Karl & Lisa
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For those who are lucky enough to be in Melbourne, Australia, there is still more than a week to visit the Karl & Lisa exhibition at the Funaki Gallery, a double solo show dedicated to two of the most important names in the world of contemporary jewellery writes Ilaria Ruggiero.
Lisa Walker necklace, 2019, fabric, stuffing, thread, acrylic paint
Lisa Walker necklace, 2019, merino, stuffing, acrylic paint, thread
Karl Fritsch and Lisa Walker have been at the forefront of contemporary jewellery for over 20 years, constantly pushing and questioning what jewellery is and can be. They met while studying at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, in the 1990s and moved back to Lisa's home country, New Zealand, in 2010. Anyone with even a passing interest in the field is familiar with the rich ground these two artists have covered in terms of jewellery's meanings, materials, ideas and forms.
Lisa Walker pendant, 2019, pounamu, silver, thread
Lisa researches with delicacy and humour in the stereotypes of everyday life, investigating the meaning of the jewel in a theoretical sense, but also conveying provocations and contents.
She alternates citations to works worthy of the most essential poor art.
Lisa Walker necklace, 2019, fabric, stuffing, thread, acrylic paint
Karl Fritsch ring #445, 2019, silver, cubic zirconia
Karl experiments by subverting the use of precious materials, founding a new alphabet of signs and figures that sediments in contemporary aesthetics with the force of a universal, primitive, ancient gesture.
Karl Fritsch ring #454, 2019, 9k gold, orange sapphire, cubic zirconia
Karl Fritsch ring #467, 2019, silver, cubic zirconia
The body of matter is undefined and decomposed, unbalanced, almost falling; the always risky balances and joints generate playful, imperfect, grotesque perspectives.
Karl Fritsch ring #483, 2019, 9k gold, ruby, diamond, sapphire
Karl Fritsch ring #487, 2019, 9k palladium white gold, sapphires
What the visions of these two artists have in common is a general sense of wonder, which returns to us through their works as if it were an enchanted, animated, magical world. And so suddenly we find ourselves a bit like in Alice in Wonderland, where cubic zirconia is born from mushrooms and Cats tell us stories.
Karl Fritsch ring #488, 2019, silver, chrysoprase, picture-quartz, cubic zirconia
Karl Fritsch ring #489, 2018, silver, obsidian, synthetic sapphire, cubic
Lisa Walker
Lisa Walker lives and works in New Zealand. Since studying Craft and Design at the Otago Polytech Art School in Dunedin New Zealand in 1989, she has travelled and worked in Australia, Great Britain and Asia. From 1995-2001 she studied under Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, living and working in that city from 2002-2009.
Lisa Walker pendant, 2019, wood, acrylic paint, thread
Through her investigation of the notions of archetypal beauty, Walker has developed a practice that offers a unique and articulate challenge to jewellery tradition. Lisa Walker's work was recently the subject of a major retrospective at Melbourne's RMIT Design Hub. Her work is in the collections of major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Auckland Museum, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich and the Dowse Museum, Wellington. She won the Herbert Hoffman Prize in 2010.
Karl Fritsch
Karl Fritsch is a German-born, New Zealand based artist renowned for his iconoclastic reinterpretations of jewellery tradition. Using precious materials, his forms yet challenge notions of materiality, value and beauty.
Karl Fritsch ring #491, 2019, silver, cubic zirconia
Karl Fritsch ring #449, 2019, silver, carnelian
Karl Fritsch ring #461, 2019, 9k gold, paua, cubic zirconia
His highly covetable rings have seen him win numerous awards and become a cult figure in contemporary jewellery.
Fritsch began his education at the Goldsmiths School in Pforzheim and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Professors Hermann Jünger and Professor Otto Künzli.
Fritsch exhibits internationally and his work is in public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Gallery Funaki
Tucked away in Crossley St, in the central business district of Melbourne, Gallery Funaki has been recognised as a driving force in the promotion of contemporary jewellery in Australia for almost 25 years. The gallery presents at least six solo and curated group exhibitions each year, including the biennial Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery.
Our artists are some of the most highly regarded in the field, including renowned European, New Zealand and Australian makers. Each is selected on the basis of their unique and highly skilled approach: their work is known for its conceptual strength, technical rigour and refined sensibility.
Gallery Funaki
4 Crossley Street
Melbourne
Victoria
Australia
www.galleryfunaki.com.au
About the Contributing Writer
Ilaria Ruggiero is a cultural manager and curator working in the field of contemporary art. She is the founder of Adornment - Curating Contemporary Art Jewelry, a curatorial integrated project dedicated to contemporary art jewelry. It aims to develop the knowledge and consciousness of contemporary jewelry as artistic discipline and as ground search for technique, aesthetics, and philosophy.
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