EXPO ‘EXCESSORIES’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 8 Juill.-31 Aoiut 2012

Christoph Zellweger exhibiting at Galerie Louise Smit

 

Excessories – Let’ talk about FAT

EXCESSORIES or ACCESSORIES? The title of Christoph Zellweger’s exhibition confronts the literate reader with a creative misunderstanding, ‘EXCESS’ or ‘ACCESS’ or both?

The Swiss artist, Christoph Zellweger is internationally known for pushing boundaries on the definition of body adornment. Zellweger creates objects, one-off jewellery pieces and fictional products, which position themselves between critical design and object art.

EXCESSORIES introduces the notion of excess, which best defines today’s social habits of consumption. ‘Excess’ lays at the etymological core of the word luxury. What exceeds, what overflows, is the most exuberant side of nature and this is often manifested in the form of FAT, BODILY FAT.

Zellweger has identified the contemporary obsession with fat and produced highly aesthetic works in blown glass. These works made up of empty, translucent volumes, seem to overflow. Each artefact is marked with a weight reference coming from operation protocols (plastic surgery). The figures report on the diverse fates of fat of past operations to become metaphors for absence and loss.

On the opening day, the artist hopes for discussions with visitors about their views on FAT as well as on wearing contemporary jewellery. A plastic aesthetic surgeon will also be present.

Christoph Zellweger  Necklace: 3330 2012  Glass, textile

Christoph Zellweger  Necklace: R 189 2012  Glass, textile

Christoph Zellweger  Necklace: 818 2012  Glass, textile

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615,
1016 HT Amsterdam
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EXPO ‘(Take a look) at me’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 20 Mai-5 Juill. 2012

Lisette Colijn : (Take a look) at me

Lisette Colijn is active on the boundary between fine arts and design. Her autonomous ideas find form through the art medium jewelry. Jewelry is explained as an adornment, whether to adorn or not to adorn the aim is seduction. While adorning it possibly has the aim to lead astray. This potential contradiction makes jewelry the ultimate manipulation medium for showing human desires, of which power is one. Jewelry not only makes it possible for the wearer to express power but for the maker of the jewelry to show power over the wearer.

Lisette Colijn   Necklace – Porcelain balls - 2008
Lisette Colijn – necklace « silvernails » - silver

Lisette Colijn- Brooch: Untitled  Silver, porcelain, platina luster

 

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615
1016 HT – Amsterdam
Netherlands
Telephone: [phone]
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website: www.louisesmit.nl
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EXPO ‘Hand-Made’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 1er Avril-4 Mai 2012

Hand-Made : Annamaria Zanella & Renzo Pasquale
01 04 2012 – 04 05 2012

Annamaria Zanella :
The structural emphasis which has always characterised her work is also visible in its compositional freedom, which apparently moves away from the rigour of geometric abstraction typical of the Padua School. Her deconstructed works are therefore always based on rules which seem to be inverted, worn by contradictions, discordant elements, unpredictable opposites. « Poor materials », pigments mixed with lacquers, patinas, niello, oxides and powders corrode surfaces and change the ideal project which, however, can always be recognised.
The dynamic colours of surfaces are not so much informal as imbued with the movements of Action Painting. Zanella’s abundant use of materials unusual in jewellery, such as paper, cardboard, rags and iron, may seem to recall neo-Dadaism, but her work is far from being absurd or onirical; it is always concentrated between compressed emotions and openly expressed rationalism.
Creativity, strength, sensitivity and courageous inventiveness make this artist unique in her formal solutions and in her assiduous and constant experimentation with materials.

Annamaria Zanella – Brooch « Green cell » 2012 – silver, vitreous enamel

Renzo Pasquale – Brooch « Olimpica » 2008 – silver, titanium, plexiglass

Renzo Pasquale :
The geometrical shapes, transparencies, the superb ability in working precious stones like rock crystal, granites, jasper, etc. impressed Prof. Mario Pinton who, as head of the Pietro Selvatico Institute of Art, charges Renzo Pasquale with setting up an artistic laboratory of hardstone and semi-precious stones and also to teach this art to the students of the Institute.
Teaching brought Renzo to confront himself with other goldsmith artists of the Pietro Selvatico Institute of Art: Francesco Pavan, Giampaolo Babetto, Diego Piazza… It is with them that he starts to exhibit his works in various exhibitions form the eighties onwards. His work reveals the transparencies of the material.
The infinite variations of light that filters through these sculptures made of rock crystal or black, opaque granite. Sculptures that can be worn without conveying the impression of a redundancy of lines and volumes. Essentiality of design, concrete perceptions of thought of Euclidean beauty.
Pondered geometries, meditation on the study of shape, equations of pure mathematics: all seem to dissolve in the emotional impact transmitted by these creations of his, that talk not so much of stone but speak a language of pure poetry and perfect equilibriums.
The displacement of solids, sections, torsions, slippage, cutting, breaking through of solids such as cubes, cones, pyramids, cylinders created in different-coloured stones, always matched with small portions of gold. In this case gold emphasizes a drawing, enhances a section, receives the perspective breaking-down of a stone wall.
Plastic transitions of the inorganic, apparently indomitable material (stone) that softens as it is transformed in the hands of the artist. The transition and change in the Paduan artist’s most recent works are evident.
From the consolidated enquiry regarding shape in space of the previous years now reveals a series of pins where « going beyond » is transformed into the play of opaque transparencies, in secret rooms, of misty glass where a window seems to be made of, and created by, light.
A portrait of time, a photographic shot engraved in quartz to look for new emotions that tell of personal abstract perceptions.
A set of landscapes of the life and soul that this artist transforms with the hard stone into delicate water colours that partly evoke the contrasting shades and « chiaroscuro » of the great Dutch painters of the seventeenth century.

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615, 1016 HT Amsterdam
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EXPO ‘Doris Betz : Flora et Labora’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 9 Oct.-11 Nov. 2011

Doris Betz : Flora et Labora

« My jewellery work is based on my knowledge of plants,
The diversity of their forms, surfaces, structures and colours, become my vocabulary allowing me to express whatever I want.  »

Doris Betz – necklace: Summer 2011 – Goldlayers, tombak, silver - photo by Bernhard Roth
 

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615
1016 HT – Amsterdam
Netherlands
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
website: www.louisesmit.nl
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EXPO ‘Machteld van Joolingen: It’s only temporary’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 19 Juin-23 Juill. 2011

Machteld van Joolingen : It’s only temporary

 ‘It’s only temporary’
What we experience as time is nothing more than the conception that most events are not reversible. G. Krol

 

 

What remains and what disappears? The image, form, material and meaning – everything is subject to a change. Most of it vanishes in the end.
My discovery of plastic bags as a material is rather recent.
The colour, the shine and the many kinds of plastic contained in the plastic bags have seduced me to do several series of melting experiments. I started with cutting the plastic bags into small pieces, melting them in the oven and then taking them out to press them into a mould.
At a later stage I have relised that for the ultimate result, it is much better to work without a mould, and concentrate on the pure material – the melted plastic.
Currently, I sometimes stitch the pieces together before puting them in the oven. I try to influence the outcome during the melting process. For this I take the piece out of the oven, rearrange the plastic and put it back again. This may happen several times during the baking process. I also try to influence the colour palette of the plastic although this may not lead to the indented result. The key moment is when to take the piece out of the oven; a difference of few seconds could result in totally different outcome. The experience of unpredictability and chance excites me.
I also value the fact that many friends collected the plastic bags for me and jointly we are aiding a recycling process. Ugly bags may lead to beautifull results and vice versa.
From the melted material I select those pieces that have expressiveness and shape the story into my jewellery pieces. These pieces might carry reference to traditional jewelery, for it is tradition that delicately balances between temporary and eternal.

Machteld van Joolingen- Brooch

Machteld van Joolingen- Brooch ‘busy brooch’  2011 – silver | plastic

Machteld van Joolingen- Brooch ‘yellow bird’ 2011 – silver | plastic

Machteld van Joolingen – ring – silver, plastic – 2011

 

 

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615,
1016 HT Amsterdam – Netherlands
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COLLECT 2011 – at SAATCHI GALLERY, LONDON (UK) – 6-9 Mai 2011

COLLECT has an enviable reputation as a premier, annual fair for contemporary craft. Through its presentation of work from the best international applied artists, COLLECT has become a prestigious event in the international cultural calendar gaining the respect and support of many private collectors, museum curators and galleries.

This year, for the first time, the work of each artist will be complimented by a photographic installation curated by a renowned Italian photographer, Mario Guerra, in which the jewellery on display will be interpreted from an artistic viewpoint, so as to create an ever closer connection between the worlds of contemporary craft and contemporary art.

jewelry galleries :

Alternatives Gallery (IT), Antonella Villanova (IT), Electrum Gallery (UK), Galerie Louise Smit (NL), Galerie Marzee (NL), Galerie Ra (NL), Galerie Rob Koudijs (NL), Galerie Sofie Lachaert (BE), Galleri Format (NO), Galleria Norsu (FI), Lesley Craze Gallery (UK), Galerie Rosemarie Jäger (DE), The Scottish Gallery (UK), Tyger Glyn Gallery (UK)

Eugenia Ingegno (Alternatives Gallery)

Sally Collins – (Alternatives Gallery)
Helen Britton – (Galerie Louise Smit)

Bettina Speckner – front brooch – 2010  (Galerie Ra)

Mia Maljojoki - (Galerie Rob Koudijs)
Ara Kuo -  (Galerie Sofie Lachaert )

Elise Hatlo – (Galleri Format)

Anna Talbot, Redwolf, 2009 - (Galleri Format)
Nora Fok – (Lesley Craze Gallery)

Melanie Isverding (Galerie Rosemarie Jäger)

Attai Chen  (Galerie Rosemarie Jäger)
Susan May- brooch – (Tyger Glyn Gallery)

 

 

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road
SW3 4SQ‎ – London
United Kingdom
Telephone: [phone]
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website: www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect
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EXPO ‘Remake / Remodel’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 26 Mars-30 Avril 2011

Ralph Bakker jewelry at Gallery Louise Smit : « Remake / Remodel »

 

ring « solitaire 6″- gold, silver, enamel, quartz

« Ralph Bakker works gold, silver, precious gems, pearls and enamel into his pieces; the technical books in his possession are all about jewelry; he has, with heart and soul, dedicated himself to the skill and magic of the goldsmith. In the late 80‘s and early 90‘s that was an unusual attitude for a young jewelry designer, particularly in the Netherlands. At that time critics were more concerned about the conceptual aspects of the ornament.
Eventually everything rolled into place. For Ralph Bakker the jewel, with all it‘s traditions and connotations, became the concept of his work. That holds true for the rich colour combinations that he builds up with his materials, for the details in his complex jewelry, for the royal place he reserves for certain stones and foremost for the suggestive effect of the true jewel; in short, the pure seduction.
The underlying theme in all the work that he has exhibited in Galerie Lousie Smit is – the erotic. Sometimes hidden, sometimes explicit. Seduction is in one‘s mind, not only the body. His work is made for women, without consciously excluding men. For him the greatest satisfaction comes from enticing a woman to posses and to wear his jewelry.
I am one of those women. In 1991 I saw a necklace with boat-shaped links of blackened silver, the insides warmly dressed with gold leaf and each boat was set with a white shell. After sleeping on it for one night I knew I had to have that necklace. As an experienced art historian I knew the erotic symbolism of the almond­shape as well as that of the shells with their tempting undersides. But as with all seduction, and perhaps most importantly, I could connect it to a story of my own.
The sensuality in the beautiful collars is ambiguous as well. They are strong in form even though they are made for that transitional place on the body, the sensitive area between neck and breast. From this position the effect of their subtle brilliance in relationship to the face is optimal. Stemming from an ancient tradition the chain mail links make these jewels into objects that willingly form themselves to the body.
Brilliance is reciprocal, suppleness asks to be touched and traditions offer a starting point for one‘s own memories and fantasy. The adage, ‘‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder‘‘, holds more than true for Ralph Bakker‘s enticing jewelry.«   Marjan Unger – Translation Maria Russo

Ralph Bakker « the Fly » – earrings

Ralph Bakker- ‘Lace’ necklace Gold silver & enamel

Ralph Bakker- earrings: gold, silver, pearls & enamel 

Necklace  « Remake/remodel Cubes » – gold, silver, enamel – 2011

 

 

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615, 1016 HT Amsterdam
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COUP de … ROUGE avec Réka FEKETE

« In my work I use zinc plates as “building stones” by randomly sawing and assembling them. Each plate has its special texture, colour and shape. It connects my fascination for spaces and old objects. My recent work includes a collection of wearable objects made out of zinc, additional woven elements and lately I have started using paint and shrinking plastic. From these different materials spaces and imaginary figures arise.
Small details give the pieces character/personality. Details of a journey between inside-oudside, showing- hiding. The wearer decides what to show and what to hide. Who do you let in your world? »  (Réka FEKETE)

2005-2010 : Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Jewellery Design in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

EXPO / EXHIBITION Galerie Louise Smit : Space fragments 
27 Nov. 2010 – 13 Janv. 2011:  

Réka FEKETE -  Brooch ‘Red woven window’ – zinc , iron wire, textile, silver

Réka FEKETE -  Brooch ‘The horse of Don Quichot’ – zinc, silver, iron wire, paint, shrink plastic

Réka FEKETE -  Brooch ‘red window’ - zinc, iron wire, paint, silver

Réka FEKETE -  New red – brooch – zinc, iron wire, paint, silver

« In my work I use old etchingplates of other artists. These etchingplates are full of the marks, drawings and skrechtes that those artists made. Sometimes there is even some colour remains of the printing. The presence of history/time in the material brings us closer to the world of another, to a world that also could be ours. The tracks in the material are like the tracks that are left behind in a house by the occupant. By the obtained colour and patina personality and intimacy will arise.
Like a house tells the story of its occupant a jewel tells the story of the wearer without words. By wearing an object one can build up a more personal link with it.
You move together with the object, it becomes a part of yourself. »

 

EXPO ‘Mette Saabye – Lost in time…’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 23 Oct.-27 Nov. 2010

« AS TIME GOES BY.

Movement making marks and leaving imprints in the air. We try to hold on to the experience. Put it in a pocket and hide it away. In the very moment the sentence is uttered. The smell was a mix of sweet and sour. Childhood before everything went wrong. Put it in a pocket. A precious memory, contained in a little treasure without meaning or value. Nothing is more precious than diamonds and gold. Mette Saabye knows this. She puts our memories in pockets. In a pocket on a necklace. In a pocket on a brooch.
Like a puppeteer, she pulls her gold thread and makes us dance and squeal. Fascinated by glittery stones and shiny metal, but mostly fascinated by the familiar. But to seduce is not enough. Finish, decoration and form are not enough. The real content hides inside. The little object worth hiding. Precious. Just knowing that it exists is enough. Keep, hide, cover. The seal makes the memory’s anatomy unbreakable. It is tied, folded and twisted. Still, the quest is impossible. The memory of the memory. Remembrance. Remember to remember. Forget me not.With sophisticated craftsmanship and a deep knowledge of jewellery as media, Mette Saabye investigates jewellery’s potential. The themes ‘value’ and ‘remembrance’ are investigated again and again. With new visual tools each time. Everyday objects are transformed and elevated to the finest jewels. Their fundamental properties are highlighted and encapsulated so they take on new meaning. Because the material and the object’s value are only decided by social conventions. Their value is altered when they represent a personal memory. It is this paradox that Mette Saabye stages by mixing ‘insignificant’ objects with precious materials such as gold, silver and stones.
She has the piece of jewellery’s iconographic meaning in mind throughout. The pieces have a recognisable and universal jewellery feel. The ring, pendant and brooch as jewellery archetypes are twisted, but without detaching them from their interaction with the body. Jewellery is to be worn and the wear of time is ever present. As the body changes over time, so does the piece of jewellery, to reveal new content.
In this jewellery series, Mette Saabye balances on a knife-edge between the universal and the personal. « - Bettina Køppe

Mette Saabye – Lost in time.. ‘When the sky turn Cherry’, Necklace

Mette Saabye -  ‘ocean of birds’

Mette Saabye – Lost in time..  « Midsummers-night », Necklace

Mette Saabye – Brooch ‘Waiting for spring’ – lacquer, paint, 18 crt gold, cotton – 2010
Mette Saabye – Brooch ‘A summer meditation’ – lacquer, paint, 18 crt gold, cotton – 2010

Mette Saabye -« sparkling company »

Mette Saabye – « Abundance », Necklace -lacquer, paint, 18 crt gold, cotton – 2010

Mette Saabye – ‘on the move’

Mette Saabye – ‘Memories’

Mette Saabye – ‘an ideal sunday of freedom, peace and happiness’

 

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615,
1016 HT Amsterdam (NL)
tel : [phone]
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web : www.louisesmit.nl

EXPO ‘Helen Britton – Wet, Glittering, Dark: Shiny, Pointy, Sharp’ – Galerie Louise Smit, Amsterdam (NL) – 28 aout-14 Oct. 2010

Helen Britton
« Wet, Glittering, Dark : Shiny, Pointy, Sharp »-  Jewellery and Drawings in response to the Thuringer Forest

« I started traveling to the Thuringer forest in 2001, because of my obsession with glass christmas decorations. This obsession has nothing to do with christmas, but with childhood, memory, romance and loss. By 2006 I had understood enough about my obsession to start to turn it into work, which was fully realized during my residency as City goldsmith in Erfurt in 2007. This residency gave me the time to concentrate not only on the glass objects and history of this region but on the landscape, geography, architecture and atmosphere in general of the small villages were I was spending my time. The residency culminated in an exhibtion of Jewellery, drawings and photographs. The second significant body of work that then came out of this experience was show at the bavarian crafts council in 2009 under the title of  » Somewhere Else Completely ». Now over a year later, and many more visits to the region the work has become more about the forest itself and about my own romantic fantasy. This body of work , now a preoccupation for almost 10 years has always included photographs and drawings. It is also the first project that has a geographical specificity outside my own country. In a way this work has also been about coming to terms with living in Europe – a way for me to really arrive.«   Helen Britton

Helen Britton – Brooch ‘Wetshinysharp’ – silver, paint, glass -2010
Helen Britton – Ring ‘Sharpgreen‘ -  silver, diamonds, paint – 2010

Helen Britton – Ring ‘Bluering‘ -  silver, diamond, paint – 2010
Helen Britton – Brooch ‘Raven’ – silver, paint, glass, diamonds -2010

 

Galerie Louise Smit
Prinsengracht 615,
1016 HT Amsterdam (NL)
tel : [phone]
fax : [phone]
email : [e-mail]
web : www.louisesmit.nl