(featured photograph: Neckpiece and rings by Yiota Vogli)
Dear art jewelry lovers,
Tamagit has been quite busy this month! We had the great pleasure of visiting JOYA Barcelona 2019 as well as some off-joya and off-the circuit shows. After seeing thousands of jewels, we can say that there is a huge diversity of artists. However, within the vast spectrum of works of art we have seen, we have been able to identify certain groups of makers
1) the ones who love to EXPERIENCE with material and whose statements are all about the research, use, combination and result of the employed materials
2) the ones who EXPRESS a deep personal or collective message through their jewels and hardly insist on the unique use of the materials
3) the ones who WISH to find beauty and create a strong visual effect with their pieces as wearable items
4) the ones who like to PLAY and make the beholder smile due to evident or not so evident connotations or interrelations
5) the ones who LET the pieces talk for themselves
6) the ones who think they have INVENTED art. They believe to be real genious. The GOD- artists
In any case, all stories are valid if the jewel or object is the result of an artistic and well-thought and “well-felt” process and if the artist follows a certain path or evolves in his/her career. To me, if there is freedom of creation and the artist is not pressured by the market, the user/wearer, any tendency or award, the jewel will most likely speak for itself.
While talking to many artists during the exhibition, I also realised how much they appreciate to have people communicate to the outside world. They all insist on the fact that art jewelry needs to be communicated to a bigger audience. Keeping it in small endogamic circles will only make it unaccessible and in the end jewelry artists want to reach all kinds of public. We need to emphasize once again that artists need to make a living out of their art so their work needs to be sold. And this can not happen in small circles. It will never be a brand item understood and appreciated by everybody. However, there is a large community that appreciates art and culture that still does not even know of the existence of art jewelry.
Let’s support art jewellers. Let’s support art.
Brief summary of some JOYA & off-joya impressions
Starting with a 66 Mistral Gallery and its mature exhibit TROBADES, ENCOUNTERS featuring the original work of 4 consolidated intertwined artists: Nicolás Estrada, Stefano Rossi, Lluís Comín & Judy McCaig.
Off-circuit exhibit. It won’t leave you indifferent. HOME, a courageous and visually attractive show at Metal Metal Gallery featuring the sharp art work by Paul Adie. Adie’s jewels, mostly made of aluminium, silver and steel, come accross as strong statements on identity, freedom and sexuality. One can almost hear how his jewels scream and ask not only for a smile but for some seconds of reflection.
Here are a few pieces of Le Stanze del Possibile, a stunning exhibition at Hannah Gallery. Curated by Nichka Marobin, this unique show puts literature and jewellery in dialogue as it is inspired by the Six Memos for the next Millennium by Italo Calvino, a series of lectures for the Charles Eliot Norton sessions at Harvard, a true guide on how to write but also on interpreting Calvino’s writings. Calvino died before finishing his last memo so they could not be delivered.
With this exhibit Nichka Marobin is certainly giving Calvino’s memos a beautiful continuation by presenting curated work of big artists such as Robert Baines, Ralph Bakker, Helen Britton, Lin Cheung, Patricia Domingues, Gésine Hackenberg, Karin Johansson, Andrew Lamb, Réka Lörincz and Ezra Satok-Wolman which make us reflect on 1. Lightness 2. Quickness 3. Exactitude 4. Visibility 5. Multiplicity and nr 6…(fuzzy writing on the exhibit announcement) Consistency
Silent roads & Desert nights, a warm and sandy exhibition at JORGC Barcelona featuring the work of 6 original artists who have experienced the desert and its colours in an intimate and personal way: Hind Elhafez, Ferran Iglesias, Estela Saez, Hussein Sedauy, Amira Ayad and Ignasi Cavaller.
Silence, exotism, sand, warmth…a true excercise of introspection and creation far away from the crowd.
Raluca Buzura, AUTOR Awesome award. Present at Joya Barcelona with the collection: She. A sensual, delicate and confident collection. The female mystery converted into ceramic jewels and objects.
Vasundhara Jewelry An Interaction
The first female Indian contemporary art jeweller I meet. Jewels made of gold? No. It’s not gold, it’s blown glass & brass. An Interaction: a seductive game of energies and connections. East and West. Tradition and modernity. Roots and freedom. Fragility and strength. Welcome to Barcelona!
INDIFERENCIA by Kiseno, Silvia Serra & Juanjo García
Kiseno: The impact of violence and guns. The horror in the streets. The loneliness of fear.
S. Serra: The omission of help and support to refugees and migrants. A vast sea that swallows bodies to death.
J. García: Emotional aggression. Injustice towards animals. Abuse of authority and power.
A highly artistic exhibition that combines the anger and sadness of three jewellers who can not live and create by ignoring different forms of injustice. Materials such as rubber, wood, enamels, recycled paper and objects… even bullets shape this interesting exhibition. Jewels as a manifesto of dignity.
There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” Walter Benjamin
Nuda VITA curated by Ilaria Ruggiero
What is your body worth? Psssss Shut up and obey! Don’t question anything, just DO. Don’t think. Don’t feel. And YES!!! Yes, do follow the leaders. Buy plastic objects and throw them away. Hurt people. Hurt yourself. Hurt the planet. Don’t reflect. Don’t feel. Don’t question public policies. You are WE. We are YOU.
13 artists reflect on the personal, social and political consequences of our behaviour. Vivien Bedwell, Daria Borovkova, Corrina Goutos, Satomi Kawai, Anna Lewis, Nina Lima, Daniel Ramos Obregón, Daniella Saraya, Hansel Tai, Martina Turini, Tanel Veenre, Maria Ignacia Walker and Snem Yildirim.
Intimate warmth. A nest of memories and knowledge versus the hostile outside world. The individual and the collective, social & political dimension. Ongoing; nothing is ever finished.
Natural raffia, leather and cotton versus hard iron. Disappointment and hope converted into art.
Jewelry by Gemma Canal part of TRESORS at Joya Barcelona 2019. Collection: Under Construction…
TRESORS at JOYA Bacelona 2019 curated by Silvia Serra. Collective exhibition by Catalan artists.
Artemis Valsamaki at Joya 2019
“To be able to express my concerns and thoughts in a piece that will come in touch with the body , is very challenging to me, defying sometimes the concept of jewelry, approaching the idea of an object.
My inspiration deals with human relations , dreams , Greek mythology, fantasy , hidden messages. Each time my intention is to create a visual, narrative story to be worn.” A.V.
The beauty of the fragment or the re-used/re-shaped/re-valued. The aesthetics of the broken that reaches a new dimension. Some Joya Barcelona 2019 Highlights- in order Yasuko Kanno, Liana Pattihis, Xiangyin Shi and Roxy Lentz.
Students are the future. Great research, materialization and presentation Works by Hochschule Trier students
Here is the work of the selected just graduated artist from Massana School Josefina Espinoza. Tutor: Carles Codina. Well done!
Experiencing with new materials. Contemporary jewelry made of spaguetti, eggs, vintage photos, plastic bottles, cans, posters, hair…
Some highlights of Joya Barcelona 2019
Shapes. Straight lines and ovalities.
Some more highlights of Joya Barcelona 2019
“The only difference between the immortal Greece and contemporary times is Sigmund Freud, who discovered that the human body, purely platonic at the Greece epoch, nowadays is full of secret drawers that only the psychoanalysis is capable to open”. Salvador Dalí
Rooms of the mind by the Greek artist Yiota Vogli. Experience and feel the complexity of the human brain, an ovality formed by multiple drawers that keep, process and create our deepest thoughts and emotions. Different layers, corners and depths of all the lived and re-lived moments.
That was it… our apologies for not being able to feature more works…
Until we meet again…
Marta Tamagit