'Around and about' is the current exhibition by Gésine Hackenberg at Gallery Pont & Plas in Gent, Belgium. When I visited the opening, I was very surprised by al the pieces. I really loved her new collection and this made it one of the best expo's I've seen in quite a while! The collection existed out of necklaces and brooches. The pieces had a simple design with put all the attention on the technique; the turning of the ceramics. By showing the process of shaping the material with her hands, she created very delicate and personal pieces. She didn't fight the material, but used the properties of the material. She let the material decide how big she can go and how thin she can stretch the material. This way she created some very beautiful details! She used just a little bit of colour but mostly restricted herself to black and white (and you know I love black jewellery!!) and combined the ceramics with black silver and rope without overshadowing the designs of the pieces themselves. A must see! 11/06-01/10/2017 Gallery Pont & Plas Hooiaard 6 - Gent, Belgium Website: www.pontenplas.be/en/
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On the 22nd of June I went to Antwerp to visit the graduation show of the Master students in jewellery design at the Royal Academy Of Arts. This year the graduating students where: Yijun Liu (CN), Shahrzad Motallebi (IR) and Dabin Lee (KR). Yijun Liu used for her collection 'Ori-Ti' different folding techniques with titanium to create very light jewellery that seem simple by design, but are in fact very intricate. Shahrzad Motallebi took inspiration from Iranian architecture. She created her own patterns in 3D drawing software and by connecting these patterns she could create a variety of jewellery for the 'A Fraction Of Abundance' collection. All her pieces are very light and flexible by the way they are connected. I really loved the work by Dabin Lee named 'Down The Rabbit Hole'. Her work is about animal testing in the cosmetic industry. She used the rabbit as a symbol for the abuse these animals have to endure to create products for our beauty. She used tufting (type of textile weaving) as her technique to create the pieces but in stead of using a typical material like wool she used metal wire in a lot of different colours. The beautiful and almost happy colours create a big contrast with the fact that they represent the injuries the animals get from all the testing. You can visit this expo at Salima Thakker in Antwerp until 27th of june. 23-27/06/2017 Salima Thakker Kloosterstraat 2, Antwerp, Belgium Facebook Royal Academy: www.facebook.com On the 28th of June a big Master expo (Antwerp Masters 2017) will start in Antwerp with al the work of the graduating students from all the different master educations including the work of these three students. 28/06-09/07/2017 Rodestraat 12, Antwerp, Belgium Website: www.antwerpmasters.be On Friday 23rd of June I visited the graduation show of all the masters from different art educations from Hasselt and Genk, Belgium. The three jewellery students from the PXL-MAD University are Jonas Neo Fabri, Jasmijn Coenen and Kristy Bujanic. Jonas Neo Fabri created an installation where he questions the value of making. He used features of cheap products to create his project 'Saint Quatorze Parody'. Jasmijn Coenen (who's collection I explained in the previous post) created her own dreamworld 'Iridescent Elysium': a colourful world with a bit of (good) kitch, inspired on the romanticism of the 18th Century with a modern twist. Kisrty Bujanic used her family background as her inspiration. Her family is originally from Croatia and she used her memories from that time in her work. She used the bathroom as a starting point because it's a very important space in someones house and provides in the needs of the whole family. Every year the graduating students can win a few awards and I'm happy to tell you that Kristy Bujanic won the C-Mine Award Genk 2017! Congratulations Kristy!! This graduation expo ended on the 25th of June, but... The jewellery students will have their own annual graduation show starting next weekend at: Multiple Maastrichterstraat 64-66, Hasselt, Belgium Date and time: TBC Some time ago, I visited Jasmijn Coenen, a Master student at the PXL-MAD University of Hasselt, Belgium. I got to see her Master project and got a sneak peek of what she was doing. Her collection is called 'Iridescent Elysium'; a series of pieces inspired on the romanticism of the 18th Century with a modern twist. She describes the collection as 'a mythical gateway leading to my ideal world, my utopia, my elysium'. The pieces I could see where really colorful, with a lot of gems and different textures. Each piece is a little world on its own, that will gradually reveal details you didn't see the first time around. A real treat for the eye! There's is a certain level of 'kitsch' present in her work, which I must admit I really love! Combining actual gemstones with plastic ones and growing her own bismuth stones to create the pieces really accentuates her personal point of view on contemporary (colourful) jewellery. I won't be showing pictures of the complete pieces, just some details to catch your interest. She will present her new collection at EXIT 2017; the graduate show of the PXL-MAD University. Here, graduating Master students of all different art departments will show their work. Opening 23 June 24-25 June 2017, 10-18h C-Mine, Genk, Belgium Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/105847510010573/ 'Expo' is the graduation show with work by the jewellery and graphic design students of the PXL-MAD University of Hasselt, Belgium. As this is a blog about jewellery and the two departments showed their works separately, I will restrict this post to the work by the jewellery students. The first impression when I walked in was that they used a very colourful installation. Each student showed his or her collection on small tables in different shades of the same colour. They really made the most of the provided space and created a dynamic composition. I have to say that the jewellery did not impress me as much as I would have liked. A lot of the work really needed an explanation for the visitors to understand it, something I don't care for. I prefer it when a piece demands your attention in a visual way and the concept makes you like the work even more. Nevertheless, they used a lot of different and interesting techniques like laser cutting, glass blowing, knitting... which created an interesting combination of very different pieces. For me, the work of Eva Schrooten and Hester Daems stood out. Eva worked around inlay; not only as a decorative technique, but also as a way to connect different parts of a piece. Sometimes she used rubber parts to create flexible connections. Hester used bones and the way they move as an inspiration. She used the shape of bones in combination with artificial materials to create a contrast that reminds you of protheses. All the participating jewellery students: Eva Schrooten, Hester Daems, Annabel Goris, Selien Lips, Gertjan Vandezande, Mirthe Van Hove, Camille El-Achkar. Until 28 June PXL-MAD, Elfde-Liniestraat, Building C 3500 Hasselt, Belgium On the 4th of June I visited Kunst Rai Amsterdam in The Netherlands; an art fair with over eighty dutch galleries. This year they included a focus on Antwerp, Belgium: five galleries from Antwerp where invited to join the fair. As a jewellery designer it was very interesting to visit the fair because there where four jewellery galleries presenting their collection: Gallery Rob Koudijs (Amsterdam, NL), Gallery Ra (Amsterdam, NL), Gallery Marzee (Nijmegen, NL) and Gallery Beyond that was one of the five invited galleries from Antwerp (BE). Contemporary jewellery is not a widely known art form, therefor I think it's great that it's shown at the same fairs where you can see the traditonal art forms like painting, photography, sculpture... The people who visit these kinds of fairs are visiting with an open mind as art lovers and learning about something new like contemporary jewellery can only be interesting to them. This could be the starting point for some of these collectors to acquire a wonderful piece of contemporary jewellery and as such, make the jewellery community grow. The four jewellery galleries each presented a part of their collection which created a interesting mix of different pieces of jewellery and objects. They also showed pieces in different price ranges, which is interesting to people (like me) who love wearing jewellery but don't have the budget (yet) to buy bigger, unique pieces. And for people who just got to know contemporary jewellery, it lowers the threshold to owning a piece. Gallery Rob Koudijs showed, besides a part of their collection, a selection with work by ten young designers to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Gallery Marzee's booth was fascinating because of the amount of jewellery they were able to show. Here I found a beautiful porcelain brooch by Angela Ponce to add to our personal collection. Gallery Ra showed, next to the pieces from their permanent collection, some pieces from their current exhibition (20/05-17/06/2017) at the gallery with work by Thea Tolsma and Paul Derrez, who's beautiful necklace came home with me. Gallery Beyond showed work by designers from their permanent collection but also work by some new designers like Alejandra Solar and Mielle Harvey. In addition, they presented work by jewellery designers and photographers from their current exhibition at Gallery Beyond, Balanced Tension (7/05-24/06/2017). Kunst Rai Amsterdam
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kunstrai/ Gallery Rob Koudijs Facebook: www.facebook.com/galerierobkoudijs/ Website: www.galerierobkoudijs.nl/nl Gallery Marzee Facebook: www.facebook.com/marzee.modernartjewelry/ Website: www.marzee.nl/galerie/start/ Gallery Ra Facebook: www.facebook.com/GalerieRaAmsterdam/ Website: www.galerie-ra.nl/nl/ Gallery Beyond Facebook: www.facebook.com/galeriebeyond/ Website: www.galeriebeyond.be/ Kunstennacht Hasselt is an art event where you can visit a lot of different expo's at different locations in the city of Hasselt (BE). During this evening I visited the opening of Multiple Duo: Carla Riccoboni and Piergiorgio Cremasco. Both are Italian jewellery designers who where showing their own jewellery and objects, but also some pieces they collaborated on. Carla's jewellery makes you think of classic chains, but her designs are timeless. Some of the pieces that where part of a collection she designed more than twenty years ago. Still, they looked like they could have been designed today. The way she combines different types of links creates very interesting and dynamic pieces in gold or silver, or with details in color or oxidized black. Piergiorgio Cremasco's pieces where all 3D-printed and digitally designed. The almost fluid lines in his designed objects and jewellery create a very interesting dialogue with Carla's work. She makes everything by hand whereas he uses new techniques to create his jewellery. During this opening I met photographer Birgit Stulens, who was also showing some of her work at another location in the city. I really liked her work and the way she presented it. It was a combination of her pictures and some small objects. She used old pictures that her grandfather had made and changed them in subtle ways. I think that because of the combination with the objects I really could relate with her work, it makes you think of jewellery. And the feeling surrounding this presentation made me think of an old attic where you go looking for old and forgotten treasures. Multiple duo 11/05-17/06/2017 Maastrichterstraat 64 3500 Hasselt, Belgium |
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