Warwick Freeman | |
---|---|
Born | Warwick Stephen Freeman 5 January 1953 Nelson, New Zealand |
Known for | Jewellery, metalwork |
Warwick Stephen Freeman (born 5 January 1953) is a New Zealand jeweller.
Freeman was born in Nelson in 1953, [1] [2] and was educated at Nelson College from 1966 to 1970. [3] He began making jewellery with Peter Woods in Perth in 1972. [1] He returned to New Zealand the following year and established a workshop in Nelson before moving to Auckland in 1975. [4] In 1977 he worked with Daniel Clasby, and with Jens Hansen in 1978. [4] Freeman was a member of the Auckland-based jewellery co-operative Fingers between 1978 and 2003. [1]
In the early eighties, Freeman was a prominent member of a group of jewellers who began exploring the use of local materials in contemporary jewellery. Their work reflected a changing New Zealand cultural and political environment. “We were caught up in a historical moment triggered by the new Labour government,” Freeman recalls. “They declared us Nuclear Free, and started developing a foreign policy that was about living in the South Pacific as opposed to being an adjunct of Europe. Our work got swept up in it and adopted by locals as ‘emblematic’ in the way jewellery can.” [5]
Freeman was one of twelve jewellers selected for the landmark 1988 Bone Stone Shell exhibition, developed by New Zealand's Craft Council for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and shown in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. [6] In 2002, he received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award. [1] In the same year he was named 2002 Laureate by the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation, based at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. [1]
Freeman was the founding chair of Auckland contemporary craft and design gallery Objectspace, and in 2013 became a Governor of the New Zealand Arts Foundation. [7] In 2013 he was also the 'featured master' at the German contemporary jewellery festival Schmuck. [8]
In 2018 he designed a special brass pin which was released to coincide with a light show at St David's Memorial Church in Khyber Pass Road, Auckland for the Anzac Day commemorations; the pins were sold to raise funds for the preservation of the church. [9]
James Mack called Freeman "one of the guiding lights" behind the 1981 Paua Dreams exhibition, which was instrumental in elevating the status of paua shell from its association with the tourist market to a precious material in contemporary New Zealand jewellery. [10]
In 1983, Freeman and fellow jeweller Alan Preston were asked by Mack, then director of The Dowse Art Museum, to select items from the Auckland Museum's collection for a 1984 exhibition at The Dowse titled Pacific Adornment. [11]
In 2011 Freeman collaborated with Octavia Cook on the exhibition Eyecatch at Objectspace gallery in Auckland. The first photographic exhibition held at Objectspace, the show looked at the relationship between jewellery and photography. [12]
In 2014 Freeman co-curated Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery with Karl Fritsch, a touring exhibition of New Zealand jewellery that showed at Galerie Handwerk in Munich as part of the Schmuck festival, at The Dowse Art Museum, and at the Auckland Art Gallery in 2015 . [13] [14] [15]
His works are held various New Zealand and international collections, including at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Powerhouse Museum, the Neue Pinakothek, The Dowse Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. [2] [16] [17] [18] [19]
Ann Verdcourt (1934–2022) was a New Zealand artist. She emigrated to New Zealand with her husband, ceramic artist John Lawrence, in 1965.
Jane Dodd is a New Zealand musician and contemporary jeweller. She is well known for her role as a bass player in early Dunedin-based Flying Nun Records groups The Chills and The Verlaines, was a long-standing member of Auckland group Able Tasmans, and occasionally played with side-project The Lure of Shoes.
Kobi Bosshard is a Swiss-born New Zealand jeweller. Bosshard was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country; others include Jens Hoyer Hansen, Tanya Ashken and Gunter Taemmler.
Alan Chris Preston is a New Zealand jeweller. His work has been exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally, and is held in major public collections in New Zealand.
Joe Sheehan is a stone artist and jeweller who works primarily in pounamu.
Octavia Cook is a New Zealand jeweller.
Pauline Bern is a New Zealand jeweller.
Matthew McIntyre-Wilson is a jeweller, weaver of accessories inspired by traditional Māori artefacts. He is a Ngā Mahanga and Titahi descent.
Fingers is a contemporary jewellery gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. Fingers shows and sells the work primarily of New Zealand jewellers, but also of international jewellers, mostly from Australia and Europe.
Bone Stone Shell: New Jewellery New Zealand was a 1988 exhibition of contemporary New Zealand jewellery and carving which toured internationally. The exhibition is seen as capturing a moment when New Zealand jewelers started looked less at European traditions and precious materials and more at Pacific traditions and natural materials.
Tony Kuepfer is an American-New Zealand glass artist.
Chris Charteris is a New Zealand sculptor, jeweller and carver.
Lisa Walker is a contemporary New Zealand jeweller.
Karl Fritsch is a German-born contemporary jeweller who has since 2009 been based in New Zealand.
Malcolm Armstrong Harrison was a New Zealand clothing designer and textile artist.
Andrea Daly is a New Zealand jeweller and arts teacher. She studied at Sydney College of the Arts, completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1987. The following year, she gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts majoring in contemporary jewellery. In 1998, she completed a master's degree in Philosophy majoring in Art History at Auckland University
Ann Culy is a New Zealand jeweller. She has exhibited widely and her work is held in several New Zealand public collections.
Areta Rachael Wilkinson is a New Zealand jeweller.
Paul Geoffrey Annear was a New Zealand contemporary jeweller.
Eléna Gee is a New Zealand jeweller known for her combination of metal work with organic materials, specifically pāua shell. She was a prominent figure in the Bone, Stone, Shell movement in 1980s New Zealand. She has had a long career with her work touring around Asia and Europe.