6th Hanau Goldsmith Laureate: Sam Tho Duong

Beginning in 2004, every two years the City of Hanau has named a Goldsmith Laureate, who works in Hanau for several weeks at the Staatliche Zeichenakademie and gives a workshop for the students there. At the end of his tenure as Goldsmith Laureate, there is an exhibition in the German Goldsmiths’ House for the honoree.

The previous Goldsmith Laureates have been Rudolf Bott, Kirchbuch; Jiro Kamata, Munich; Hilde De Decker, Belgium; Karl Fritsch, New Zealand; and Vera Siemund, Hamburg. In the past year, the jury selected the Pforzheim jewelry designer Sam Tho Duong as the 6th Hanau Goldsmith Laureate.

That this artist is recognized as one of the internationally distinguished artists of the younger generation is evidenced by his countless exhibitions in Germany and worldwide, in galleries as well as in museums. In addition, Sam Tho Duong has been honored with well-known prizes between 1999 and 2014, such as the Ruth-Reisert-Hafner-Prize, the Herbert-Hoffmann-Prize, the State Prize of Baden-Württemberg, and most recently the Friedrich Becker Prize Dusseldorf by the Society for Goldsmiths’ Art.

Sam Tho Duong was born in 1969, in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, and first studied to be a goldsmith at the Berufsfachschule and the Berufskolleg in Pforzheim, as well as at the world-wide recognized firm of Wellendorf in Pforzheim. He then studied at the Hochschule for Gestaltung in Pforzheim, where he received his degree in 2002. For more than 13 years, Sam Tho Duong has been working as an independent designer.

Numerous public collections consider themselves lucky to own one of this artist’s outstanding works. Among these are the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Qatar Museum in Qatar, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Schmuck Museum in Pforzheim, and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau.

His artistic creativity demonstrates an extremely exciting spectrum of design ideas and materials – in addition to silver, he utilizes natural cherry stones, fresh water rice grain pearls, amber, gingerroot, small Actimel bottles, or even shoelaces in his three-dimensional necklaces and striking brooches.

Sam Tho Duong will be coming to Hanau in July to work at the Zeichenakademie. During his stay, he will be holding a one-week workshop with the students there. In 2016, his work will be presented in an exhibition in the Goldschmiedehaus Hanau.