aesthetic of his jewelry amidst all the fancy ornamentation. He was a lovely and patient host along with Wendy Ramshaw, who answered all our questions about their lives together and his jewelry.
Next we met Hans Stofer at the entrance to the V&A and walked over to the Royal College of Art to visit his class of students. He told us a bit about the program there over tea and coffee. The program is only for graduate level students and everyone is encouraged to pursue their own interests on a deep level. This program was under the guidance of David Watkins for several decades and Hans has just been there for the past three years. Then we went into the student spaces and spent an hour or more talking with the students. We were completely won over by the variety of imaginative and thoughtful work being done. It was the highlight of the trip for many.
Back at the Saatchi Gallery Mark Lyman and Anne Mesko from SOFA, the American equivalent of COLLECT, arranged a classy cocktail reception to announce their new grant. The first ever New Voices Grant for International Decorative Arts and Design Discourse was given to Art Jewelry Forum. It was the first grant we have ever received, and we were honored to be recognized. As AJF chair, I had the pleasure of announcing that Damian Skinner would receive this £3500 award to come to COLLECT next year to review the work on display and report back in the fall at SOFA Chicago. The rest of the evening was free.
The third day of the trip started in the early afternoon at Electrum Gallery with a talk about the historical significance of the space to the development of contemporary jewelry. This is where Barbara Cartlidge and Ralph Turner displayed the most modern and exciting work of swinging London in the 1970s and beyond. Dorothy Hogg, former chair of the jewelry department at the University in Edinburgh was there to talk about the current show called Natural Beauty. Next we walked over to the Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA) space and had a thoughtful talk from Amanda Game about the work in a show there called Drawing with Objects, where she discussed the relationship between drawings and objects as she sees it.
Then we went downstairs to the shop where there were many temptations made by some of the 350 makers who belong to CAA as well as a grouping of necklaces and bracelets by David Watkins. David and Wendy, our new best friends were there as well. It was important for some of the group to be able to try on these to see what they looked like and how they felt. The new book about Wendy and David called David Watkins, Wendy Ramshaw: A Life’s Partnership by Graham Hughes was also there for purchase and autographs.
Our final visit of the day was a cab ride away at Galerie SO on Brick Lane. Hans Stofer was having a show here in Felix Flury’s beautiful new gallery space. Hans’s show was like no other jewelry show you have ever seen. His pieces were collages of doors, buckets, boxes, carts light bulbs, plywood and jewelry made from cast offs. It was imaginative, free flowing and about as different as it could be from David Watkins’s work. It made us wonder how the students at RCA that were caught in the transition from one teacher to the other survived. Despite that, Hans’s show was probably the one of the few exhibitions made by a jeweler that actually engages the contemporary art scene on its own terms. Quite good to see it is possible.
We ended the trip with a lovely dinner at Whitechapel Gallery dining room. It was a fantastic meal to end a fantastic and stimulating trip.
May 18th, 2010 02:05
Here at AJF we have a saying: the kumara never boasts of its own sweetness. For those of you who don’t know, the kumara is a root vegetable, like a sweet potato, and it is delicious. However, the kumara doesn’t tell the other veges how good it is to eat, it just spends its time being as yummy as it possibly can be. Every now and then, however, someone decides the kumara is just so tasty that it deserves a little award, and so AJF finds itself the recipient of SOFA’s new research grant. This is the first award that AJF has received, and while we are more used to giving out grants than getting them, we have to say it is kind of nice. Here’s a statement from AJF’s very own Susan Cummins, which will give you some more details.
And on that note the kumara goes back into the vegetable bin. (Thank you!)
May 3rd, 2010 10:05
I have often wondered if jewelry is not best observed (rather than handled) through the haze of a hangover. It’s that state of fragility that requires you to muster your strength and focus all your attention to the task at hand. I unfortunately arrived in Munich on the tail end of Schmuck so I spent my first night in town meeting up with the New Zealand contingent as well as a fellow Australian. They very kindly filled me in on all that I had very jealously missed out on (I did manage to catch about fifteen exhibitions out of the possible 28 or so on the program). That night included a brief meeting with Otto Kunzli and some well-placed beverages, so it was in this precious condition that I was to observe my very first Schmuck.
I worked my way slowly to the back of the Exhibition Hall, past some interesting and some not so interesting displays of craft and design. Trying to savior the moment before I would actually witness the often-thought-of-but-far-off-reality-of-attending Schmuck. Of the 59 artists in this annual award showcase, there were some who I recognized instantly, others unfamiliar but excited me all the same. Just to see the scope of work and artists on display was, well, pretty bloody awesome. Highlights: Felieke van der Leest, Sergey Jivetin and Gesine Hackenberg.
Schmuck shared the back of the convention centre with Talente, which was abuzz with freshness, excitement and new approaches to making. Talente clearly succeeded in presenting the youthful exuberance of the best in their fields under the age of 30. The overall highlight of Talente for me was the work of two South Korean jewelers, Semi Kim and Ji Hye Lee. There is just something about the immaculate technique and interesting subject matter in the work of the current generation of Korean jewelers that gets me every time. ‘Frame’ was also placed in the back corner of the hall and showcased three of the more influential galleries in European jewelry: Galerie Marzee (Netherlands), Galerie Platina (Sweden) and Galerie Ra (Netherlands).
One of the first exhibitions I visited outside of Schmuck was Galerie Für Angewandte Kunst, showing Nicht Dass Du Mir Von Der Blause Fällst (don’t you dare fall off my blouse), a group show of people I might consider as the ‘parents’ of contemporary jewelry in Munich. Back in 1999 these jewelers, including Otto Kunzli, Bettina Speckner and Therese Hilbert, got together on the last Wednesday of every month for some beer, food and jewelry chats. It appears that while the members of this group seemed to ebb and flow, what was to be ‘constant was only the young talent still in training and all jewelry gallery owners, collectors and customers were categorically denied attendance’. (Quoted from Klimt02. To view this text, click here.)
I was rather excited by the exhibition design. It had been a while since I had seen such a considered effort in the display of jewelry and it was a great solution for such a large space, but I honestly can’t remember a single piece from the show. I have often wondered if is it better to have an exhibition stick in your mind because of the wow factor of display and not remember the work, as opposed to seeing good work displayed poorly and forgetting the show entirely. Because let’s face it, there is a very fine line between these two things. Even if the work is great, if the display doesn’t do it justice it’s just another forgotten show.
I would say that out of all the exhibitions that I managed to visit, three stood out as having a really nice balance of exhibition display and quality of work. mine x mine (Mikiko Minewaki and Yutaka Minegishi) at WITTENBRINKFuenfhoefe presented great work that was supported beautifully by its slightly unconventional display. Mikiko Minewaki’s work was displayed in what looked like a sandbox (minus the sand) on the floor so that you had squat to look closely at the work. Given Minewaki’s favoured materials (plastic toys), this was an appropriate and thoughtful choice of presentation that enhanced rather than detracted from the work. Yutaka Minegishi, whose work I was not as familiar with, had pieces arranged in a line along a tall, fine, open structured frame, mirroring the rectangular box on the floor and placing it against the wall. This seemed to again reflect the nature of the work and allowed the viewer to quietly contemplate the materials and techniques used to create such simple seductive forms eye level.
Other highlights: Giampaolo Babetto’s exhibition L’Italianità dei Gioielli at the Pinakothek der Moderne. Babetto is a genius. A great play was made in the installation on the structure of the display cabinets with large rocks and the scope and aesthetic of his work making the exhibition all the more memorable. The Glass in Czech Jewellery exhibition at Tschechisches Zentrum was also fantastic, mainly for the fact that it was unlike anything else I had seen in Munich so far, it really was extremely refreshing, and the work was simply yet effectively displayed in white open frames.
The Danner-Rotunde at Pinakothek der Moderne, curated by Karl Fritsch was pretty overwhelming. I felt like an old man in a porn shop. I saw works that until now I had only dreamed about seeing in the flesh. I had drooled over so many images of these pieces on the screen and in books, but now I was only a pane of glass away from being able to turn them over in my hand and examine the back of the piece (the sign of a true jeweler). It was rather difficult to keep from bursting with excitement! In some ways the experience of this exhibition was like visiting a peep show, so many exotic, desirable objects behind a tantalizingly clear barrier and yet there is no way in hell the bouncer – sorry, gallery guard – was going let me get my filthy paws anywhere near them. Having said that, I spent most of my time in the room alone, after having been followed around continually in every room of the Pinakothek der Moderne, and now in what I thought of as being the most valuable room, there was no interest in protection from the gallery guards. Perhaps we are living in such a small reality that only a few would appreciate the value of a piece of rope through an old laptop computer. (Thank you, Lisa Walker).
I spent three days straight looking, thinking and dreaming jewelry but the strange and interesting fact of the matter is even though I had traveled all that way, I didn’t even once notice that I hadn’t so much as fondled a single piece of jewelry during the whole time. Hopefully 2011 will see me make it back to Munich, and next time I will make sure that I am armed with more than just a hangover.
April 8th, 2010 05:04
On my second day in Munich I was greeted by several inches of freshly fallen snow. I made my way to meet with friends and tackle the exhibitions as they opened in the city’s posh Schwabing neighborhood. Moving from show to show we were able to take in some impressive work ranging from mid-career exhibitions like AAVISTU, nestled in an all white (floor to ceiling) basement of a design firm, to the recent graduate work of Eternal shine – it´s not a pony, at the Projektraum J. Baumeister, and finally to the work in the exhibition Dialogue 8.
We were directed to an old foundry in the heart of city, a welcome destination and escape from the snow. The old foundry was gritty and seemed to be slightly ‘cleaned up’ to accommodate the Dialogue 8 exhibition. The work was casually laid out on strips of brown paper on top of worktables. Each artist was identified by brightly colored neon colored paper signs bearing their names. The exhibition was a response to a project that was seeded by Helen Carnac (Britain) three months prior to the opening. Carnac provided the participants with a series of gifts and asked them to create work inspired by the gifts.
Back at the Schmuck exhibition, the Herbert Hofmann Prize was awarded at the Trade Fair Hall. Since 1973 the award has been presented to up to three distinguished participants per year, commemorating the shows founder Dr. Herbert Hofmann. Prize recipients include John Iversen (US), Mia Maljojoki (DL) and David Bielander (DL). This event was one of the culminating events of the Schmuck week, and highly attended.
Before leaving the Trade Fair for the last time I visited a couple special projects, including Liesbeth den Besten’s ThinkTank: A European Initiative for the Applied Arts. ThinkTank was presenting of their current publication and accompanying exhibition Speed, featuring a selection of sixteen designers (including Ted Noten and Marcel Wanders).
That evening the attendees made their way to the goldsmiths’s beer hall get-together at the famous Marinaplatz. The event was so large that it was held in three banquet rooms.
On the final day of programming, I decided to spend much of the day exploring. I went to the Pinakothek der Moderne and focused on the Danner-Rotunde, an outstanding collection of contemporary studio jewelry curated by Karl Fritsch. It is probably one of the most (or only) outstanding permanent collections of international work that I had ever witnessed. The jewelry was displayed in a large, arching subterranean gallery, and in peculiar clusters as if to create a forced association between each piece of jewelry.
The annual Schmuck and all the parallel exhibitions are a worthwhile pilgrimage. Throughout my trip I kept thinking how I had traveled 4,000 miles to really appreciate what we have stateside, but I questioned most the disconnect between the US and European Union (EU) when it comes to jewelry. In the age of digital technologies the dialogue should be further connected. Where is the disconnect, and why? In the US we are excited about, and even long for, the works being made in the EU. Do they feel the same way?
Schmuck is a much different event than what is experienced stateside at the Society of North American Goldsmith’s annual conference. Unlike SNAG, the majority of programming that surrounds Schmuck are independent events in response to this exhibition at the Trades Fair. In addition, Schmuck does not present any formal lectures, outside of the Herbert Hofmann Award presentations. Both events are a mechanism to generate discourse.
We must continue to share the works and the makers on a global level. In the age we live in, it is nearly impossible to not see work that is happening around the world.
April 7th, 2010 01:04
Schmuck 2010 was the center of five fever-pitched days of jewelry and adornment held in Munich, Germany, from the 3rd to the 9th March 2010. Over 30 exhibitions were presented citywide, representing a variety of countries, academic programs and individual studio artists.
From a pool of 600 applicants reigning from 36 countries, Monica Gaspar (Spain) had the insurmountable task of selecting 60 jewelry artists from 28 countries for Schmuck 2010. The exhibition opened on the first day as part of the Internationalen Handwerksmesse München, the Messe München International (Munich International Trade Fairs) on the former site of Munich’s airport. As I understand it, historically there are few Americans that have been curated into the exhibition, and I was honored to be selected.
I arrived in town on Friday 5th March. The installation of the show was amazing: a massive glass and aluminum temporary structure that gave each piece the lighting and attention that the work deserved. The gallery was laid out in a manner that moved the spectators around the large oval track with cases lining every inch of the walls. Upon my arrival the exhibition held about a dozen attendees making their way around the displays, purchasing catalogs and snapping photos. This is where I met the director of Schmuck, Eva Sarnowski, who graciously welcomed me to the exhibition and supplied me with all the necessary print materials for the next three days. It was a good choice to have attended the exhibition early, because the following day was the polar opposite, with massive crowds.
I spent time carefully inspecting the cases, seeking out the work of fellow American makers while being introduced to the international jewelry in the exhibition. The United States was represented by Mielle Harvey, John Iversen, Seth Papac, Natalya Pinchuck, Sergey Jivetin and myself. Another important American connection was Cranbrook’s Iris Ichenberg, who represented the Netherlands.
Schmuck was held at the Trade Fair, which also featured an enormous amount of manufactured and handmade goods. ‘Handwerk & Design’, housed in one hall, showed an amazing assortment of craft, design and fine arts. Also in conjunction with Schmuck were four special exhibitions: Exempla 2010, Keramik (Ceramic), Talente 2010, Meister der Moderne 2010 and Frame, also held at the Trades Fair. Exempla was dedicated to the theme of ‘ceramic shapes the earth’, to show how widespread the use of this material is in our daily lives. Works ranged from studio ceramics to architectural master works, and active studios were put on display. It was as if I was looking at a diorama of the contemporary ceramist’s studio.
Talente was a showcase and competition for newcomers (under thirty) representing the next generation of makers. Among the bright young upstarts was Adam Grinovich (US/Sweden). In a departure from his earlier Computer Aided Design (CAD)/Additive Manufactured (AM) work, Grinovich has submerged himself into the currents of contemporary European jewelry. His current pieces combine the structure found in his early work with postindustrial materials.
Frame was another grouping of three galleries presenting alongside the Schmuck 2010 exhibition. The international galleries consisted of Galerie Marzee (Netherlands), Galerie Platina (Sweden) and Galerie Ra (Netherlands). Gallery Ra featured the work of Melanie Bilenker (US).
Meister der Moderne, the ‘Masters of modern times’, presented the best works of internationally renowned contemporary artisans in glass, ceramic, wood, metal, textile and jewelry. Included at Meister der Moderne was the work of the late Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding (Sweden). The whimsical animal head brooches had a visual weight that communicated a series of visually heavy pieces. However, examination of the work (which I was later able to do at the studio/gallery of Mia Maljojoki) revealed how lightweight and wearable the objects were, as they were made from vinyl. I would describe the series as vinyl toy jewelry. (I in no way intend to diminish the work by describing it as toy like, since I thoroughly enjoyed it.) I ran into Helen W. English Drutt, Liesbeth den Besten and Leo Caballero at the studio of Maljojoki, and we viewed many of the pieces together. Departing the studio I sat down for a hurried dinner with jewelers Maljojoki (Germany) and Donna Verveka (US), before we made our way to Munich’s renowned Pinakothek der Moderne.
At the Pinakothek, several hundred people filled the first floor of the museum standing shoulder to shoulder. Despite the crowd, you could not help but notice the students of the Jewelry and Product Design Department, Academy Fine Arts Maastricht (NL), presenting a wonderfully orchestrated display of their work in LED lit clear vinyl handbags, and titled BAGEXPO (the students carried their work venue to venue throughout the city). The work had a casual appearance, although it had a very formal jewelry structure of connections, findings and finish.
While at the Pinakothek I had the pleasure of seeing Giampaolo Babetto’s L’Italianità dei Gioielli, a fabulous installation of endless vitrines of gold jewelry, with the reds and blues of the enameling techniques lining the massive rotunda’s third floor balcony. The volume of jewelry seemed to self-illuminate among the crowds of viewers.
Departing the museum, a crowd hurried across the street to see Cranbrook Academy Artist in residence Iris Eichenberg’s Birds and flowers of Michigan at Galerie Spektrum. Yonic petals of nylon-folded pieces are contrasted with cocoon-like mummified birds. The work was displayed without the traditional cases, which allowed the viewer to get up close and thoroughly inspect it.
Upon our departure, we couldn’t imagine looking at another piece of jewelry – but there it was, another gallery of fabulous pieces and another group of Schmuck goers who joined our ever-growing ‘Schmuck Posse’. With the idea of winding down the evening we made our way to a drinking engagement. The evening (or should I say, the morning) came to a close at the ‘Sick of Schmuck’ party (aka Schluck 6!) for an evening of drinks, music and dancing. It was good to reconnect with people like Susan Cohn (Australia) and I was amazed by the distances people traveled be at Schmuck.
August 5th, 2009 01:08
The new Santa Fe SOFA the best time I’ve had at SOFA, and I’ve been to many over the years. Santa Fe has always been a magical place for me, I love the beauty and serenity of the high desert. Over 2,000 people attended opening night with 35 national and international galleries represented. Only one studio jewelry gallery was represented, Charon Kransen, and his booth was constantly packed. My very favorite piece for sale was a large wall weaving by Columbian artist Olga de Amaral with an asking price over $100,000 at Belles Artes Gallery.
Patina Gallery was just down the street from the convention center, where they were celebrating their 10th anniversary with an opening show of Pat Flynn’s work. Leslie Ferrin and Sienna Patti were there checking out the fair for the future and we had a lovely dinner with them.
Some of the highlights for me were the lecture series (a good one on Olga de Amaral), tours of local collectors’ homes, a tour of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio, a visit to an ancient pueblo and the last night an evening of food, wine, and music at the Santa Fe Opera.
There were very few AJF members attending and that was too bad. I’m certainly going next year and hope other AJF members will join me.
Photo: (top) Susan and Allison Barnett at Patina Gallery, Kent Townsend, Susan, and Bennett Bean, (middle) Sienna Patti, Susan and Bill Beech, Susan and Allison Barnett of Patina Gallery, (bottom) Charon Kransen and Susan Beech, the William Zimmer Gallery booth at SOFA