Michael Brennand-Wood Vase Attacks is an exhibition of new objects by Michael Brennand-Wood which Galerie Ra is presenting first at Munich’s Frame Fair, from 3 – 9 March, and then in Ra itself. The collection is a sequel to Michael’s work Boom, Bloom, Bang from 2006, which became the shining icon of Ra’s Radiant exhibition. These works, too, are mostly colourful, dramatic and rhythmic, the effect almost holographic – with detailing which from a distance merges into strongly optical configurations. They appear to explode literally from the wall!

Michael Brennand-Wood explores the interaction between vase and floral bouquet. As his series has progressed, the works have become sharper and more disquieting. At first glance, the images appear beautiful, but on closer inspection they reveal references to military insignia, war games and skull-head flowers. There are works symbiotically linked works, others have a dreamlike or fantasy quality.

The vases are hybrid constructions made from found, discarded household materials fused with military miscellanea. In the most recent works there is also a place for real flowers and they echo the form of the traditional tulip vase. In Vase Attacks Michael Brennand-Wood creates a dialogue between the permanent and transitory, between physicality and illusion.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of the exhibition on Saturday 13 April 2010, from 4 – 6pm.

Last year Lam de Wolf was Artist in Residence at the Van Doesburg House in Meudon, Paris. Without any preconceived plan, she drew inspiration from the history, architecture and ambience of the house. There in complete piece and quiet, she focused on creating spatial works, not specifically for the building itself, but which were still wonderfully in keeping with it. These were murals composed of grids, tranquil, yet still animated, thanks to the interplay of light and shade, or expressive and emotional like in the ‘Gezichten’ series. The images, as well as the titles and texts invite you to linger a while with them…

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of the exhibition on Saturday 30 January 2010, from 4 - 6pm.

The new book Lam de Wolf, monumentaal en dichtbij (monumental and close by) will be presented at this opening. The book gives a splendid and generous overview of Lam de Wolf’s rich oeuvre from 1979 to 2009, and includes a CD of video clips from 1982 to 2009. Designed by Henrik Barends, the book is on sale for € 45. The book is also the prelude to Lam de Wolf’s oeuvre exhibition in the Audax- Textile Museum, Tilburg, Lijnen in mijn hoofd, Lam de Wolf, dertig jaar 1980-2010, from 26 June – 12 September 2010. Both Lam’s stay in Meudon and the book were made possible through funding from the Fonds BKBV.

With a collection of jewellery, vessels and objects, Galerie Ra is participating in Object Rotterdam, the design fair which runs parallel to Art Rotterdam. Dates: 4-5 February from 12-6 pm, and 6-7 February from 11-7 pm. Location: LP2 in Las Palmas, Wilhelminakade 326, Rotterdam.

Frank Tjepkema is a designer working in product, interior and graphic design. His pendant ‘Bling Bling’ for Chi Ha Paura...? launched in 2002 was constructed from several layers of overlapping logos. He develops this idea further in his new collection ‘Clockwork Love’. Here the heart is the starting point for his timepieces and through the liberal use of symbolic references, the collection of pendants link up to such themes as fragility, passion, uncertainty and desire. There is literally and figuratively a ‘layerdness’ to the work. The objects have been conceived as pendants, but then various sized ones: small, medium and large. They range from a piece of jewellery for a person to one for an interior space.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 19 December 2009 from 4-6pm.

Vessels: Mind, Soul and Senses
In 2007 I organised the exhibition ‘Australian Vessels’ for Galerie Ra, featuring work in various styles and materials from ten Australian artists. I would describe ‘vessels’ as objects with an interior and exterior space, like dishes, vases, boxes and so forth.

My passion for this subject is now the reason for a sequence to this earlier exhibition entitled ‘Vessels: Mind, Soul and Senses’ by Maike Dahl, Christine Graf, Chien-Wei Chang, Michael Haas and Eva Reidel.

Now, however, a specific country is not the binding factor but the material, especially silver, partly coupled with technique. Important to me this time when choosing work was the consummate skill in handling the material and an extraordinary insight into its expressive possibilities. It is about creating a form but also about the details, surface treatment and skin. A heavy accent was on traditional skills: folding, hammering, chasing and enamelling. Techniques and processes that seem no longer of our time. But in fact the opposite is true!

The insight, understanding and ability of these artists form the basis for the quality of their work. Creating quality and experiencing quality is a timeless luxury...

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 14 November from 16-18.

Herman Hermsen graduated from the Arnhem Academy of Fine Art 30 years ago and since 1992 is professor in the product and design department of the University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf. Commuting between various places of work and interchanging professional duties can be unsettling, but it is also inspirational and puts things into perspective. Herman Hermsen’s designs are in keeping with a minimalist and conceptual tradition. The quest for innovative interpretations and a balanced relationship between the decorative and the constructive inform all his work. But he is also no stranger to irony and playfulness. Diversity, clarity and serial production make his work appealing and accessible in equal measure. In the new groups of jewellery designs now on show Herman flirts with bling bling, alludes to historical jewellery, his designs barely concealing eroticism, or plays with reflection and the feeling of opulence…

Paul Derrez You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 10 October from 16-18.

As well as new work, Galerie Ra will be showing a selection from Herman’s oeuvre over the past thirty years.

The source of Gésine Hackenberg’s new collection of work lies in her study of 17th and 18th century Dutch still lifes – tables exquisitely laden with the finest tableware and food. Hackenberg interprets this perfect translation of the three to the two dimensional, the realistic vista of the dishes and bowls, into her work. The body takes on the role of the canvas as it were...

Various groups of work are the result: brooches like small sculptures, carved from stone, or brooches and necklaces in which existing glasswork has been cut and rearranged into new compositions, new still lifes.

And now again Hackenberg has made interventions into existing, everyday, household objects and has redefined their familiar beauty.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 29 August from 4-6 pm.

New Collection In recent months, Galerie Ra – along with its own exhibition programme, including new collections by Karl Fritsch, Pavel Opocenski, Peter Hoogeboom and Therese Hilbert – has shown a selection of work by gallery artists at three major fairs: Object in Rotterdam, Frame in Munich and Collect in London. Having been hosted by the V&A museum for the past five years, Collect 2009 was held at the spacious and exquisitely restored Saatchi Galleries.

These fairs present an ideal opportunity to bring artists’ work and the profile of Galerie Ra under the attention of a new, wider international public. For the artists the events are also an added incentive to make and submit new work, thus completely updating and lending new vigour to Galerie Ra’s collection.

We also have a new gallery artist: Melanie Bilenker. Her work garnered much interest and admiration at Collect, and the National Museum of Scotland bought one of her brooches. It is highly personal work, due to the nature of the still images as well as the unusual technique and material used: Melanie’s drawings are made from human hair embedded in resin. In the same way lockets of hair were used in the Victorian era to keep the memory alive of a lost loved one, Melanie holds on to her own memories in her jewellery.

Paul Derrez

Galerie Ra will be open all summer.

I recently visited Therese Hilbert in her studio in Munich to see the collection of necklaces and brooches for the Yali exhibition. I was overcome by a wonderful and enthusiastic feeling. The theme on which Therese has worked for many years had led once again to exquisite and powerful new jewellery. This theme is based on her acquaintance with the volcanoes of the Greek islands – some dormant and quiet, others active and unpredictable… Therese abstracts and articulates their forms, reflects on expectation, reality and memory. She refers to geological volcanic formations, colours and landscapes, to traces of earlier volcanic activity. She interprets the already visible forces, which signal possible new eruptions.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly welcome to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday 25 April 2009 from 4-6 pm.

Peter Hoogeboom is fascinated by Chinese cuisine. Not only by the food, but also by the particular and traditional packaging for saving or carrying it. In his new collection of work Hoogeboom works in metal and porcelain as well as bamboo. Here, his double experience with goldsmithing and porcelain techniques comes in handy. It is no accident that Hoogeboom was born in the Year of the Ox, which represented metal, and is now exhibiting this collection in the Year of the Ox, representing earth... The brooches and necklaces on display comprise large numbers of stacked or threaded elements, still recognisable as scaled down and exact versions of bowls or pots but which have now become part of rhythm and structure.

Paul Derrez You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 21 March 2009 from 16-18 hrs.

This collection was partly made possible through the financial support of the Fonds voor Beeldende Kunst, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst.

In the nineteen eighties I met Pavel Opocensky in New York, where he then lived. His work and imposing personality fascinated me. Ever since I have exhibited his work in Ra, like the solo show Bakelitomania in 1998. Nowadays he is once more living in his hometown of Prague and he still keeps surprising me with his new collections. Pavel’s work shows great continuity in terms of the pure techniques of drilling, milling, filing and carving, and in the use of hard materials like jade, titanium, wood, or plastic ColorCore. As a sculptor, his master’s hand frees the form hidden in the material and makes it visible. In his new ‘Colocircols’ collections, Pavel plays with contrast, shadow, perspective and trompe l’oeil. He uses ColorCore in two or three layers and both sides of his brooches are the equivalent of each other. This work is very dynamic and in several pieces we are aware of the moment when one form starts penetrating another – in a barely concealed sexual manner.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 14 February 2009, from16.00 till 18.00.

At this opening Pavel will also introduce his new book ‘Colocircol’ featuring his latest work. Catalogues still available: Materia des Loches (1995), Bakelitomania (1997), Brooches behind Bars (2005), Mobilizatoids (2007).

Karl Fritsch is one of the post New Jewellery generation of jewellery makers, the revolution which brought a new perspective and élan to jewellery design between the nineteen sixties and eighties. His generation does not rebel against the history of jewellery or disregard it, but explores and reinterprets what had gone on before. Fritsch doesn’t do anything else but this – and with evident pleasure. A classic ring or brooch is some-times literally reused but with unexpected additions like small, kneaded gold balls or heaps of coloured stones. Sometimes a piece of jewellery is blackened so that it only reveals its secrets when actually worn… In his recent collection Fritsch gives a new look to the conventional gemstone ring, for instance by drilling one or more holes into the stone. Here, the ring, often the main feature of a ritual, is now, in its turn, part of a ritual and thus draws all the attention to itself.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 13 December from 16.00-18.00.

Mirjam Hiller. Before graduating earlier this year from the Hochschule für Gestaltung Pforzheim, Mirjam Hiller had already shown a collection of rings at Galerie Ra. Following her final exam collec-tion, which reaffirmed both her intrinsic as well as her professional qualities, I invited her for a solo exhibition in Ra.

For Mirjam, the jewellery designs now on display are all about making the wealth and complexity of emotions universally accessible through form and material.

Here, weight, sound, colour, warmth or coolness, hardness or softness, suppleness and malleability of the material all play a dominant role. The process of creating the jewellery pieces is a voyage of discovery: intensive and extremely involving, with highs and lows, accompanied by fear of being unable to make the appropriate interpretive twist, or sheer joy when a form of expression is found. The mystery that lies dormant in things, people and situations becomes visible, the magic and energy tangible.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 8 November from 16.00-18.00.

Three exhibitors with three groups of work in which heat and force are used to ‘mistreat’ various materials to achieve form, colour and texture:

Paul Derrez beats silverplate into organic forms like bowls, beakers and boxes… with colourful acrylic accents in the form of a foot, lid or handle.

Floor Max uses burning and flattening to achieve the naturalness of her three-dimensional floral forms constructed from wire. Thus an herbarium of flowers is created, which never before existed, but are now worn as brooches.

Floor Mommersteeg melts and flattens nylon thread and makes from this transparent structures: rings, brooches and vessels, opaque or in myste-rious fading colours.

Labour intensive, manual and repetitive processes are not only emotionally satisfying for the maker, but give an insight and control of a particular technique, material and form. Concentration and experimentation during the creative process leads to new discoveries and a refining of detail. It is the perfecting of the ordinary that makes these ‘trinkets’ so special!

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday 4 October from 16.00-18.00.

Catherine Truman: I've been researching historical anatomical collections around the globe for many years ? interested in tracing the identity of the anatomical artists, modellers and illustrators as distinct from the science in their images. I am curious about the influence of their personal styles and skills upon the human subject matter they represent, particularly for the purpose of medical education. The early anatomists and medical illustrators often depicted the body as close to life as possible. Yet these representations are essentially fantastic stories ? a constant attempt to make the incredible credible. So how can we incorporate this miraculous story into our own experience of our own flesh? Mostly we are either reviled or fascinated or amused or disgusted or alienated. The results are embedded, indeed solidified in the final objects: brooches and necklaces. I look at them and feel they are fine and light, strange and familiar at the same time. Always like something? something like muscle? an eye? viscera? or even a shell? a sea creature? a plant? always like something from life, something lifelike.

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday 30 August from 16.00-18.00.

Lam de Wolf: Based on a fascination for grids – a given in my work – I’m interested in tall buildings and the skylines of major cities like Shanghai. The way the buildings reflect in each other, the interplay of vertical and horizontal lines and the distortion because of all the glass, create a new three-dimensionality. The buildings appear to be arguing with each other about ‘Who is the tallest’? ‘Who has the greatest presence’? Here power is literally depicted. It is these distorted, mobile grid patterns that are the inspiration for my new work: Reflections.

Like the monumental, entire wall-filling works ‘Hand Computer and Golden Cages’, which Lam de Wolf showed in Galerie Ra in 2002 and 2006, this time too it is about placing large numbers of relatively simple elements in patterns and layers. This results in spatiality, lightness and clarity and, by a change of light or direction of view, movement and dynamism.

Paul Derrez

The exhibition runs from Saturday, 2 August to Wednesday, 27 August 2008.

You are warmly invited to the reception, celebrating this exhibition on Sunday, 17 August from 15.00-18.00, with an introduction by Marjan Boot, curator at Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, at 16.00.

2nd Skin/Cork Jewellery is a project initiated by two Portuguese institutes, Design Local and esad, Escola Superior de Artes e Design. Jewellery as a second skin of people and cork as a second skin of the cork oak are here drawn together, and this has led to new uses for this natural material, of which Portugal is the world’s largest producer. Texture, colour and form as well as the tactile and insulation features of cork have inspired jewellery designers from diverse countries to contribute to the collection, which is on show at Galerie Ra during the month of June.

My own experience with cork was an additional reason for bringing this collection to Amsterdam. In 1975 I made cork bracelets and in 1985 produced a collection of necklaces and dishes. The search for new unusual materials for jewellery was all part of the unrestrained, experimental urge that typified the nineteen seventies and eighties. And as the exhibition 2nd Skin/Cork Jewellery shows, the interaction between an unusual material and the creative spirit continues to produce exciting results. Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday 31 May from 16.00 -18.00.

The book 2nd Skin/Cork Jewellery, written in both English and Portuguese with illustrations of every work in the show, is on sale (or can be ordered) at Galerie Ra for €18.

On 22 June, from 15.00 to 18.00, Galerie Ra will be celebrating the launch of a new book ‘Vormgeven is uitvinden, zestig jaar vormgeving door Riet Neerincx’ (Design is Inventive: Sixty Years of Design by Riet Neerincx). At the same time several of her jewellery designs that have been produced again will be on display. A similar titled retrospective of her work can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem, from 27 June to 7 September.

Galerie Ra is closed during the month of July and will reopen on 2 August with Lam de Wolf’s ‘Reflections’.

Esther Knobel’s collection ‘The Mind in the Hand’ consists mainly of brooches and etchings. The depictions in these works are taken from difference sources and contexts, i.e. botanical, figurative or biographical.

The always recurring theme are hands that fulfil tasks. This refers to the interaction between spirit and hand: especially that what takes place by a jewellery maker. In this sometimes obsessive, creative process, thoughts lead to actions and action can trigger thinking. It is in this way that Esther Knobel goes through complex and intense processes in order to arrive at new solutions and discover new techniques. For the brooches, silver plate is embroidered with steel thread, then flattened and mounted – as if it were a fragment of an antique mural – in a frame. By rolling the embroidered silver plate on both sides in soft aluminium, the image and the chaotic rear side of this are imprinted in the aluminium. With these printing plates duel prints are made.

Control and a lack of control are essential in this creative process. And in this interplay lies the power of the result.

Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this exhibition on Saturday, 26 April from 16.00 – 18.00.

The book ‘The Mind in the Hand’ is for sale at Galerie Ra and may be ordered for € 35.

Gijs Bakker’s Real collection was introduced to Art Amsterdam by Galerie Ra in 2006. Existing, glamorous bijous from none-precious metal, and ‘gems’ from glass and even plastic, were reproduced on a smaller scale for this collection, but then executed in materials like gold and precious stones. The original and the copy, united in a new piece of jewellery, played with the concepts of real and fake.

Now Ra is showing the sequel to the Real collection in Real?

Again Gijs Bakker is using existing non-precious bijous as starting point, but now he appears to be ‘mistreating’ them: there is a hole in the brooch, a piece scrapped off, the brooch has been stretched… The alienation created in the pieces of jewellery we also see in the brooches, whereby a computer-generated, three-dimensional copy has been made and meticulously painted by an artist in the colours and gloss effects of the original one. What is Real?

Paul Derrez

Verena Sieber-Fuchs
From precious material it is possible to make unsightly looking objects. From inconsequential material it is also possible to make precious objects. The latter is the speciality of Verena Sieber-Fuchs.

With the rich textile tradition of Switzerland’s
St. Gallen as her background, she has worked for decades using one specific technique: crocheting fabric in which she incorporates umpteen small pieces of varying materials. Originally she used classical materials like glass or silver beads and sequins, later she added paper, photo film, packaging or natural materials like seeds or peelings.
The fabrics can be hung in space as objects or laid and arranged in various compositions or – when made into a Möbius loop – worn as a necklace or veil.

In Verena’s work infinite patience and a virtuoso skill go hand in hand with love and attention to detail. They can be multicoloured and festive with chocolate paper or critical and concerned when celebrity photos and medication strips are used. Paul Derrez


Paul Derrez

Susanne Klemm creates collections based on a premise or theme. In 2001 she exhibited ‘Tango’ in Ra, a collection of rings based on interpersonal relationships. In 2004 the collection was entitled ‘Seasons’ in which she approached the refining of nature in an objective and ironic manner. In ‘Frozen’ this attitude has been replaced by an ‘ode to nature’, based especially on admiration for the exquisite form of detail. In the same way Blossfeldt captures this micro world photographically, Klemm translates it into three-dimensional jewellery designs – rings, brooches and necklaces, sometimes restrained, sometimes in a more voluptuous manner. The distorted result of heating stiff plastic also gives her a great degree of freedom. Chance plays a role, but the form can also be guided by a (temporary) content or manual shaping. A great deal of focus and experimentation has brought this collection to a well-rounded whole, in which nature is packaged, imitated, stylised and ‘frozen’ as a memory.

Paul Derrez

You are cordially invited to the opening on Saturday
15 December from 4–6 pm

Catalogue Frozen € 7,50

Vijzelstraat 80, 1017 hl A’dam,
Nederland, Tel +31 20 626 5100,
Fax +31 20 620 4595
mail@galerie-ra.nl,
Open: tue–sa 12 am–6 pm

Australian Vessels & Objects Galerie Ra is well-known for specialising in contemporary jewellery but also regularly showcases objects with a practical, decorative or symbolic function, like for instance vases, dishes or spoons...

In 2000 and 2005 I spent a few months in Sydney and Melbourne, among other reasons, to learn the art of silversmithing. These visits afforded me the opportunity to gain a good impression of the high quality and immense variety of the work made there. In this context rmit courses and Monash University in Melbourne and the Australian National University in Canberra play a major role.

My fascination with the subject and the information gained has now led to the exhibition ‘Australian Vessels & Objects’, in which ten artists and designers are showing their most recent works. These are executed in silver or copper as well as steel, aluminium and plastic, and always with the personal signature of the maker… Paul Derrez

You are warmly invited to the opening of this
exhibition on Saturday, 3 November from 4 – 6pm.

In this exhibition Peter Bauhuis presents jewellery and vessels created by the casting process. Casting is a process in which wax models are immersed in plaster, the wax is then burned out and molten metal is poured into the resulting cavity.

This is a standard process used everywhere in conventional jewellery, but for Peter Bauhuis his intensive and inventive use of this process has produced results which are magical and innovative.

He understands and exploits the essence of the casting process, using what industry would call ‘a mistake’ to achieve a delicate organic surface, for example. Bauhuis also uses to his advantage the extra-ordinary subtlety of colour available through making different gold, silver and copper alloys to produce delicate hues, ranging from matt white and pale green yellow to deep autumn leaf orange.

You are cordially invited to the opening on Saturday 29 September from 4–6pm

In 2000 Florian Ladstätter exhibited at Ra under the title Social Prosthesis and in 2001 in the exhibition Something Biological, Cool Glamour and Jeanne d’Arc Kitchen Toys. These were collections of a diverse nature: amorphous and organic, crackingly festive or with references to toys and tools.

For Florian the body of the wearer is always the starting point for his work and the relatively large pieces of jewellery are striking additions to clothing or the human form.

Originally Florian only showed his work in galleries, but his ambition went beyond this – he wanted to appeal to a large, international fashion public that does not approach jewellery as a work of art, but sees it as a means of creating their own world, a fantasy or personal identity.

So his collections are increasingly geared to functioning within fashion: for presentations during prêt à porter in Paris, summer and winter collections, for use by stylists and photographers.

The thematic approach also translates itself into other products like glasswork and mirrors. Thanks to Florian’s relentless drive and tenacity he has now indeed succeeded in creating a niche for himself within the fashion world.

Notwithstanding, I still really wanted to show his recent work in Galerie Ra as well. Why? Because it is fantastic jewellery – playful, sensual, stunning and brutal. An orgy of suggestions, references and sensitivities that feeds the imagination and stimu-lates sensation. It truly delights me.

Paul Derrez

Object, Rotterdam 06.06.07–10.06.07
Galerie Ra, Amsterdam 12.06.07–07.07.07

Manon van Kouswijk began Lepidoptera
Domestica in 2005. The work consists of a butterfly
collection and an artist’s book in which the collection is depicted. A new series of jewellery designs ‘Precious Stones’ arose as a result of another collection. Galerie Ra is presenting both projects at the new fair: Object, in Las Palmas, Rotterdam.

A large number of domestic objects served as a starting point for the butterfly collection. Based on these objects, the book explores various aspects of collecting: pleasure and obsession, uniformity and diversity, grouping and arranging, flea market and Wunderkammer. The text is in English and the book costs € 25,–

We sincerely hope you visit Object, where at Stand 16 Manon van Kouswijk | Lepidoptera Domestica can be seen along with a selection of jewellery from other artists represented by Galerie Ra, including Christian Hoedl | C-Collection Printemps, Été 07.

Following Object, Manon van Kouswijk | Lepidoptera
Domestica can be seen in Galerie Ra until 7 July 07. Manon will be on hand to provide information about her work during a celebratory reception on Sunday 17 June from 15.00 to18.00. You are also cordially invited to attend.

Galerie Ra is closed during the Object fair and
for the summer period from 10 July to 20 August 2007.

Christian Hoedle, winner of the ‘So Fresh Award 2007’ with

C_ COLLECTION PRINTEMPS ÉTÉ 07

photo: Jan Pilarski
model: Dani Dinsenbacher

28.04.07 - 02.06.07

Peter Hoogeboom exhibited in 1994 and 1996 at Galerie Ra and now makes a convincing return with a collection of necklaces. Rhythmic and colourful, they are made from hundreds of small porcelain elements, strung together by steel rings. The necklaces are light in weight and mould in a supple manner to the body. The title of the collection literally refers to the print and casting mould used to make the ceramic elements, but also represents idiosyncrasy and inconstancy. The sheep, whether or not he follows the flock, is a recurring metaphor in this rich collection.

Paul Derrez

You are cordially invited to the opening on
Saturday 28 April from 4-6 pm.