Smitten Collective, existing of the two young jewellery designers Billie Van Nieuwenhuyzen and Juan Harnie, are invited by internationally renowned gallery Multiple in Hasselt, Belgium to curate their summer expo this year. This expo ‘Love Jewels’ is about love, sex, fertility, passion, fetish, nudity... These exciting subjects have been portrayed in the arts since the dawn of time. Although the depiction of sexuality has been done for ages, there’s still a taboo on, as well as a strong attraction towards it. Looking at images of sexuality brings up different, sometimes contrasting emotions such as shame, arousal, repulsion and confusion. The depiction of sexuality evolves together with the ever-changing societies and social structures. That’s why Smitten Collective, a contemporary jewellery platform, would like to show what’s current and living amongst our fellow jewellery artists and how they portray the subject of ‘sexuality’. The term ‘sexuality’ is broad and includes so many aspects; LGBTQ, gender, love, abuse, monogamy, obsession, lust, and so on… Participating artists >>> Denise Ebert, Georgina Trevino, Hansel Tai, Jussi Jarvinen, Lauren Kalman, Nelly Van Oost, Paula Zuker, Paula Bahadian, Rokxia, Simone Frabboni, Virginia Jakim, Verena Krems, Zane Skersiene. You can visit the expo until 01/09/2018. Facebook Smitten Collective Website Multiple
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This year, I was able to visit Munich Jewellery Week again! And after four days of walking around in the city I've seen so much, met so many interesting designers and have so much to tell that I had to make a selection of the exhibitions I visited. I struggled with the two maps (one was HUGE and the other incomplete :s ) and we even got to visit more than 50 exhibitions and still did not see everything! I've made a list of 12 exhibitions that impressed me the most. In the first place because of the work I saw there, but also because of the presentation. I really liked it when the designers used a smart way of presenting their jewellery. Using the space at its best, a lot of the time with easy, clever and cheap solutions. For some of them exhibiting in Munich is far away from home, and transport is a difficult obstacle that makes it next to impossible to bring a lot of presentation material.
I think there was a big contrast between some of the exhibitions in the quality of the presentation and preparation! Some really did a big effort to present everything well and there where some who did next to nothing to enhance the expo with a better presentation. I also noticed some where not prepared well: not knowing enough info on the pieces like materials and prices... This really is a shame when you have such a huge international audience! Just make clear lists with all of the info and think about how to present your work the best way possible!
Next to visiting all the exhibitions in the city, I also went to one of the AJF talks: AJF in conversation - Collecting. As a young designer and collector it was very interesting to see some more established collectors and hear about the way they present, catalogue, wear... their collections. It was impressive to see how they had huge cupboards built to store the jewellery in and to see the great number of pieces they own! They also talked on how important it is as a collector to do something with your collection like exhibitions! You are a representative of the pieces you own! And of course, during a week like this, I acquired a few additions for our personal collection! ;-) Now it's all over, I'm already looking forward to next years' edition of MJW! See you there? Extranalities is a group expo by Tim Carson, Herman Hermsen, Peter Vermandere and Felieke Van Der Leest at gallery Multiple in Hasselt, Belgium. For the main expo they gave each other materials and short assignments which they had to use to create the pieces for the exhibition. They gave a lot of materials which related to their own work and it was very interesting to see how someone else used these materials to create jewellery. Next to this main expo, they also showed work from previous collections. This combination of work makes for a very interesting and versatile expo with a lot of different pieces to see. All of them show a sense of humor in their work which works great together and adds to the quality of the show. During the opening, they even played music themselves! Peter on acoustic guitar and kazoo, Tim singing and playing the electric guitar, and Felieke on the violin. It was a great opening with a nice atmosphere and honestly, one of the best expo's at Multiple so far! Facebook Multiple: www.facebook.com/juwelen.multiple/ Overall, most of the presented jewellery was very wearable and had quite a 'classic' look and design. This is not necessarily my cup of tea, but to each his own! ;-) A lot of them showed a high level of technical skill that I can only envy! But here are some of the designers who really caught my eye: The first was Twenty One Twelve by Tine Sibbens who showed a great mix of designs; going from very wearable silver pieces to more alternative pieces made out of a variation of materials like leather, rubber, bronze, shells... For her collection, 'Hydrophobia', she was inspired by the mysteries of the underwater world. The collection contains necklaces, brooches, rings, but also very interesting earpieces which surround the complete ear when wearing it. Next to Tine's designs, there where some designers I've already known for a while, but whose work keeps on intriguing me! These designers where: - Karen Vanmol, who showed very colourful earrings made out of wood and laminate, - Ann Cox, who creates jewellery out of glass and rope. - Anna Rosa Moschouti, an architect that also designs jewellery influenced by architecture. -Liesbet Bussche, who designs great conceptual installations about jewellery. It's a very interesting fair that's not too big and with a good variety of different things to see. I really hope to visit it again next year! Websites:
Twenty One Twelve: 21-12.be/ Karen Vanmol: www.karenvanmol.com/ Ann Cox: www.anncox.be/ Anna Rosa Moschouti: annarosamoschouti.com/ Liesbet Bussche: www.liesbetbussche.com/ BAD: belgiumartdesign.be/ On the 27th of January I went to Antwerp to visit some exhibitions and shops. My first stop was Live Aesthetically, a shop run by Ophelia Debisschop who makes lingerie and Anna Rosa Moschouti, an architect who makes jewellery. They also sell ceramics, clothing and home decoration by other designers. I visited them to see more of Anna's jewellery. Her designs are very abstract and you can still see some of the architectural influences. For instance, the metal parts in some of the jewellery is copper you can find in hardware stores. She makes wearable pieces that make a statement. And, of course, I could not leave without buying one of her necklaces ;) Address: Mechelsesteenweg 78, Antwerp, Belgium. After visiting Live Aesthetically I went to Muhjo, a jewellery shop where you currently can see the solo expo by Ann Cox. Her pieces are made out of glass and for this collection she used gold as her main color. The expo containes a combination of very wearable pieces and also some that are almost wall objects. You can still visit her expo until the 3rd of March 2018. Next to this exhibition Muhjo shows a wide variety of jewellery by different designers. I bought me a ring by Staen, the brand of the owner of Muhjo and a nice ring by Isabelle Azais made out of recycled plastic bags. Address: Volkstraat 36, Antwerp, Belgium My last stop was at Gallery Beyond. The current exhibition at Beyond is called Finest Selection which shows work of all the designers from their permanent collection. It is a very good exhibition with a lot to see and a nice presentation made out of plexiglass boxes that they stacked! They show a great selection of new designers and designers who have been represented by the gallery for years. I bought a new brooch by Yu Hiraishi from her latest collection. The expo runs until 15th of February 2018. In March, Gallery Beyond will organize an exhibition during Munich Jewellery Week 2018! I'm very curious and can't wait to see what they will do! Because this year I will visit MJW again! Address: Sint-Jorispoort 27, Antwerp, Belgium Links:
Anna Rosa Moschouti: annarosamoschouti.com/ Muhjo: muhjo.bigcartel.com/ Gallery Beyond: www.galeriebeyond.be/ Until the 3rd of February you can visit the current exhibition at Multiple, a gallery in Hasselt Belgium. This annual expo, MAD Multiple, shows jewellery made by 2nd year students from the PXL-MAD University of Hasselt. The students had to make small series of jewellery while thinking of price, wearability, packaging... For most of them this is their first experience with selling and presenting their work to an audience and potential buyers. I'm sure this is a great learning experience for them. This year, there is a great mix of different styles, materials and techniques which makes this a real must-see if you are in the neighborhood! The pieces are very wearable and not very expensive. ;) I was happy to add four new pieces to my collection! (pictures bellow) Can't wait until next year!! ;) 16-19 February these students will present their work under the name of 'MAD About Inhorgenta' during Inhorgenta, Munich (DE). They will be joined by a couple of students from other years and a few alumni (including me) in this exhibition. We will be presenting our series to an international audience of gallerists, shop owners and enthusiasts. MAD about Inhorgenta Hall C2, Stand: 306/407 Forum Innovation On 12 November we visited Sieraad Jewellery Art Fair 2017 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This year, there were over 100 stands! There are huge differences between these stands when you look at the kind of jewellery they show how the pieces are presented. You can find very classical pieces with a lot of gold and gemstones, but also very conceptual pieces out of unusual materials. You can really expect anything at Sieraad! Every year, there's also a main exhibition in the central aisle of the Westergasfabriek. This year, it showed jewellery from students from Idar-Oberstein Hocheschule Trier, Germany that have graduated over the past 15 years. This main expo, called Rockstars, showed a big variety of different pieces of jewellery mainly made out of stones or with stones in them. I think this was a great edition of the fair! A couple of designers caught my eye and from some I was able to bring something home with me to add to our collection. ;-) A list of the artists I particularly loved: - Loukia Richards: she and Christoph Ziegler organized an artist-in-residency-project with different international artists in Athens. Loukia herself presented beautiful hand embroidered portraits, inspired by classic iconography, made into jewellery. -Mia Maichen: she made beautiful pieces with quite graphic pictures of a rat she dissected. -Libby Ward: she used scrap materials from an old ceramic factory to create a brooch we fell in love with! - I finally got the chance to see the work by Die Vier (after unfortunately missing them on Munich Jewellery Week 2017). They're a collective of four designers: Catalina Brenes, Denise Ebert, Pia Groh and Julia Obermaier. This was the last fair they participated in as Die Vier, but I hope we will hear lots more from them in the future! - Primordiale: a brand that can be found on the border of contemporary jewellery and fashion jewellery and uses hardware to create great pieces. - T Squared: an Israeli brand by Tami Eshed that offers interesting, wearable and modern pieces with simple, but very graphical and strong shapes! Other artists I loved and will definitely follow in the future are: Konstanze Prechtl, Rachel Butlin, Francesca Verado, Cleopatra Cosulet and Anna Król. Besides the stands with jewellery, it's also very interesting to visit the stand or Ra Books. Here, you can find a wide variety of books about jewellery. I bought the new book by Marjan Unger and Suzanne Van Leeuwen: Jewellery Matters, a book on the meaning of jewellery. I've only just started reading it, but am already sure this a 'must have' for every jewellery enthusiast! The next edition of Sieraad will be from 8 untill 11 November 2018. Websites:
On 11 November, we went to 'The joy Of Collecting'; a manifestation organized by SSC and Current Obsession on collecting contemporary jewellery and collectors. It was organized as a part of the first ever edition of 'Obsessed, jewellery in The Netherlands'. The SSC's (foundation for Jewellery Collections) mission is "to protect and present private jewelry collections as cultural heritage and see them as an inspiration source for future generations." Current obsession is first of all known to many of us for their magazine 'Current Obsession', but also organizes several jewellery related events like 'Obsessed'; a festival that unites different jewellery events in The Netherlands during the month of November 2017.
The speakers during 'The Joy of Collecting' were: - Cees Leijenhorst, who had a very interesting talk about why we collect stuff. It was not specifically about jewellery but fitted right in with the theme! He talked about three kinds of collectors: the prince (who has more money and collects to show his wealth), the citizen (who also has some funds to be able to collect something) and the fool (basically a hoarder). - Mathylda Krzykowski organized two rounds of 'Design Date'; a format inspired by the 'Blind Date' game show on TV. Each time their was a fictional jewellery designer and three potential partners to form a collaboration with. During the first round, the three 'potential partners' had nothing to do with contemporary jewellery. Because of this, I think they couldn't really answer all of the questions completely, just by a lack of background knowledge. During the second round, there was more of a dialogue between the candidates, one of whom was Marianne Unger. This made it a lot more interesting to listen to. I think that the idea of having a dialogue on contemporary jewellery in a playful way is very interesting and the Design Date was a great first attempt and I do hope a similar discussion will be repeated in the future, but with some changes made to the format... - Judith Torzillo talked about her project 'Young Collectors' in which she interviewed people under 40 who (don't) think of themselves as collectors. I was very happy to be part of this second project of hers. She talked about why younger people often don't think of themselves as collectors and how they acquire their pieces. She also presented pictures of (parts of) these young collectors' collections and their interviews. I think this was a great initiative and hope to see more of the 'Young Collectors' in the future! - Liesbeth Den Besten talked about the way museums handle collections they receive or collect. Do museums do something with their pieces of jewellery or do they end up in an archive? They should think of ways to be able to show these pieces like the Rijksmuseum in The Netherlands did; they photographed all the jewellery and put these pictures online so everyone can look at them. Also, there's no copyright on these pictures, so anyone can use them without restriction! - Pet Van de Luijtgaarden is an artist who makes installations with big collections of different kind of objects and materials. Outside, he also presented a part of a mobile installation that exists out of caravans filled to the ceiling with collections of objects. - Lisa Whittle talked about digital archives; something quite popular nowadays. By tagging pictures with useful tags, they can help create connections you didn't think of initially, creating new groups that weren't there at first. She uses this kind of categorizing on a website on fashion, but it would also be applicable on jewellery. Being a collector myself, I hope there will be more manifestations, symposiums, discussion panels... around this theme in the future! And hopefully Obsessed will be a returning event next year! Maybe there will even be an 'Amsterdam Jewellery week' in the future...? Website Obsessed: www.current-obsession.com/obsessed/ At the moment, there's a lot of new jewellery to see at Gallery Beyond in Antwerp, Belgium! First of all, you can visit the triple exhibition by Mielle Harvey, Jelizaveta Suska and Alejandra Solar. A great show with a fantastic match of different designers. Each of them created their own little 'landscapes'. As you can see in the picture below, their work is presented next to each other. Even though they have different concepts, there's a coherent atmosphere; a dreamy and poetic one. Next to this exhibition, you can see pieces by Alexander Blank and Adam Grinovich, who were recently added to the permanent collection of the gallery. In my humble opinion, they are both great additions to this already fascinating group of designers! There are also new pieces on display by designers who have been in the permanent collection for a while now. Here, you can discover wonderful new pieces by Jillian Moore; one of my favourite designers at Gallery Beyond! Now is the time to visit this gallery! Trust me, you won't regret it! 'Till 26 November 2017, Antwerp, Belgium WEBSITE From 23-26 November, Gallery Beyond will also participate in "To Be"; a project in Antwerp where recently graduated Antwerp students will present their graduation projects at 43 different locations. Gallery Beyond will be showing pieces by Dabin Lee. Smitten collective has recently been formed by three young jewellery designers; Jill Lenaerts, Juan Harnie (yours truly) and Billie Van Nieuwenhuyzen. We studied Object and Jewellery Design together at the PXL university in Hasselt, Belgium where we attained our Masters. Now, a few years later, we are combining our experiences and interests to create this collective. Our purpose is to show contemporary jewellery to people who often don't even know this kind of jewellery exists. Our first exhibition is part of a pop-up project in Antwerp called 'Gitschotel Popt'. Here, we got the opportunity to turn a big, deserted space into an exhibition room for two months. Next to showing our own work, we also invited eleven Belgian artists to participate in this exhibition; nine jewellery designers, a collage artist (Trut) and an architect who makes prints and jewellery (Caro Deheeger). Next to this exhibition, we will also organize a couple of workshops at the same location. Participating artists: Jill Lenaerts, Juan Harnie, Billie Van Nieuwenhuyzen, Nelly Van Oost, Trut, Karen Vanmol, Annabel Goris, Ilke Matthys, Zoë Detrez, Diederick Van Hovell, Ann Cox, Caro Deheeger, Lore Langendries, Noana Giambra. At the end of October, the exhibition will be renewed and a couple of new designers will join the exhibition for its final month. Every Thu, Fri & Sat, 11-18h From 23rd September until 25th November 2017 Also open on Sunday 5th November! Gitschotellei 82, Antwerp, Belgium Facebook: www.facebook.com/smittencollective3/ |
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