Art16 | Talks | May 20 2016, 3PM

WEARABLE ART: ARTIST-MADE JEWELLERY TRANSFORMS THE WEARER INTO A WALKING WORK OF ART

Friday May 20 2016, 3:00 @ Art16, Olympia – London

Panel: Elisabetta Cipriani, Stephen Webster MBE, Andrew Logan, Didier Haspeslagh, moderated by Harriet Quick

Collectable, covetable and (relatively) affordable, artist-made jewellery is the millenial art-lover’s must-have, but what is behind its sudden surge in popularity? From Alexander Calder and Yves Tanguy, who both made earrings for the ground-breaking collector Peggy Guggenheim, in 1942, to Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Man Ray, artists have long-regarded jewellery as small-form sculpture. They tended to produce pieces as one-offs for their most loyal patrons but, recently, galleries devoted to wearable art have sprung up and are commissioning the world’s top contemporary artists to create these dimuitive works. Always tactile, sometimes kinetic or emitting tiny sounds, the pieces are all about an intimate relationship between the artist, the work and the wearer – the artist’s imaginary woman come to life.