The Museum of Arts and Design will present LOOT 2013: MAD about Jewelry, its curated exhibition and sale of artist-made jewelry for four days this October. Now in its 13th edition, LOOT: MAD about Jewelry has become known as the ultimate pop-up shop for contemporary art and studio jewelry by both artists and collectors alike; it affords the public the rare opportunity to acquire pieces directly from some of the most innovative jewelry artists in the world. This year, the creations of more than 50 emerging and acclaimed jewelry artists will be on sale. Prices will range from $200 to $12,000, with $1000 the average. Proceeds from the selling show will benefit the Museum’s exhibition and education programs.
Opening Benefit:
Tuesday, October 1, 4:30PM to 8PM
The Show Continues:
Wednesday, October 2, 11AM to 6PM
Thursday, October 3, 11AM to 9PM
Friday, October 4, 11AM to 9PM
Saturday, October 5, 11AM to 6PM
Violaine Ulmer (FR) - porcelain necklace
For Parisian jeweler Violaine Ulmer, the conception of a new piece of jewelry involves consideration of the interactions of light, transparency, form, & space to create a plastic object, not just an item of adornment. Each piece is above all a sculpture & a further source of experimentation. This approach gives form to “objewels” (objects-sculptures-jewelry), work that can be placed at the intersection of art, fashion, & design. Her current explorations focus on the meeting point between specific porcelain techniques & classic jewelry-making processes. Through this research, Ulmer evolves forms that exploit the fundamental character of her materials; they are both generous & pared to the essence.
Mathilde Quinchez (FR)Inspired by the lines found in nature, and more particularly by seeds and cocoons, Paris-based designer Mathilde Quinchez conveys a subtle and sensual world at fertility’s moment of origin. She communicates the most intimate matters with delicacy: her small, original cells convey a latent strength, comprising both the essence and the entirety of the universe. Beyond symbols, Quinchez brings us back to our perception of our senses—a wide range of simple and vital emotions. Her work also reflects on time, in her careful attention to detail, and the patina that the jewels will eventually wear. Quinchez’s way of working with silver, her pure lines and forms that explore fullness and emptiness, and her delicate perforations make her jewels extremely refined. In her hands, the metal becomes a synthesis of light, femininity and subtlety.
Andrea Pineros (FR)
Andrea Pineros ’ work is based on the themes of structure and lightness. With his background in design, he is inspired by urban constructions such as bridges, towers, stairs, and even transport networks. As he observes Paris, its inhabitants, its intrinsic rhythms and movements, he considers the thousands of daily trips that form networks and links. Pineros transcribes these ideas into jewelry, focusing on the essential concepts of full and empty, tension between links, proportion and equilibrium, growth and chaos. The wire he uses to create his designs serves as a pencil does for an architect: this thread which can stretch out, multiply, and fill an entire space allows him to express his creative universe. His pieces remind us that the preciousness of an object resides not only in its material but in its esprit. Through his jewelry, Pineros reduces the monumental in scale to make it accessible and finally tame.
Florence Croisier composes with the body, catching the variants of composition that movement can offer. Born in Geneva, Croisier graduated from Geneva’s School of Decorative Arts and worked in Paris as a designer or maker for different companies until 1999, when she started her own collection. Three years later, she began working with titanium. This material’s durability, hypoallergenic property, and capacity to take on beautiful colors allowed Croisier to fully express her creativity—and titanium’s lightness allows the wearer to pile on as many pieces as desired while retaining complete freedom of movement. Croisier started this work using a sculptural approach, but later began to use titanium wire as a kind of pencil permitting her to draw directly with the material. Others of Croisier’s pieces are assembled from an accumulation of repetitive elements organized into a structure that is sometimes completely random, sometimes inspired by nature.
Fabien Ifirès
Self-taught designer Fabien Ifirès apprenticed in luxury saddlery and handmade shoe-making workshops. He decided to create his own label in 2010 in collaboration with Michaël Vandewielle. His mastery of traditional sewing techniques allows him to explore all the possibilities of leather, his favorite material, and offer pieces that are precious and unique due to his meticulous creative process. All of Ifirès’ jewels are entirely handmade according to traditional saddlery techniques, with very high quality leathers sourced from the best European tanneries.
Hungarian designer Janka Juhos was born into a family of artists, and so her future career was marked out well in advance. After receiving her BFA in 2010, Juhos founded her own jewelry design company, JUJJ.
Yoko Shimizu
Japanese designer Yoko Shimizu studied at Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence, Italy, and chose to stay there to establish her jewelry practice. Living in a foreign country has heightened Shimizu’s consciousness of her cultural background and natural sense of expression and aesthetics. Subtleness and simplicity, fragility and vigor, harmony and tension are all important to her work. The theme of her collection in resin is transformation, which is manifest in Shimizu’s exploration of the mutability of forms, materials, and colors. Pieces of wood are alchemized into pieces of resin, and the surface of wood is transferred onto the surface of the resin. The metamorphosis of wood to resin, of natural to artificial, of opaque to transparent, and the continuous changes that occur when the jewels are worn on the body … all of these inspire Shimizu’s work.
Michihiro Sato
Michihiro Sato became interested in contemporary jewelry when he was an arts education student in Japan. After his graduation, he traveled to the University of Pforzheim in Germany to research the field. This was the beginning of a very long stay in Germany, where he gained valuable experiences and perspectives as a citizen, an employee of several advertising agencies, and finally a freelance artist before he left the country in 2002 to study jewelry in Oslo, Norway. Most importantly, in Germany Sato encountered the philosophy of Buddhism, which has influenced his work. Sato is currently living and working in Osaka, Japan as a freelance jewelry artist and teacher. He creates his jewels using various materials, including paper, silver and resin. His experiences living in different cultures have had a great impact on his creations. For Sato, something transient is beautiful if he has the insight to perceive something permanent
Jo Hayes Ward – Constructing jewelry from small building blocks
