Lucy Sarneel’s ‘Like a butterfly’ necklace (similar to brooch pictured) has recently been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria for their permanent collection.

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VOICES is the first major retrospective of Jiro Kamata’s work, and has recently opened at the Alien Art Centre in Taiwan.

For over 20 years, Munich based Jiro Kamata has been engaging in many aspects of ‘optic experience’. By deploying an array of expressive techniques, dominated by both reflection and communication, Jiro has carved out a unique position in contemporary craft while participating in numerous international shows. The voices that lend the exhibition its name emerge through sound, attitude, identity and expression, and point to an ongoing story that is preserved and continued.

A new book accompanies this exhibition, designed by Studio Amanda Haas, with publishing assistance by Arnoldsche Art Publishers in Stuttgart, Germany. Please contact Gallery Funaki to reserve your copy.

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25 July – 28 September

With the capacity to elicit simultaneous and complex experiences, artworks in this exhibition employ push-pull tensions of seduction and repulsion – towards the abject and informé, to the ornamental, erotic and transgressive, and those that consider historical grotesques to explore contemporary issues of race and identity.

Curator: Naomi Evans

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It’s been an enormous privilege to assist the family and friends of Margaret West in placing four important works by Margaret in the collection of the Danner Stiftung at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. The selection includes two brooches from the ‘Fatal Flowers’ series of 2004 and two 2001 brooches.

Thanks to the Danner Foundation and the wonderful staff a the Pinakothek for their wisdom and insight in adding this important Australian voice to such an impressive collection. Thanks to Otto Künzli for his advocacy and thanks to Margaret’s passionate team here in Australia.

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Congratulations to Yutaka Minegishi, who was recently named a recipient of the Hebert Hofmann Award at the annual Schmuck event in Munich, alongside Misato Seki (Japan) and Junwong Jun (Korea).

The jurors, Cornelie Holzach, Sophie Hanagarth, Otto Künzli and Gert Bruckner, said of Minegishi’s work:

“From the circular shape of the ring, he develops a monolithic-looking head. The dynamic of the form is created by the gradual rotation and winding of the material. As a result, the rings lose the coldness of the geometry and they meet the human body. Gold and amber live on color and their specific shine. The opacity of the gold is contrasted with the transparency of the amber, so that we can see through the rings of Yutaka Minegishi for the first time in these works.”

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JamFactory Adelaide, 1 March – 28 April, 2019

CONCRETE: art design architecture is a major exhibition exploring innovative ways that concrete is being used by artists, designers and architects in Australia in the 21st century. Curated by JamFactory’s Margaret Hancock Davis (Senior Curator) and Brian Parkes (CEO), the exhibition includes 21 artists, designers and architects from across Australia and brings together products, projects and works of art that reflect many of the current preoccupations with concrete within contemporary art, design and architecture in Australia.

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Congratulations to Manon van Kouswijk with designers Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen, whose book Making Faces: a jewellery playbook, featured as part of Manon’s exhibition here last November, is shortlisted for the Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing.

An initiative of the NGV and supported by philanthropists Caroline and Philip Cornish, the annual prize is the most significant of its kind, recognising publishing as a critical creative practice. $15,000 is awarded to the winning book, with additional $1,000 prizes for up to four finalists. Winners will be announced at Melbourne Art Book Fair 2019, which runs as part of Melbourne Design Week, March 14-24.

Perimeter Books is hosting an official launch of Making Faces: a jewellery playbook on Saturday 9 March, 4-6pm at their store: 743 High St Thornbury, 3071. The launch will be accompanied by an informal conversation about the making of the publication. Contact Perimeter Books for more information.

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Congratulations to Marc Monzó, who has won the Ciutat de Barcelona Award (Design category) for his new group of works, Level, which was exhibited at Galerie OONA in Berlin last month. Awarded by the City Council of Barcelona “in recognition of his artistic career”, this prize celebrates the best in culture and science. Marc says “the works that are part of the Level exhibition are a set of pieces with a structural nature. These are naked skeletons that outline areas, their function would be similar to that of a three-dimensional map. Some of these compositions are inspired by small ephemeral constructions of gardens, or topography measurement tools.”

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JamFactory’s touring exhibition ‘Catherine Truman: no surface holds’ opens on 21 September at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Truman’s practice is renowned for its diversity and incorporates contemporary jewellery, objects, digital image and film installation with a focus upon the parallels between artistic process and scientific method. Investigating Truman’s 20 years of collaborative practice at the nexus of art and science, this exhibition is an important retrospective of the multiple engagements Truman has had working with scientists over this time as well as featuring a new body of work.

Catherine Truman will give a talk at 3pm, Saturday 22 September.

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Helen Britton is currently artist in residence at The LockUp in her home town of Newcastle, NSW. If you’re in the area, join Helen for a talk about her career and the experience of returning to Newcastle, to explore and experience the place that through memory, has informed much of her practice.

Saturday 15 September, 2-3pm.

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Adelaide’s JamFactory will soon host a re-staging of the major Ormolu exhibition by South Australian artists Julie Blyfield and Kirsten Coelho. Ormolu first showed at Funaki in 2017, with key works acquired by Geelong Art Gallery. The new iteration of this wonderful show opens on 5 October.

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Marian Hosking has recently made a significant group of key works from the last two decades of her practice available exclusively through Funaki. The catalogue of available works, which includes vessels and  is available below, please contact the gallery for more information.

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Congratulations to Benedikt Fischer, winner of the 2018 Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery in the Established category for his series of five Pearly Whites brooches, made from shell, mother of pearl, remanium and sculpey.

Congratulations also to Samira Goetz (Germany), winner of the A$2000 prize in the Emerging category for her necklace, DWELL. The judges commented that this piece “works so well and is extremely wearable despite the fact that it’s big. It’s bold and it’s well resolved.”

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This month we’re proud to announce a significant acquisition by the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Works by Yutaka Minegishi, Helen Britton, Manon van Kouswijk, Blanche Tilden, Daniel Kruger and Marcos Guzman have now entered AGWA’s permanent collection, continuing to build one of Australia’s most important public collections of international contemporary jewellery.

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The major exhibition Design for Life: Grant and Mary Featherston has just opened at Heide Museum of Modern Art, marking a special moment in the history Australian design. This remarkable pair, partners in life and work, had a profound influence and continues to this day.

Blanche Tilden has previously worked with Mary Featherston using elements of Grant’s glass work. Especially for this exhibition, she has created a series of jewellery pieces that draw on the Featherstons’ forms, palettes and material ethos. This beautifully crafted jewellery is available exclusively from Heide.

Design for Life: Grant and Mary Featherston is on show until 7 October.

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Congratulations to Julie Blyfield, whose sculpture Silver, leaves of grey (above) has been selected for the Stanthorpe Art Prize 2018, held at the Stanthorpe Art Gallery in Queensland from 16 June to 19 July. Winners share in $40,000 in total prize money, to be announced at the opening on 15 June. The works are available to purchase.

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Aurora Australis – a major exhibition of work by 17 artists living and working here in Australia – opened over the weekend at Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h in Montreal. Curated by Funaki director Katie Scott, the exhibition features work by Julie Blyfield, Simon Cottrell, Anna Davern, Bin Dixon-Ward, Sian Edwards, Maureen Faye-Chauhan, Emma Fielden, Marcos Guzman, Kirsten Haydon, Marian Hosking, Inari Kiuru, Sue Lorraine, Carlier Makigawa, Sally Marsland, Blanche Tilden, Catherine Truman and Manon van Kouswijk.

Simon Cottrell will conduct a masterclass at the École joaillerie Montréal in early July, to coincide with this exhibition.

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We’re very proud that Otto Künzli’s iconic work, ‘Oh, Say!’ has recently been acquired by Te Papa Museum, Wellington.

‘Oh, Say!’ is a discomfiting composite of emblemsL the Christian cross, a Klu-Klux Klan hood, a skull, a star, a heart and Mickey Mouse, worn like a sheriff’s badge. It’s a symbol of the American unconscious – perhaps more relevant today than ever.

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Blanche Tilden’s work is on show until 28 October at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, in Liquid Form: Ancient and contemporary glass.

Displaying significant artefacts from the Egyptian and Roman periods alongside the work of contemporary makers, Liquid Form examines the development of faience and glass manufacture in the ancient world and demonstrates how these methods have been reinvigorated and extended in the modern era.

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Te Papa Museum in Wellington is currently staging a major retrospective of Lisa Walker’s work: I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered, charting her remarkable 30 year career from her studies in Dunedin in the late 1980s, through her time completing her Diplom and etsablishing herself as a major new talent in Munich, to her return to New Zealand and today.

Throughout her career, Lisa Walker has pushed toward the extreme. She is described as a ‘contemporary archaeologist’, excavating culture, art, fashion, and photography for ideas and materials. An extraordinary range of works is on display, made from materials including copper, pearls, and pounamu, to found objects like LEGO, cell phones, and egg beaters.

I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered runs until 22 July.

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We’re pleased to announce that Geelong Gallery has acquired four significant works from our 2017 exhibition Ormolu by Austalian artists Julie Blyfield and Kirsten Coelho. The pieces, which reference historical Australian domestic objects, have entered the collection through the Dorothy McAllister Bequest.

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Congratulations to Otto Künzli, who has been named the 2018 ‘Klassiker der Moderne’ (Modern Classic). This honour, accompanied by a retrospective exhibition, is given each year during the Munich-based Schmuck exposition, to an artist who is considered to have made an important contribution to contemporary jewellery history.

Swiss artist Otto Künzli was Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, where he taught goldsmithing and headed the department for Jewellery and Hollowware from 1991 to 2014. He received the City of Munich Design Award in 2017, with the jury saying “His excellent role has played a decisive part in the City of Munich being regarded as a centre of jewellery design throughout the world – a phenomenon that is reflected at the special jewellery exhibition of the International Craft Trades Fair year in year out.”

Otto Künzli last exhibited in Melbourne in 2016 in Evil and I, with Therese Hilbert.

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A small selection of brooches by the late Australian artist Margaret West have been made available through Gallery Funaki. Margaret West was a renowned maker and poet, whose work is held in public and private collections here and overseas.

Her work in granite, slate and marble, along with river pebbles and other stones, was marked by a profound simplicity and directness. As Patricia Anderson wrote in her tribute to West, “the durable and aesthetic qualities of these materials were at the heart of her explorations, but so were the emphemerals that surrounded them, the shifting earth, the sky, the air and the wilting flowers. She found these symbols of both permanence and impermanence in gardens and cemeteries — in flowers and gravestones.”

Margaret West lived in the latter part of her life in the Blue Mountains and died in 2015, at age 78.

We have five significant works available from her 1997-1999 series Notes (the sky is a garden).

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The Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery recently acquired works by Inari Kiuru and Blanche Tilden, from the 2017 Contemporary Wearables Award.

Blanche Tilden’s ‘Flow 03’ necklace has entered Toowoomba’s permanent holdings, along with Inari Kiuru’s concrete brooches from the ‘Night falls over Brunswick’ series (pictured). These works were featured in the Mari Funaki Award last year.

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Catherine Truman’s solo exhibition ‘No surface holds’ opens on July 20 at JamFactory in Adelaide as part of their Icon series, which was launched in 2013 to celebrate the achievements of South Australia’s most accomplished craft and design practitioners.

With a 35-year practice that covers film to public artworks to finite carvings, ‘Jeweller’ as Truman is sometimes referred to, hardly embraces the true expanse of her practice. Rather, she is an accomplished artist, with a love of research flowing in the undercurrent to all of her practice, a practice that is of and about the body as much as it is intended for it. She was described by Melinda Rackham in Catherine’s 2016 monograph as “…a holistic maker – acutely aware of her process, while continually evolving her inquiry. Truman’s curiosity takes her and her makings into the sensate and anatomically unfamiliar – probing thresholds of human being”.

Catherine Truman: No surface holds is on show from 21 July – 17 September at JamFactory before touring nationally.

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Congratulations to Catherine Truman for the recent acquisition of Fugitive Portraits 1,2,3 by CODA Museum.

Made in 2005, this series stands as a particularly strong example of Catherine’s exploration of anatomy and human form in artistic and scientific contexts.

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Congratulations to David Bielander for being one of three recipients of the 2017 Swiss Grand Award for Design.

Each year, the Swiss Federal Design Commission recognises the work of three artist/designers who have played a defining role in Swiss creative culture.

In granting this award, the Swiss Federal Design Commission stated: “The Confederation grants Bielander a Swiss Grand Award for Design in recognition of his unconventional point of view and critical method, which yield unconventional and striking results that set him at the forefront of international jewellery design.”

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David Bielander’s significant survey exhibition ‘Carte Blanche’ opens tonight at the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland.

From MUDAC:

“David Bielander transforms everyday objects into jewellery.  Elements such as prawns, pineapples, beetles or raspberries are immediately recognisable, yet disconcerting.  The aim of Bielander’s tromp-l’oeil is not to mystify the viewer but to set up a humourous interplay between the wearer and the jewellery itself.  He seeks out the most suitable materials and techniques with which to simulate reality, yet it is not until his pieces are worn that they come to life.”

The exhibition runs until 30 April, 2017. Go here for more information.

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CODA Museum in Apeldorn will soon stage a major retrospective exhibition by Dutch artist Lucy Sarneel.  Private Territory in Public will show works spanning the length of Lucy’s impressive career, marking the achievements of one of the Netherlands most respected makers.

Lucy Sarneel: Private Territory in Public opens on January 15 and runs until April 9.

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Sydney jeweller and artist Emma Fielden will shortly begin a six-week residency at the Penrith Regional Gallery as part of their Gravity and Wonder exhibition program.

Emma is one of three artists selected, each being paired with a scientist to create new work, which will then be exhibited for a further six weeks.  Emma will collaborate with scientist Andrew O’Brien, a radio astronomer and PhD candidate at the University of Western Sydney whose work focuses on galaxy clusters and dark matter.

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If you find yourself in Switzerland between now and November 6, be sure to catch an exhibition by Therese Hilbert and Otto Künzli at the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur.

Therese Hilbert and Otto Künzli are two of Switzerland’s most renowned jewellery artists and have been working side by side since the 1970s.  This exhibition is a major survey show covering the major aspects of their respective careers.

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Catherine Truman has been selected as the featured artist for the 2016 South Australian Living Artist Festival (SALA) and will be subject of a SALA monograph to be published in August.

The Art Gallery of South Australia will present a comprehensive survey exhibition of her work from June 11 until September 4, 2016.  More information can be found here.

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Congratulations to Yutaka Minegishi, who has just been announced as the winner of the prestigious Förderpreise 2016 der Laundeshauptstadt München.  A small selection of Yutaka’s meticulously carved rings in ebony and other precious timbers are available to view in the gallery now.

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Karl Fritsch is in Melbourne this week for the opening of London based, New Zealand born artist Francis Upritchard’s first major survey exhibition, Jealous Saboteurs, at the Monash University Museum of Art.

Francis Upritchard and Karl Fritsch have collaborated extensively over several years and will discuss this relationship, and others, in a conversation convened by Paola de Trocchio, Curator International Fashion and Textiles, NGV.  The event coincides with the opening of the exhibition, this Saturday 13 Feb from 2-3pm at MUMA, Caulfield. Free entry.

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n extensive interview by Akiko Makiyama with Otto Künzli is available now on the klimt02 website.  Künzli discusses the recent showing of his touring retrospective, The Exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, as well as new pieces including the I Made It – You Name It series (one of which is available to view at the gallery), collaborations and his thoughts on jewellery, education and art.  Otto’s voice is articulate, fierce and brilliant and I highly recommend a close reading of this wonderful conversation.

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The Françoise van den Bosch Award is presented every two years to an outstanding practitioner of contemporary jewellery, and is considered among the most prestigious prizes in the field.
We are thrilled to announce that Funaki-represted artist Marc Monzó has just been nominated as the 2016 winner.  He joins such illustrious company as David Bielander (2012), Lisa Walker (2010), Karl Fritsch (2006), Warwick Freeman (2002) and Otto Künzli (1990).
Marc Monzó trained at the Escola Massana in Barcelona, graduating in 2000.  He has exhibited extensively since 1998 and his work is held in public collections worldwide.
Marc Monzó exhibited with Kiko Gianocca at Funaki in 2012 and will present a solo exhibition at the gallery in early 2017.  If you happen to be in Germany, his work can be seen from next week as part of ‘From Here and There’.
Image: Marc Monzó, Big Solitaire brooch, silver, cubic zirconia

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Congratulations also to Lisa Walker, who has just received the Arts Foundation Laureate Award for 2015.  Lisa is widely regarded as one of the most influential contemporary jewellers to come out of New Zealand and has been represented by Funaki since 2000.

The Arts Foundation Laureate Award, based in New Zealand, is an investment in excellence across a range of art forms for an artist with prominence and outstanding potential for future growth.

The Laureate Awards are presented to five artists annually at the Westpac New Zealand Arts Awards. Each recipient receives $50,000 in recognition of their achievement and as a challenge for them to continue working at high levels.

Lisa’s work can also be seen in the upcoming From Here and There exhibition in Germany.

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A major pair of exhibitions will shortly open in Germany, curated by Prof. Daniel Kruger to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Burg Giebichenstein Halle.

The first presents works by young international jewellery artists from many parts of the world and shows the diverse trends in current author-jewellery.  A parallel exhibition also showcases works by teachers, graduates and students of Kruger’s Jewellery Class at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design.

Exhibiting artists include some of the leading lights of the jewellery movement, including Funaki-represented artists Helen Britton, Simon Cottrell, Karl Fritsch, Kiko Gianocca, Sally Marsland, Marc Monzó, Lucy Sarneel, Lisa Walker and David Bielander.

Opens 12 November and runs until 3 March 2016, at the Burg Galerie in Volkspark, Halle.

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Otto Künzli’s vast career retrospective, Otto Künzli: The Exhibition, opens at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum on October 9th.

Born in 1948 in Zurich, Switzerland, Otto Künzli is one of the most important figures in the world of contemporary jewellery. Thanks to his consistently conceptual approach, as well as the humor he expresses through his works, Künzli has also gained attention and regard beyond that field.

This exhibition was originally shown at Die Neue Sammlung – The International Design Museum Munich and has toured to MUDAC – Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne. This leg of the tour brings together over 150 works, ranging from his earliest pieces dating from 1967. The exhibition also includes drawings, photographs and installations.

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Congratulations to David Bielander, who won the prestigious Bayerischer Staatspreis (the Bavarian State Prize) at this year’s Internationale Handwerksmesse in Munich, Germany.
David’s winning series of deceptive and witty bracelets, titled Wellpappe, are made in silver and white gold (and will be available at Funaki later this year).  Photograph by Dirk Eisel.

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Don’t miss a new exhibition at Glen Eira Council Gallery featuring three of Melbourne’s favourite jewellers; Manon van Kouswijk (represented by Gallery Funaki), Anna Varendorff and Meredith Turnbull.  The exhibition includes jewellery, objects, drawings, furniture and sculptural components by the artists, addressing concerns with identity, adornment, connections with the body and wearer and the intersection of contemporary art and fashion, and runs until April 26.

Pictured: Manon van Kouswijk, Paperwork, 2015, paper, glue, thread.  Image courtesy of the artist.

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