Exhibition Reviews

It is ultimately frustrating that the exhibition refuses to examine the issue of the title – the legacy of Miye Matsukata. And yet I have to say that, while the frustration of the absence of curatorial framework is substantial, I like this show because of the work it puts on display – and the way you can see in microcosm the larger shifts of contemporary jewelry in the past half-century. The wearer is here, in spirit if not in person, as is the history of precious materials and creative expression, which within standard histories is mostly forgotten in contemporary jewelry’s embrace of the critique of preciousness. more...

The exhibition seemed to make connections between old and new, industrial and artistic. For the audience it offered an opportunity to see how wide the jewelry field is. No doubt the audience was surprised by contemporary jewelry and especially that it no longer looks so polished as the pieces created by Kalevala Koru. The exhibition was interesting in different ways because you could see at the same time, old and new craft-based and industrial jewelry. For the larger audience it gave a hint of what is happening in the contemporary jewelry field, but only from the viewpoint of stone. more...

Castellane's fearless use of bright colors on gold is part of her subversive appeal in the conservative world of French luxury jewelry. One would have to start from 'gaudy' and work up a new lexicon to do justice to the toxic splashes of her fermenting microfollies. What the pieces lack in scale, they make up for with an overabundance of formal twists and colorful turns, born of excessive craftsmanship. The extensive use of lacquers, matt or gloss, sparkles, real or fake, texture, grainy, veinous, crinkled, on the clenched folds of her vegetation keeps the eye in a perpetual state of gasp. It fascinates and petrifies, as only such a concentration of effects can. It is, in short, spectacular craft. more...