Jewelry designers from all over the world, along with their gallery owners, collectors and fans, gather in Munich every year in mid-March. Well over 100 exhibitions have been organized for many years. Of central importance is the special Schmuck (Jewelry) exhibition, which was renamed SCHMUCKmünchen in 2025. The show at the International Craft Fair features works by approximately 60 jewelry makers with artistic aspirations – around 800 artists from all over the world applied this time.
Schmuck, the first special jewelry exhibition, was initiated by Herbert Hofmann from the Chamber of Crafts of Munich and Upper Bavaria in 1959. After more than 60 years, it is clear that artistic jewelry, also known as art jewelry, has become institutionalized and spread worldwide. But what does the future hold for jewelry art? And what do leading artists think about their perspectives? The international festival of art jewelry in Munich provided a good opportunity to talk to some renowned protagonists about this.
The Familiar in the Foreign – Jewelry from the Southern Hemisphere at Galerie Handwerk. One of over 100 exhibitions in Munich in March 2025. Here Fran Allison, Australia, with her group of works Assorted Titbits: Brooches in the shape of deceptively real sweets. Photo Ulrike Myrzik.
Ceramic art is another genre that has freed itself from traditional constraints since the second half of the 20th century. Here, too, exhibitions of high artistic quality are staged worldwide. Prestigious competitions and excellent galleries exist, but unfortunately only in small numbers. As in jewelry art, the players have shared ideas internationally, learned from one another and grown into a large community. Here, too, the understanding of ceramics with intellectual content and messages is only gradually seeping into the collective art consciousness. Our cover story presents the work of Zizipho Poswa. The way the South African artist and her gallery Southern Guild cultivate the unity of craft, design and art is impressive. Likewise breathtaking is the existential connection between life and art in Poswa’s oeuvre.
Zizipho Poswa’s sculptures highlight the strength of Xhosa women and honour the matriarchal stewardship of her culture. Portrait of Poswa during her solo exhibition Indyebo yakwaNtu [Black Bounty] at Southern Guild, Los Angeles. 2024. Portrait, 2024. © Elizabeth Carababas & Southern Guild.
Our third main article is dedicated to Frank Bruggeman, a Dutch artist who initially trained as a florist before radically rethinking his profession and has since been working with dead plant material to create everything from huge museum installations to land art. One project is the Nieuwe Tuin [New Garden] for the Rotterdam Architecture and Design Museum. Together with ecological gardener Hans Engelbrecht, Bruggeman demonstrated that the diversity of nature and a rich variety of species flourish much better when native plants are planted instead of ornamental lawns and flower beds. It will probably take some time before this idea catches on across society. Nevertheless, it is important, perhaps even existential.
Frank Bruggeman likes to work with dried plant material in his works. But the Rotterdam artist also realizes innovative concepts in garden art and land art. © Frank Bruggeman.
Curators’ Choice – short portraits selected by leading international curators
A masterful understanding of the respective material and technique form the basis, along with an individual understanding of form and, finally, a unique concept developed over years and decades that no one else in the world has ever realized. The demands placed on the artists selected for the Curators’ Choice section are no less demanding:
Lively structures and formal harmony characterize the vessels of German ceramicist Dorothee Wenz. South African-born and London-based artist Richard McVetis embroiders dots and lines to make time visible. Swedish artist Ulrika Barr explores the forces of nature and human influence in her glass objects. In his minimalist works, Munich-based Sebastian Hepp makes the dynamics of the forging process visible. Swiss jewelry artist Benedict Haener transforms diamonds and synthetic resin into sweet illusions.
Dorothee Wenz, one of the five artists featured in the Curators’ Choice section of issue 60, Summer 2025.
Review
Bavarian State Prizes 2025. Coveted awards at the IHM.
Diessen Pottery Market 2025. Around 160 ceramists from twelve countries will be showing their works.
Herbert-Hofmann-Prize 2025. Significant international awards for jewelry artists.
From Small to Large. Summer exhibition at Munich’s Galerie Handwerk.
International Ceramics Days Oldenburg. The main ceramics event in northern Germany.
Of Colors and Shapes. Top-class craftsmanship in a Franconian village.
Jewelry Art in Erfurt. An international jewelry symposium and a city goldsmith.
Open day in 2023 at the 19th Jewelry Symposium in Erfurt. Photo: Dirk Urban.
The latest issue of Art Aurea has 92 pages including the cover. It is designed and printed like an art book and is available at leading galleries and shops for applied art and jewelry.
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