New Latin American Jewelry

international arts

 

In the United States, when we consider contemporary, artist-made jewelry from outside the country, we tend to think of jewelry made in Europe or parts of Asia. With their interest in unconventional materials and forward-thinking design, jewelrymakers in such places as England, Germany, Holland, and Japan have long drawn interest internationally from collectors and curators. But there is contemporary jewelry being made by artists from all over the world. Think Twice: New Latin American Jewelry, an exhibition of contemporary jewelry now on view through October 16, 2011, at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, Washington, is a welcome if somewhat disjointed snapshot of seldom-seen work by Latin American artists from Mexico to Argentina.

Think Twice was organized by Otro Diseño Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and Development, which is based in the Netherlands. Its mission is to “promote the work of Latin American designers in an international context” and to encourage cultural exchange between Latin American artists and artists elsewhere. The curator is Valeria Vallarta Siemelink. Think Twice includes more than one hundred thirty works from ninety artists working in twenty-five countries. Though most of the artists were born in Latin America and continue to live and work there, a few are Europeans or Americans whose work has been influenced, according to the curator, by time spent in Latin America.

by Robin Updike
issue 34.5

 

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