Show piece: CADA continues the tradition of artist-made jewellery with contemporary creations
While many jewellery pieces can be considered works of art, it’s not very often that you find jewellery actually designed by artists. Adding to a canon of wearable art works that has seen contributions from masters such as Alexander Calder, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are three new collections by the contemporary artists Aaron Curry, Jonathan Meese and Andy Hope 1930. Commissioned and produced by the German jewellery house CADA, the fine, objets d’art provocatively spin jewellery convention on its head.
‘Being a jeweller and long time collector of art, I always look for inspiration, and for pleasure, at the beautiful jewellery creations of artists, including for example, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Lucio Fontana, Louise Bourgeois and Jeff Koons. And for a long time I have had a wish to create something in the realm of this great artist jewellery,’ says CADA’s founder Herbert Kopp on how the concept for the collection came about.
‘Aaron [Curry], Andy [Hope] and Jonathan [Meese] are very close friends of mine so I approached them about the project and collaboration first,’ he continues. ‘I knew that they all had a good relationship to jewellery. Aaron loved the idea of a project creating jewellery. Jonathan Meese always used the term "Gold and Parzival", and he was obsessed with the "Gral" and the "Schatz der Nibelungen". I knew he would love the idea to work with real gold. Whenever I visited Andy Hope 1930 in his studio, he always first showed me his collection of cheap plastic rings he loved so much. So it was easy to ask him to make real jewellery.’
The resulting creations by Curry, Hope and Meese are seamless extensions of their primary bodies of work. Curry, who has been most recently preoccupied with the state of the earth and the impact we have on it, created a range of robust, naturalistic cocktail rings. ‘I imagined what it would be like to have things falling back towards earth after the end of the world, and what it would like when they landed there,’ he says.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hope revisited art historical motifs like crests and signets, while fusing them with modern images from comic books, thrift store knick knacks and discarded furniture. The results are a series of pop-tinged rings in white, rose and yellow golds, encrusted with rubies and diamonds.
Meese followed a similarly anarchistic tact with his textural collection of rings and cable chain pendants mimicking the heavily worked paintings, videos and installations that he’s known for. Made in 18 carat gold, his pieces evoke the Art Brut aesthetic while undercutting it with the use of refined materials.
‘Being a jeweller and long time collector of art, I always look for inspiration, and for pleasure, at the beautiful jewellery creations of artists. And for a long time I have had a wish to create something in the realm of this great artist jewellery,’ says CADA’s founder Herbert Kopp on how the concept for the collection came about. Pictured: A one-of-a-kind cocktail 'Bull' ring by Aaron Curry made from yellow gold and citrine
INFORMATION
Prices range from €6,600 to €185,000. The CADA Goes Art collection is available exclusively from Stylebop.com this week, website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
With Bird, Andrea Arnold has created a whole new style of cinema
The director’s latest masterpiece has confounded critics, but only she could have created a social magical realist film that soars so high above dogmatic thinking
By Jordan Bassett Published
-
A bicycle made for two: MOD’s Easy SideCar Sahara e-bike gives your pet a place to perch
Have sidecar, will travel: MOD Bikes have drawn on iconic motorcycle style to create the new desert-themed Easy SideCar Sahara
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary art
As Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Art takes London: Tiffany & Co, Damien Hirst and artists take over Selfridges' windows
Four British contemporary artists celebrate Tiffany & Co's pioneering history with a series of storied window displays
By Anne Soward Published
-
Late summer jewels: what to wear at Golden Hour
Late summer signals a jewellery style-shift. These independent designers have got it covered
By Caragh McKay Published
-
All smiles: How a grillz jewellery making class in London became an international hit
What started as a passion project quickly exploded in popularity. We get the story behind the grillz-making workshop at Cockpit London
By Elisa Anniss Published
-
Emerging jewellery designers to get to know
These independent, new and emerging jewellery designers and brands from New York to Paris are firmly on our radar
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Jewellery designers share their most precious personal pieces
A host of jewellers give us a peek at the jewellery which brings them joy and solace
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Playing it cool: pearls are having a moment
We've been deep-diving into boutiques around the world to find the very best calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form. It seems jewellers have been busy rethinking pearls, with contemporary (and often affordable) results
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Eternity rings for the modern couple
Eternity rings, whether sleekly minimalist or sprinkled in diamonds, can be a chic and contemporary love token
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Alternative engagement rings with an edge
As the sales of engagement rings sky-rocket during lockdown, enjoy our off-kilter curation of edgy and unconventional engagement rings
By Hannah Silver Last updated