The girl with a pearl earring invites you to discover the work of 8 contemporary artists whose visual language makes the most of this marvellous pearl material. Each in their own way, are reappropriating the pearl that, in former times, was worn only by kings and princes before it later became the classic jewel par excellence.
From pictorial compositions that are as intriguing as they are amusing to their integration into composite materials, from delicate weaving to organic camouflage, the pearl has not said its last word, but, quite on the contrary, is opening a new page in the history of contemporary jewellery.
From 1 June to 8 July, our ROUND exhibition invites you to take another look at this jewel, to perceive its light and feel its poetry.
The jewellery of the Japanese designer Kana Umeda evokes a light rain of glass with a crystalline sound. Under the brand name _cthruit [see through it], she creates jewellery in minimalist and contemporary shapes that are pierced by light. In constant research, from Kanazawa (Japan) to Brussels, she explores and crafts her medium like a goldsmith shapes metal.
An encounter between two artists who exhibit objects/jewellery and whose plastic language approaches a vision of sensuality.
Nelly Van Oost “reflects on the enjoyment of life, the pleasure of the flesh through these pieces of fruit and vegetables that compose the series FUEL”. However, all enjoyment has its downside; if food is our fuel, overproduction dooms our world to an inevitable end. The still lifes of the 18th century played on the same ambiguity between the representation of voluptuousness and a view on our finitude.
Danni Schwaag works directly on the concept of touch. Mother-of-pearl is her favourite element. She plays with the shimmer of mother-of-pearl, which she contrasts with the inertia of other materials such as galalith.
In her series FOAM her research on the Internet led her to question the receptacle/content/decorative object/usual object represented by the shell and the soap. She ends up working their surface in a similar way. By confronting the mother-of-pearl object with the substance of the soap, she transcends the latter into a pearly and sacred material.
From Danni to Nelly, from Foam to Fuel, two approaches with diametrically opposed sensualities. These are the approaches that the two artists explore, through which feeling alive is an art in itself.
In October 2020, a first edition of the ‘Boîte avec couvercle’ [‘Box with lid’] exhibition, which looked at how jewels interact with their receptacles, was a major success at the Galerie Samagra during the series of jewel events in Paris, known as the ‘Parcours bijoux’.
Joya Brussels (Aurore de Heusch) and Hectare Galerie (Chloé Noyon et Lou Sautreau) have joined forces in a follow-up of this project. They are inviting you to see the original exhibition at Joya Brussels and a second edition of it at Hectare Galerie. Come and discover 18 Belgian and international artists invited for the occasion.
In their work, everyone questions the concept of material used to show off jewellery. It is a transition between the world outside and the world inside that can be observed in sculptured rings and pendants containing your dearest wishes, brooches to be opened etc. From Charlotte Vanhoubroeck’s sentimental jewellery to Thanh Truc Nguyen’s architectural jewellery, the worlds interweave with a poetic language of their own.
Be welcome ! Brio is a female trio of multidisciplinary artists where jewellery takes a privileged position. Marine Chevanse, Jamila Wallentin and Cannelle Preira met each other at the HEAR, the Haute école des arts du Rhin (Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg). In 2020 they joined forces to exhibit, present their unique universe and stay connected.
Attached to the observation of gestures, territory, textile techniques or bookbinding, they create sensitive jewels where colour, rhythms and movement occupy a vital place; even going so far as to leave the strata of their manufacturing or the trace of an experience visible. Ellis, Comme un après-midi, les Rebuts, Celles qui s’exaltaient, Incision, Sillon: their creations have names full of stories that focus on the relationship between jewellery, body and clothing and the tension between the wearer and the viewer.
