Munich Insights: On Show – Artwork Jewellery Discussion board

A head of lettuce in a lodge sink; a vitrine tipped on its facet, spilling purple, yellow, and black beads throughout the ground; 20 robotic vacuum cleaners carrying jewellery by a gallery, detached to the guests making an attempt to catch them. What does any of this need to do with how jewellery is displayed?

All the things, argue the 4 writers beneath—critics, curators, educators, and practising artists—who every moved by Munich Jewelry Week 2026 unable to look away from show itself. They observe how one artist’s work can dominate a room, making the whole lot else background; how an exhibition constructed from cinderblocks carries weight, actually and in any other case; how a funeral gallery does half the curatorial work by itself.

“On Show” is a part of a sequence of essay collections responding to Schmuck and Munich Jewelry Week 2026. It stays with the work within the room—and the whole lot round it, whereas the opposite volumes take up questions of commerce and ephemera. The writers right here don’t at all times see the identical issues. However they share a conviction that show is rarely impartial. How a discipline reveals its work says as a lot because the work itself. Even a head of lettuce in a sink. —Aaron Decker

By Elena Karpilova
In each venture and exhibition, I’m most all for experimentation and in new—or no less than tried—methods of seeing an object, when curatorial work produces a recent studying of what’s on show. In actuality, there are sometimes quiet battles behind these seemingly standard show instances—selections and proposals we by no means get to see. For instance, when Ruudt Peters curated Schmuck in 2006, he proposed lining the vitrines with textiles in several colours to create contextual backgrounds for the jewellery. The organizers declined, and the thought was by no means realized.

I might spotlight the constantly experimental exhibition ideas of Prof. Karen Pontoppidan’s class on the AkademieGalerie, contained in the Universität U-Bahn station. Previous themes have included It’s the financial system, silly! (2025)—a paraphrase from Invoice Clinton’s presidential marketing campaign, used right here to replicate on the worth of creative labor; Mystic Cubicles: Crafted Whispers (2024), co-curated with ChatGPT; and Elefant (2023), its ground lined with damaged plates, like a smashed china store.

This yr, the category exhibited Low Upkeep. There have been no pedestals, tables, or vitrines. Twenty robotic vacuum cleaners moved autonomously by the area, every carrying a pupil’s work. Guests may attempt to catch a bit—or dodge the erratic machines. Viewing the works carefully, not to mention making an attempt them on, was almost unimaginable. Though the units detected obstacles, as a bunch they appeared chaotic, virtually comically helpless. Maybe that is what a world formed by know-how appears to be like like. Tony Cragg[1] remarks, “Digitalizing the whole lot is a sort of approach of accelerating entropy.”

Sigurd Bronger has attended Munich since 2009. He notes that there was extra solo exhibitions, which he discovered extra satisfying and fascinating. Such codecs made it simpler to know an artist’s strategy, presentation, and the standard and concepts behind the work.

A compelling instance of a particular solo exhibition this yr was Suska Mackert’s Fugen (Joints). The present moved past jewellery as object. We see right here interpretations of artifacts—the whole lot from magazines to T-shirts—and nearly no jewellery. What strikes the viewer straight away is the inverted show case on the entrance. It spilled purple, yellow, and black beads—the colours of the German flag. Throughout the orderly neoclassical inside of the Bavarian Academy of Fantastic Arts, this gesture learn as a rupture. “It addresses upheaval—a way of being ‘out of joint,’” Mackert defined.

I used to be moved by the lyrical, open high quality of the one-day exhibition Gabi Dziuba and pals… The Lengthy Tomorrow, at Baader Cafe.² The artist’s earrings and pendants nestled amongst muffins and pastries within the show case. Dziuba had been a daily on the café since 1985; it served as a gathering place for pals and colleagues. On the day of the exhibition, she sat on the bar, greeting guests, having a drink, and sorting by colourful embroidered pouches for jewellery she had bought at an Indian store throughout the road.

A deep connection to put additionally formed Sara Marzialetti’s intimate solo present Human Landscapes, at Antiquariat Hans Hammerstein. Twelve brooches have been positioned all through the store, among the many books. They have been impressed by chromolithographs of the human physique. Marzialetti, who holds a PhD in marine ecology, first found the bookstore 12 years in the past throughout her preliminary go to to Munich Jewellery Week as a pupil. She regularly bought anatomical prints there. For the Human Landscapes sequence, she returned to them as guides for carving the backs of the brooches—the interior organs affected by life experiences simply as a lot as our outer shells.

Three exhibitions I deliberate to go to have been closed throughout their said hours. This raises questions on how audiences are handled. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe stated, “Much less is extra.” Sigurd Bronger radically recommended that possibly an expert jury/curator crew ought to select 20 good reveals for jewellery week. Is amount detrimental to high quality? The everlasting query. What you consider relies upon largely on the way you select to strategy the whole lot that takes place in Munich.

Munich’s occasions now resemble a postmodern textual content: open to a number of readings, layered with references, and providing diversified exhibition codecs. Every customer should determine whether or not that is primarily a gross sales honest, an artwork occasion, or a world networking platform. ■

By Steven KP
Being requested to deal with simply three exhibitions feels almost unimaginable given what number of I visited. On this, my second journey to Munich Jewellery Week, what stayed with me most was the tempo, the fixed motion throughout neighborhoods and venues. The week may really feel scattered, but that disorientation created a deeper immersion within the metropolis. With so many pop-ups, institutional reveals, talks, and occasions, having a dependable place to begin, a sort of north star, grew to become important.

Galerie Handwerk’s annual exhibition serves precisely that function. It anchors the week, drawing a important mass of tourists on opening night time and sustaining that power. Jet-lagged however energized, I entered this yr’s Amongst Buddies exhibition able to be overwhelmed and to reconnect with artists, collectors, and gallerists from world wide.

Curated from the gathering of American collector and gallerist Helen Drutt, the exhibition offered exemplary works by German and American jewelers throughout generations. Upstairs, glass vitrines displayed American items; downstairs provided a survey of German artwork jewellery from postwar pioneers to modern makers. Every work strongly represented its maker’s apply, a lot in order that any single piece may advantage prolonged dialogue. Nonetheless, the spatial separation between the 2 teams felt like a missed alternative. Fairly than emphasizing dialogue and trade, the exhibition maintained a transparent divide—Individuals above, Germans beneath—limiting the potential for deeper cross-cultural dialog.

One other anchor within the metropolis middle is Galerie Wittenbrink, which as soon as once more offered Wittenbrink Zeigt Schmuck. The exhibition opened with works by Marianne Anselin, Florian Weichsberger, Reinhold Ziegler, Mirei Takeuchi, Henriette Schuster, and Benedikt Haener, every displayed on particular person plinths with distinct coloration backdrops. Past this preliminary grouping, a dividing wall led right into a second area dominated by Otto Künzli’s Gold Makes Blind, positioned centrally and flanked by two of his flag works.

This curatorial resolution reframed the previous items in relation to Künzli’s work, successfully recentering the exhibition round it. In doing so, it diminished the autonomy of the opposite works, positioning them in orbit round Künzli’s legacy reasonably than permitting them to face independently. Gold Makes Blind has been a touchstone in artwork jewellery’s critique of worth for almost half a century, however its continued centrality raises a query: Has this as soon as radical gesture turn out to be its personal sort of conference? In that case, the exhibition suggests a discipline nonetheless grappling with methods to transfer past it.

What excites me most about Munich Jewellery Week is encountering jewellery outdoors industrial or purely digital contexts. Exhibitions create immersive environments that situate work extra meaningfully. The standout for me was Manon van Kouswijk’s exhibition at Tiger Room Galerie. Bringing collectively works from throughout her profession, the present wove completely different sequence right into a cohesive complete.

Beaded strands shaped an summary map throughout one wall, echoed by gestural pendants on one other. On the middle, a platform of necklaces unified the area, each bit marked by clusters of coloured spheres that created a visible rhythm. The set up revealed a compelling steadiness between consistency and variation, permitting every work to resonate throughout the bigger composition. It offered van Kouswijk’s apply as a totally realized world, providing a depth of understanding that no single piece may obtain. I left with a renewed appreciation for her work and its quiet however highly effective coherence. ■

By Anneleen Swillen
I used to be curious to dive into Get well, whereas additionally feeling “phew, heavy.” I’ve little affinity for cinderblocks (can’t shake their construction-site connotations, seen 100 occasions, too little character, and an excessive amount of). A prejudice, earlier than I’d even seemed round: “one other scenography constructed from no matter accessible.” (Resourcefulness, although, is one among MJW’s most attention-grabbing elements.) But these blocks appeared completely different, unusual. Some have been partly wrapped in shiny, black cushions, others carried decorative ceramic items. My first impressions turned out fully correct and fully improper.

Ranging from the concept all of us carry weight (environmental, political, private, or different), Jana Brevick, Franziska M. Langheinrich, and Theresa Wingert, curators of Get well, got down to create a supportive, therapeutic, elevating area. They explored what it means to are inclined to and get better one thing, and the way upholstery, as apply, object, and metaphor, may do precisely that. Wingert’s ceramics and Langheinrich’s cushions are sculptural items that operate each as adornment and platform, meant to carry area for the artists’ works, as Wingert explains. Fairly than designing these items for a selected jewel, the artist-curators performed with textures between arduous and comfortable, heavy and lightweight, utility and wonder to honor each bit. The present developed organically because the curators constructed on one another’s concepts, very similar to upholstery. “Not simply an exhibition of labor, however a conceptual container,” says Wingert.

My consideration lingered on the constellations of blocks, upholstery, and jewellery; and whether or not these turn out to be, collectively, a brand new work. Though I discover that prospect genuinely attention-grabbing, I additionally surprise how the dozen different taking part artists would possibly really feel, as one seemed on the jewellery largely in relation to the whole lot else. However isn’t one among jewellery’s most fascinating options that it at all times enters into dialogue with all types of our bodies, human or in any other case? The upholstery is a daring and cautious curatorial selection. A quietly highly effective message for MJW extra broadly.

Strolling by Get well, I really feel the burden, but in addition the tenderness and consciousness that run by the set up. A dialogue between heaviness and aid, embedded within the unseen gestures. Like carrying and putting 80 concrete blocks. “We do the labor, and any individual else can float away lighter,” as Wingert places it. When does a present really start? And what do you carry with you, lengthy after? Every walk-through enriched the exhibition, and my expertise of it. First glances and lasting impressions are not often the identical. Decelerate. Let an exhibition unfold and resonate. An attentive customer co-carries the exhibition, simply because the exhibition carries the work.

International Our bodies was sharp.

A black pedestal, with a triangular floor, pointed immediately on the customer upon getting into. A direct embodiment of the exhibition’s theme.

Sculptural plinths constructed from flat planes stand firmly but mysteriously, like materialized shadows, all through the Kunstpavillon’s expansive area. Graphic and angular, their types reveal completely different silhouettes with the viewer’s motion.

A gaggle of all-female artists, introduced collectively by Jianling Zhang, had been engaged on the theme of “international our bodies” for a number of months. A medical time period, sure, and presumably threatening or uncanny, but in addition one thing cherished, nurtured. Their analysis culminated in an exhibition, a web site, and a ebook. The latter, created by Hyewon Jang, is an index of poetic texts written by the artists all through the venture’s period. A triangular form that, when opened, unfolds from a spike right into a circle.

The shows have been designed in response to the ebook, and assembled on-site by the group. The mix of set up, webpage, and ebook, and the dedication of people that have genuinely frolicked with a query collectively, all carried the work with quiet power, contributing to a way of “doorleefdheid.”[2]

That is the second version of International Our bodies, revisiting the theme with a brand new group. It will likely be attention-grabbing to comply with the place it goes from right here.

Going by my pictures, I discover that the one I made simply earlier than visiting the present was a tray of pearls overflowing in a store window. International our bodies can, certainly, be tremendously stunning. ■

By isabel wang pontoppidan
To me, probably the most interesting a part of Munich Jewelry Week is seeing the various kinds of areas turned exhibition area. The occasion boasts over 100 exhibitions, and a lot of the reveals is not going to happen in conventional gallery areas. The norm in Munich is to see jewellery put in in cafes, lodge lobbies, pharmacies, furnishings outlets, the listing goes on. The viewers doesn’t anticipate the false neutrality of the white dice. As an alternative we’re curious to see how jewellery and area will work together.

Actually, some reveals make the most effective of the Munich exhibition mannequin whereas others make you lengthy to see the work in a plain white field.

Though it feels incestuous to write down about an exhibition I used to be taking part in myself, I do nonetheless need to point out the present CONTENTS. That includes jewellery and objects by 10 rising makers, the exhibition was curated by Miles Robinson, Lili Barglowska, Zoe Clark, and Bette Nunneley, and proven in Weiss über den Tod Hinaus, a funeral gallery. The catalog featured black and white oval-shaped pictures of every artist, paying homage to obituary photos. This playful embrace of the area, with the work commingling with caskets and surrounded by elaborate floral decorations, allowed for a delicate trade between the objects and the burden of their context. Demise, materiality, and wonder are all concepts that undergird this exhibition without having to be explicitly said.

An especially charming location spotlight was Room No. 13 + Associates, exhibited in lodge rooms in Resort Mariandl, exhibiting work by Julika Müller, Ludwig Menzel, Helmut Menzel, Bruna Hauert, and Moritz Ganzoni. Constructed within the early twentieth century, Resort Mariandl is protected with its aesthetics and supplies intact in all of their Belle Époque glory. Suppose stucco frills, worn-down herringbone parquet, vintage furnishings, and chandeliers in all places. Every of the 5 artists was allotted one room, by which they organized the presentation of their work amongst its furnishings, creating an otherworldly and unusual environment.

The outcome contained many shocking components: a head of lettuce within the sink, a dripping bathtub tub, stuffed sheep-headed creatures in matching tracksuit jackets within the mattress. There was jewellery mendacity on beds, sitting in cupcake liners on a tray, hanging from chandeliers, draped throughout an vintage towel rack, and soaking within the tub. Sure preparations gave them a shocking anthropomorphic high quality, as if the jewellery itself had turn out to be the lodge visitor. The artists weren’t simply utilizing the rooms as exhibition areas, but in addition staying in them all through the week. At night time, they’d take down their work and crawl into the beds, solely to rise up the subsequent day and rearrange the whole lot. Actually a phenomenon that feels distinctive to MJW.

In Werkschau-Galerie für Objekte und Bilder, I discovered the exhibition fact.exe, curated by Raquel Bessudo and Letizia Maggio. A gaggle exhibition collating the work of eight jewelers, it confirmed the work displayed on tables amongst an array of laptops, manufacturers various. I spoke to the curators, and after listening patiently to their musings on fiction and post-truth, I lastly ventured to ask in regards to the laptops on show—what was their operate? The response was one thing alongside the traces of “.exe is a file extension utilized in computer systems … and fact is sort of a file: it may be opened, transferred, and it may be corrupted.” A salient reminder that jewelers aren’t exhibition designers or artwork historians. We’re all working with what we’ve acquired. ■

[1] An Anglo-German sculptor recognized for his modern works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cragg.

[2] This Dutch time period has no direct English equal that captures its a number of meanings. It speaks to lived expertise and embodied data. A sort of deep, interior, knowledge that grows over time, by repeated and private encounter.

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