Ann-Kathrin Hartel ^DE, Susanne Schwarz ^DE and Nadja Soloviev ^DE met at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg as first year students in 2010. In the following six years they developed a friendship, but furthermore a deep understanding of the artistic working methods of one another. Since 2013 they have exhibited as a group and were awarded with the Academy Prize for their graduate exhibition in 2016.

Hartel’s work was shown amongst others in Talente, Munich (2014), the Marzee Graduate Show 2016, Nijmegen, Netherlands and was selected for Schmuck, Munich in 2017. Schwarz won the first prize in the category product design and the special award of Alessi at the International Marianne Brandt Contest (2013), and the Upper Bavarian Prize for Applied Arts in 2015. In 2016 she had her first solo exhibition at Austra Lasmanis, an art space in Berlin. Susanne’s work was selected to be shown at Talente in Munich, Germany in 2017. Soloviev won the Upper Bavarian Prize for Applied Arts. Her work was shortlisted in various awards including the BKV-Prize (2015), the Mari Funaki Award (2016) and the Friedrich-Becker-Prize (2017) and has been shown in a number of international exhibitions.

Marion Blume ^DE is a contemporary jeweller currently living in Amsterdam. She was trained as a goldsmith before studying Jewellery and Everyday Objects at Pforzheim University with Prof. Andi Gut. In 2013 she did an internship with Iris Eichenberg at Cranbrook Academy of Arts (USA). Blume holds a BA in Arts and Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam where she graduated in 2016.

Zoe Brand ^AU is an artist/maker currently living in Canberra. She completed an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design at the Design Centre Enmore, TAFE NSW, Sydney as well as a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in Gold- and Silversmithing at the Australian National University in Canberra. She has exhibited in many group shows in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Estonia and her work is held in a number of significant private collections.

Isabelle Enders ^DE is a Nuremberg based artist. She was trained as a silversmith before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg in the class for Gold- and Silversmithing. She graduated as master student of Prof. Ulla Mayer and completed a postgraduate program in Art and Public Space with Prof. Simone Decker. She is the winner of the Bavarian State Prize 2013 and the Danner Award 2014.

Jing He ^CN is an artist/designer currently living in Eindhoven. She completed her education in Central Academy of Fine Art (Beijing), Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam), and Design Academy Eindhoven.  She is the winner of Gijs Bakker Award 2016. Her works are included in Françoise van den Bosch Foundation (NL) collection, which is held by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Nadine Kuffner ^DE was trained as a silversmith in Kaufbeuren-Neugablonz. She studied first at Konstfack, University college of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm with Prof. Karen Pontoppidan before continuing at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, with Prof. Otto Künzli and Prof. Karen Pontoppidan. She graduated in 2017 as master student of Prof. Pontoppidan. Kuffner is the winner of Talente-Prize 2011.

Suska Mackert ^DE studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (1994-1998) and at the Sandberg Instituut in 2000, both in Amsterdam, NL. She is a professor, traveling lecturer, and professional artist. Her works are in many private and public collections. Since 2013 she lives and works in Nuremberg, having been appointed as professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections.

Anneleen Swillen ^BE holds a master’s degree in Object and Jewellery design (2010 – 2014, PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt) and a postgraduate in Curatorial Studies (2014 – 2015, School of Arts, Ghent). Currently she is working on a PhD research in the arts into the expressive potential of presentation within contemporary art jewellery practice (2015 – 2019, Hasselt University and PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt).

Emmanuel Lacoste ^FR graduated in Contemporary Jewellery at AFEDAP (Paris, France) in 2006. Using medias like objects, sculpture, installation, video, photography and performance, his works follows a line of research with multiple entries, structured around the relationship between the body and the piece, the piece and the body.

www.emmanuel-Lacoste.com
www.facebook.com/E.emmanuel.lacoste.L

Manuela Centrone ^IT is a multidisciplinary artist who graduated from the Venice School of Fine Arts. Unafraid to change artistic practice when her personal research demands it, she constantly explores new possibilities of expression, both in form and in content. Her work highlights the themes of the living, the links between inner and outer self, microcosm and macrocosm, individual and universal, one’s relationship to oneself and to the other life forms surrounding us.

centronemanuela.e-monsite.com
www.facebook.com/manuela.centrone
www.corpusinact.blogspot.fr

A graduate of the University of Aix en Provence, Rodolphe Cintorino ^FR is a protean artist: installations, objects, performances, photographs, videos, exhibition curating. Combining black humour and gravity, attraction and rejection, he creates modified and deconstructed objects. He thus gives birth to a sensitive and confusing universe in which the boundaries between cultures, symbols and values are blurred.

www.rodolphecintorino.com
www.facebook.com/Rodolphe-Cintorino-121334574588289

Alexandre Keller ^FR graduated from the École du Louvre and holds a licence in art history. He painstakingly shapes a world of great intensity whose iconography reinvents the role of video and short film in contemporary art. His filmed stage performances, true dialogues between sound and image, reveal a fascinating creative universe, made up of hybrid and mutant characters, sounds and objects.

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006237887805
www.facebook.com/EVERSCREEN-1495930750682553

Inspired by the art of puppetry and her work with theatre companies, Maria Landgraf ^DE is interested in the friction between different disciplines. Performance has become for her a fertile ground to combine fine art, theatrical representation and writing. His artistic research consists in developing a specific language around performance, the integration of the human body in the exhibition artworks, and the détournement of the representation of spectacle.

www.maria-landgraf.com
www.facebook.com/maria.landgraf

Rilène Markopoulou ^GR lives and works between Athens and Vienna. Her studies in Germanic philology and at the School of Fine Arts in Athens were enriched by visits to the United Kingdom and France. A cosmopolitan artist, she develops her performative language around several forms of expression such as video, sculpture or installation. She uses “non-invasive” and ephemeral materials to emphasize the bond to the body and to others.

www.rilene.com
www.facebook.com/rilene9
www.nettingthework.com

Anneleen Swillen ^BE holds a master’s degree in Object and Jewellery design (2010 – 2014, PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt) and a postgraduate in Curatorial Studies (2014 – 2015, School of Arts, Ghent). Currently she is working on a PhD research in the arts into the expressive potential of presentation within contemporary art jewellery practice (2015 – 2019, Hasselt University and PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt, Be).

Maiko Gubler ^CH is a visual artist and designer, based in Berlin. Using the digital three-dimensional model as a starting point, bridging realms in a contemporary way, is what motivates her practice – be it in the form of images or physical objects. Her work has been exhibited on- and offline.

Göran Kling ^SE is a contemporary jewellery artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has worked with jewellery in different ways spanning from fashion, art and education. He holds an MFA in Jewellery Art from Konstfack University of Art in Stockholm, Sweden.

Vann In-Wai Kwok ^HK is a Hong Kong and London based designer-maker. Kwok has a great interest in design-objects that are considered alongside the border of art, design and craft. Her works sit between the realm of art, fashion and jewellery, with an emphasis on material innovation and interaction.

Edgar Mosa ^PT was born in Lisbon, Portugal, where he was trained as a goldsmith at the age of fourteen. He holds a Bachelor of Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in The Netherlands and a Master of Fine Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States. He lives and works in New York City.

Mah Rana ^UK lives and works in London. “In John Brahm’s 1946 film The Locket, Nancy suffers emotional trauma from a childhood incident when she was accused of stealing a friend’s locket. Subsequent psychosis leads her to destroy the men who love her. My own attachment to jewellery is very strong, but I hope with not such devastating consequences.”

Lisa Walker ^NZ is currently based in Wellington, New Zealand. She was a student of Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany, where she had her studio until 2009. She has exhibited widely in galleries and museums internationally, has work in various international collections, and has received many awards and prizes.

Trained as a jeweller, Kristin d’Agostino’s ^NZ/USA inclination toward project based work inspired endeavours beyond the bench such the Brooch of the Month Club and the Overview newsletter (produced by the Jewellers Guild of Greater Sandringham). She sees curating as a natural extension of this mode of working. She was participant in Schmuck 2011, the Handshake mentorship project, and currently serves as a board member at Objectspace and as the Art Jewellery Forum ambassador for NZ.

Vanessa Arthur ^NZ is a jeweller based in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand whose work often records moments in time as an excavation of everyday within the streetscape.  Vanessa completed a Bachelor of Applied arts at Whitireia New Zealand in 2011. Upon graduating she was awarded the 2011 Fingers Graduate Award and was a member of Handshake II project.

After a successful career as a bassist for the band, the Abel Tasmans, Jane Dodd ^NZ studied jewellery at UNITEC in Auckland, NZ.  Dodd spent the next fifteen years as a member of an all-female jewellery collective, workshop6 before returning to her hometown of Dunedin. Rococo Revolution, her latest works are displays of discomfort, and has shown at Objectspace, Auckland (2014), Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco (2015) and Schmuck(2017).

Sione Monu ^TO is a Tongan artist living in Auckland, NZ.  He uses instagram (visit @sione93) as an art tool, to create artworks that utilise the platform as a way of re-indigenising space and creating accessibility for his community to engage with the works.  Monu is working on a solo show with Objectspace, opening late 2017.

Jasmine Te Hira ^NZ is a jeweller and multimedia artist living in Auckland, NZ and her whakapapa (genealogy) connects her to the Māori iwis (tribes) Te Rarawa and Ngapuhi, the Cook Islands and Devon, England. Her work explores her heritage and the successes and challenges her ancestors have faced. Te Hira attended UNITEC Institute of Technology – Te Whare Wananga o Wairaka and was awarded a 5-month Creative New Zealand Pasifika Internship with partnering organisations Toi O Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.

Raewyn Walsh ^NZ is a jeweller based in Auckland, NZ.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Design (Honours) from UNITEC Institute of Technology – Te Whare Wananga o Wairaka in 2009 and has been a participant in the Handshake programme.  Raewyn is a founding member of the Jewellers Guild of Greater Sandringham, a grassroots collective that produces the Overview newsletter and has been active in international content provider’s discussions.

Selina Woulfe’s ^NZ practice explores the body and its politics through radical concepts whilst utilizing traditional metalsmithing techniques. Woulfe has work held in The James Wallace Arts Trust Collection.  She was included in the publications, Scope Art Journal: Border Crossings #7 and On Jewellery: A Compendium of International Contemporary Art Jewellery, by Dutch art historian Liesbeth den Besten. 

Lilian Mattuschka ^AT/IT is a contemporary jeweller based in Florence, Italy. Born in Austria and raised in Italy, she is interested in exploring the social behaviours and norms that define human interactions through mixed media.
She holds a BFA (2014) and MFA (2016) in Contemporary Jewellery and Body Ornament from Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence tutored by Dutch artists Ruudt Peters and Lucy Sarneel.

http://lilianmattuschka.com/

Lena Grabher ^AT is a Vienna based contemporary jeweller. She holds a BFA from Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, Italy and a MFA from SUNY New Paltz, USA. Since 2016 she is a member of Atelier STOSSimHIMMEL and she also teaches metalsmithing techniques at the Wiener Goldschmiede Akademie. Her thesis Diplopia was recently awarded with the prestigious ELIGIUS Jewellery Award.

Born in Lebanon in 1985, Sana Khalil ^LB is a graduate of the American University of Beirut with a Degree In Landscape Architecture. With an Interest in academics, she worked as an Assistant for various professors as well as a consultant for the Faculty in Beirut. Curiosity for exploring new dimensions drove her to the field of jewellery, where she received her MFA in Contemporary Jewellery and Body Ornaments, while assisting director, Doris Maninger. Currently living in Florence, she is the acting Assistant Director and BFA Coordinator and teacher.

Ruudt Peters ^NL is contemporary artist with focus on art jewellery. He lives and woks in Amsterdam and Ravenstein, NL. He is born in the Netherlands.
His work goes about the alchemy of life and stretches the boundaries of contemporary jewellery, Peters was professor at the Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, Konstfack Stockholm and Alchimia Florence. His work is presented at a number of museums around the world.

Chumeng Weng ^CN is a bit of everything and nothing. Fiddling with hand tools, doodling, and occasionally typing on a computer. She is on the way of becoming yet another amphibian of her time.

Christoph Zellweger ^CH worked as a goldsmith before graduating from the Royal College of Art, London, where he turned towards an interdisciplinary, critical and experimental practice. In dialogue with social scientists and plastic aesthetic surgeons, Christoph poses questions on how new medical and technological advancements affect humans’ perceptions about themselves. This question is connected to jewellery as an identity re-enforcing cultural tool. 

http://www.christophzellweger.com/

Larissa Cluzet ^FR, born in 1989, studied art history in École du Louvre and metal craft and design in Olivier de Serres, both in Paris.  She is a contemporary jeweller whose works usually deals with materiality, mutations and power, and is also involved in cultural projects about queer feminist issues. She was part of Résidences, an artist-run collective space for contemporary jewellery.

Volker Atrops ^DE was born in April 1965. Goldsmith since early 80’s. Since 15 years also a gardener.

Renee Bevan ^NZ was born in 1980, is of Cook Island / European descent and currently resides in Auckland. She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from University of Auckland in 2002. Over the past 15 years Bevan has exhibited in numerous national and international exhibitions. Bevan’s work is held in numerous private and public collections.

After completing her film studies at the São Paulo university, and working on several short and long films as well as in advertisement, Stella Bierrenbach ^BR relocated to Lisbon, and studied at the ArCo jewellery department. She went on to receive a diploma form the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam) in 2001. Since then, she has been exhibiting in Europe, North America, and Brazil. She is a founding member of the association D’un bijou à l’autre and a member of the Résidences AIR gallery.

Liesbet Bussche ^BE lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied Jewellery Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam where she graduated in 2009 and at St Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp where she obtained her master’s degree in 2016. Since 2009, she exhibits worldwide and gives regularly lectures and workshops.

Lin Cheung ^GB is a jewellery artist, designer and senior lecturer at Central Saint Martins. She trained at the Royal College of Art and lives and works in the UK. Her approach to designing and making questions the established and authorised uses and meanings of jewellery and objects. She has won several awards for her work and exhibits internationally in major museums and galleries.

Morgane de Klerk ^FR/NL lives and works in Amsterdam. She graduated in 2011 from the Jewellery Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy after studying Fashion Design in France (Nîmes). Her work deals with social behaviours and our look upon the material world with a critical eye on aesthetic criteria and prejudices.

Göran Kling ^SE is a Contemporary Jewellery artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. He has worked with jewellery in different ways spanning from fashion, art and education. He holds a MFA in Jewellery Art from Konstfack University of Art in Stockholm, Sweden.

Suska Mackert ^DE studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (1994-1998) and at the Sandberg Instituut in 2000, both in Amsterdam, NL. She is a professor, traveling lecturer, and professional artist. Her works are in many private and public collections. Since 2013 she lives and works in Nuremberg, having been appointed as professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Her work can be found in numerous public and private collections.

Nathalie Perret ^CL/FR is an artist and a jeweller working and living in Paris. She received her diplomas from the Finis Terrae fine arts school in Santiago, Chile, and from the AFEDAP in Paris. Her work was shown in a number of exhibitions in France and abroad.

Paula Pongratz ^DE studied graphic design, makes Post apocalyptic Jewellery and video art, lives in Munich, Germany.

Drawing influence from Punk, Dada, Situationism, the Goons and the dilapidated barns and discarded rusting farm machinery surrounding him as he grew up, Timothy Information Limited ^GB constructs badges and machines that often promote a physical interaction between the viewer and the work. Under the initial seemingly nonsensical and abstract veneers lurks a subtle commentary, observation and story telling with political sensibilities.

Maud Traon ^FR graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2007. She is known for her explosive mix of colour and form to create imaginative and unpredictable works of wearable art. The series of the Fairies created in 2011 is a recurrent theme in Maud’s work: The difficulty of growing up, of finding a place in the society.

Benjamin Lignel ^FR, an art historian and designer by training, is a co-founder of la garantie, association pour le bijou, a French association with a mission to study and promote jewellery. In this capacity, he co-curated “Also known as jewellery”, an exhibition of French contemporary jewellery that travelled to seven cities. He started writing on contemporary craft in 2006, became a member of Think Tank. A European Initiative for the Applied Arts in 2009, and held the commissioning editor position at Art Jewelry Forum form 2013 to 2016. He has edited three books under AJF’s imprint. Starting in 2016, Benjamin worked as adviser on Medusa, jewellery and taboos, which opened in 2017 at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He is a guest teacher at the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts since 2013, and at Alchimia (Florence) since 2016. He is currently working on a research and exhibition project on jewellery and gender with Namita Wiggers.

Benjamin Lignel extends his warm thanks to: the guest curators for their enthusiasm, their professionalism, and the high quality of their response to his invitation ; Myriam Lopez, whose frictionless efficiency simplifies elaborate projects; Vita Schmidt for her excellent translations; Hedvig Moberg for granting us the permission to use her self-portrait for the exhibition’s promotion; my brother Baptiste Lignel for his advice, his support, and his groovy pictures; Giulia Rossi and Francesca Corso for their quick response and forward-thinking approach to website design; and Emmanuel Lacoste for his careful proofing of the French-language catalogue.

Ann-Kathrin Hartel, Susanne Schwarz and Nadja Soloviev would like to thank Neila Kemmer for writing their statement, and both Eva Knöferl and Benjamin Lignel for their translation of it.

Kristin d’Agostino would like to thank Creative New Zealand for their generous support.

Anneleen Swillen would like to thank Maiko Gubler, Edgar Mosa, Göran Kling, Vann Kwok, Mah Rana and Lisa Walker whose artistic practices, insights and (self-)presentations played a major role within this project. Thanks to her colleagues from PXL-MAD School of Arts Hasselt and Hasselt University for all their contributions to the project. Thanks to all the participating artists/curators of Exposé with whom it was a great cooperation, thanks to Espace Solidor for hosting the exhibition, and a big thanks to Benjamin Lignel for the invitation and the opportunity. From small gestures to big favours: they were all important contributions.

Emmanuel Lacoste would like to thank Claude Arias, Manuela Centrone, Rodolphe Cintorino, Alexandre Keller, Paul King, Maria Landgraf, Rilène Markopoulou and Bérénice V.

All photos by: Baptiste Lignel / Otra Vista

Apart from: the view of the museum of Contemporary Jewellery – Espace Solidor, courtesy of Service communication, Ville de Cagnes-sur-Mer; the images included in the presentation of ACTION!, Courtesy of the artists; portrait of Jon John, courtesy of Bérénice V.