Curator

When Hans Stofer made the selection, he was still a professor and head of the jewellery class at the Royal College of Art in London, but had already been appointed head of the jewellery class at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, where he taught until 2023. His wish was to reduce the number of exhibits. The reduction to just two pieces from each exhibitor is a first in the history of the special show SCHMUCK.

For 2018, he selected a total of 65 artists from 21 countries.

“What delighted me when I looked at the portfolios submitted and at the same time amazed me again and again with every single portfolio I picked up was the inexhaustible variety of jewellery making that was presented to me on the table over time,” said Hans Stofer about the selection process.

Catalogue

Gernot Leibold, Germany

Gernot Leibold’s square brooches are surprising in their combination of materials. The coloured slanted edges of the pages look like a box that opens to reveal a mysterious structure. You become curious to explore them. Ebony has long been a favorite working material for him. He is particularly attracted to the fracture properties of this wood, which, when placed next to each other, create an attractive structure or landscape and, together with the colourfulness of the surrounding plastic, form an exciting relationship.

Julia Künnap, Estonia

Julia Künnap’s green brooch is a masterpiece of stone cutting. Everything that is important to the artist can become a matter of life and death. In each new work, she aims to achieve an even more precise stone cut, an even more transparent cut, an even thinner material and a clearer concept. It becomes an obsession for her. Which is important at all, if you don’t let it become a matter of life and death. The titles of her works form a poem together. But each of them is a piece of jewellery in its own right, whether it looks like a broad, blue brushstroke or a melting letter. Maybe the polar ice caps will melt tonight. What is really important.

Lin Cheung, Great Britain

“Delayed Reaction Series” is the title of stone-cut brooches that reflect Lin Cheung’s mixed feelings of the world that surrounds her. “Non Plus” describes the events since the EU referendum and the ongoing debate about Britain’s future in relation to Europe. Other brooches in this series are allusions to political and social change and the feelings associated with it. Pins are actually meant for the moment, cheap and quick to make and are quickly thrown away just long enough to convey a message. Cutting them in stone is just the opposite it’s slow, unpredictable and often limited but these limitations are a good test of what remains once the dust has settled. Lin Cheung’s works are a political statement, exemplary for questions of our time and the relationship to its values.

Otto Künzli, Germany

Otto Künzli’s work has had a lasting international impact on contemporary author’s jewellery, both as an artist and as a professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. His outstanding role played a decisive role in the fact that the state capital of Munich is today regarded worldwide as a center of author’s jewellery. This year, Otto Künzli was invited as a classic to the special show SCHMUCK 2018 at the Internationale Handwerksmesse. He is honoured with the Bavarian State Prize for Design for his life’s work.