CARLIER MAKIGAWA

Carlier Makigawa is a renowned figure in Australian contemporary jewellery, with a practice spanning nearly 50 years.

Her fine wire structures, for which she is best known, contain varied and complex evocations: the delicacy and intricacy of botanical specimens, the monumentality of rock formations, the microscopic wonder of crystal structures, even the planes and angles of modern architecture. Her 2019 exhibition Linked however, revealed a new path, a dramatic shift towards the flexibility and movement of chain. These latest works reach a point of coalescence, a perfect balance between these two ideas - some frameworks now have skins made of chain, some rings drape across the finger rather than standing upright upon it, and through it all there are bright spots of colour from vintage costume jewellery components, or pieces of lapis.


Carlier graduated in 1980 from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, later going on to complete her Masters in Fine Art at RMIT University in 1987. Carlier was an instrumental figure in metalsmithing education in Victoria in the 1980s and 90s, and has exhibited internationally since 1982, being among the first Australian jewellers to be exhibited overseas, in numerous highly regarded exhibitions that travelled in Japan, Europe, the US and the UK.