A Sense of Community

When people want to achieve something great, they are usually well advised to collaborate with likeminded teammates. This applies equally to political goals, environmental issues and cultural projects. Numerous art and design movements in the past arose from friendly relationships based on related aesthetic convinctions. Likeminded people came together to break open rigid traditions or to be recognized and taken seriously in the first place. Artistic groupings at the beginning of modernism such as the Impressionists, the Secessionists, the Futurists or the Bauhaus artists changed art history and had an impact across borders, in some cases right up to the present day.

Compared to this, the impact of communities of ideas in art and design seems rather small nowadays because developments in our globalized world are too complex and fast-moving. Nonetheless, communities still make sense, even if they “only” make a difference in their own city or collaborate to create a work of art.

Our first example in this issue is The Chapel of Mary’s Mantle on the Domberg in Freising. The artist Kiki Smith, the architects Brückner & Brückner, the Mayer’sche Hofkunstanstalt and the client (the Diözesanmuseum, represented by director Christoph Kürzeder and his team) were involved in the construction along with the craftspeople who built the charming brickwork from old roof tiles. Ira Mazzoni presents this total work of art.

Compared to the big metropolises, which are often also cultural hotspots, a city with only 60,000 inhabitants seems small. But it is precisely here that vital interaction can make a difference. The former “silver town” of Schwäbisch Gmünd is a good example. Thanks to a joint initiative, the Gmünd jewelry fair will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2024. And the creative sense of community is also helping to make the city more interesting and livable in other ways.

Two other noteworthy projects, each the result of community involvement, are discussed in our review section. A group of artisans founded the Forum for Applied Arts in Nuremberg in 1996. This resulted in regular studio days, called the EinBlick Biennale, as well as a series of themed exhibitions. The Forum cooperates with the institutions and museums of the city of Nuremberg.

Austria played a not insignificant role in the development of avant-garde jewelry in the 1970s. Ursula Guttmann, Susanne Hammer and Gabriele Kutschera conceived the exhibition Mit Eigensinn – Schmuck aus Österreich (With Obstinacy – Jewelry from Austria) to document this history and to provide new impetus. The exhibition based on the concept was held at the Museum Angerlehner in Wels and the Goldschiedehaus in Hanau, followed in Seoul in the summer of 2024 by Beyond Adornment, an international exchange with South Korea. A sense of community in the arts and crafts also enriches cities and has a unifying effect. And that is indeed a welcome message in challenging times.

Lena Kaapke uses ceramics to make abstract ideas and philosophical questions visible. Many of her works are based on figures and statistics, but they all express this sensually and painterly as color, form, haptics and rhythm: Conceptual art that touches the soul. Julie Metzdorf introduces the artist and some of her exiting projects.

Curators’ Choice – short portraits selected by leading curators

In the Curators’ Choice section, Art Aurea presents five visionary artists from all over the world in each issue. The selection is made by renowned gallery owners and museum curators, coordinated by Ingrid Rügemer.

Ptolemy Mann was selected by Monique Deul, Director of the Taste Contemporary gallery in Geneva. With her textile wall objects, the artist from Great Britain merges the Soak Stain Painting technique of Abstract Expressionism with the Bauhaus vision of uniting art and craft.

Kate Jones was selected by Angel Monzon, managing director and co-founder of the Vessel Gallery in London. With her glass art, Kate Jones captures the fascinating light moods and structures of the unique moorland landscape in her surroundings.

Christoph Leuner was selected by Barbara Schmidt, Head of the Cultural Department of the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria. With his hollow objects made of wood fibre materials, the passionate master carpenter Christoph Leuner explores the aesthetic qualities and haptic stimuli he can elicit from this very mundane material.

Tiffany Vanderhoop, selected by Bryna Pomp, Director of MAD about Jewelry, Museum of Arts and Design, New York. From ancestral looms to modern creations, Tiffany Vanderhoop’s jewellery embodies an artistic journey towards cultural revival. The faces in her pearl earrings are Naaxiin faces that honour her ancestors. The patterns also have a deeper meaning and symbolise myths and social status.

Ori Orisun Merhav, selected by Sarah Myerscough, Director of Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London. She works primarily with a natural polymer derived from female lacquer scale insects native to Southeast Asia. She innovatively explores the sculptural possibilities of this unique organic material.

Review

Winner of the Loewe Craft Prize 2024. Andrés Anza from Mexico won the main prize and 50,000 euros. Special mentions and 5000 euros each went to Miki Asai, Japan, for her jewellery series ‘Still Life’, to Emmanuel Boos, France, for his coffee table ‘Comme un lego’ and to Heechan Kim, South Korea, for the wooden sculpture ‘#16’.

Elective Affinities. For the 2024 exhibition of the Forum for Applied Arts at the Neues Museum in Nuremberg, the five members Paul Müller, Cornelius Réer, Sabine Steinhäusler, Annette Zey and Sabine Ziegler have invited five female artists as “elective relatives.”

Wietske van Leeuwen – Rocambolesque. The exhibition at Brutto Gusto in Berlin with the Dutch ceramist is also reminiscent of the Milanese Renaissance painter Giuseppe Archimboldo.

Barbara Hast – a tribute. About the ceramist who died young and her magnificent exhibition in Dießen’s Taubenturm. Text, Schnuppe von Gwinner, photos by Mirei Takeuchi, Martin Hast and Jane von der Laake.  

Beyond Adornment. Jewelry art from Korea and Austria at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art (SeMoCA). The first major exchange showed a total of 675 representative works by 111 artists. Curators Hwang Hyerim, Lee Hyosun, Ursula Guttmann and Susanne Hammer. The Austrian selection corresponded to the previous exhibition ‘Mit Eigensinn’.