Yesterday the NGV design store launched a new contemporary jewellery space, focusing on exclusively designed and collectable pieces, and curated in collaboration with NGV’s Contemporary Design and Architecture Department. The new retail space features limited editions and exclusive works by Australian and International practitioners including exclusive collaborations with global contemporary jewellery galleries, including Galerie Ra, Amsterdam.
A major highlight of the launch is the exclusive NGV limited edition collaboration with esteemed designer Mary Featherston and contemporary Melbourne jeweller Blanche Tilden. This comprises pieces designed exclusively for the NGV, all delicately hand-crafted using coloured, gold and clear glass elements made in the 1940s by Mary’s husband and collaborator, iconic furniture designer Grant Featherston, and preserved for decades in the Featherston archive, appearing for the first time in this collection.
The Contemporary Jewellery space will also highlight international designers including a collaboration with the Amsterdam based gallery, Galerie Ra, to present the work of experimental jewellery designers that challenge traditional jewellery practice, including works fashioned from nylon threads that create lightweight 3D pieces and an exclusive silver pendant designed by Paul Derrez, the original founder of Galerie Ra.
Additional international highlights include a range of New Zealand designers and makers who have repurposed the costal, rural and urban environments of their home country into contemporary jewellery pieces, including key designs by Marty Curtis, Jennifer Laracy, Nadene Carr, as well as many other talented designers.
The new space will also highlight emerging contemporary Australian practitioners, including designers who have drawn inspiration from naturally occurring formations, including the geological and crystalline inspired Geo-Alchemy collection by Aimee Fairman, and Christel van der Laan’s one-off design honeycomb ceramic brooch and earrings.
Australian designers will be further highlighted with a special retail partnership between the NGV design store and Pieces of Eight, one of Australia’s leading contemporary jewellery galleries, to present the work of celebrated jewellers Seb Brown, Melanie Katsalidis and Peta Kruger.
Other designers have drawn inspiration from the current glittering jewellery exhibition Italian Jewels: Bulgari Style, including the new Pirdy collection of earrings focusing on Bulgari’s silver and emerlad shimmering colour palette, and Adelaide designer Lisa Furno’s playful and creative reinterpretation of the sparkling jewels once worn by Elizabeth Taylor.
The Contemporary Jewellery space is an on-going retail initiative open now at the NGV design store, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
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