Susan Cummins, chair of AJF and Susan Kempin, award program chair, are pleased to announce this year's EAA winner, Agnes Larsson. She was chosen from among 177 entries from 38 countries.
The goal of the EAA is to acknowledge promise, innovation and individuality in the work of emerging jewelers. The competition is open to makers of art jewelry who have recently completed their professional training and have not been a featured artist in a commercial gallery or museum. Larsson will receive a $5000 cash award. In addition, her work will be featured by an AJF member gallery at SOFA Chicago and in AJF advertisements and she will serve as a juror for next year’s competition.
Jurors for the 2010 competition were Namita Wiggers, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon; Susan Beech, long-standing member of AJF and collector of contemporary jewelry; and Sharon Massey, jeweler and recipient of the AJF’s 2009 award.
Criteria used in the judging were originality, depth of concept and quality of craftsmanship. Larsson used carbon and horsehair in this series of work she submitted. She allows the material to lead the way through the working process, drawing inspiration from thoughts about gravity, lightness and heaviness, death, life, transparency and darkness, growth, decomposition and transformation, to show contrasts like fragility and strength, depth and surface, darkness and light.
Juror Susan Beech commented: ‘This body of work most exemplified the guidelines for judging: originality, depth of concept and quality of craftsmanship. The use of carbon and horsehair, original materials, work well together. The first thought that came to mind when I looked at this body of work was elegant.’ Sharon Massey added: ‘Agnes Larsson presents a cohesive body of work that I found quite unusual and poetic. Her forms are simple, emphasizing the texture and blackness of the carbon as well as the fragility of the horsehair. Her artistic voice seemed the most authentic and unique.’
Larsson received a BFA in 2004, and an MFA in 2007, in silversmithing and jewellery from Konstfack University College of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm, Sweden.
