Caleidoscopes; Form and Colour in the Art of Svenja John

Artist list

Svenja John

The exhibition represents a focus on one of the most significant young artists from within the panorama of applied arts in Europe. The maker, Svenja John, specialises in creating works which range from jewellery and accessories to larger scale sculptures in Makrolon, a polycarbonate produced exclusively by Bayer. Svenja John pierces, cuts, colours and assembles complex composite forms creating jewellery and accessories and sculpture of absolute originality. The elaborate structures of either richly patterned primary colours, or more subtle and gentle pastel colours bring to mind the fantasmogoric, cromatic imagery of caleidoscopes. Creative horizons, which in their formal cromatic experimentation combined with very contemporary materials evoke the perfection of natural geometry or indeed the psichedelic polychrome of certain “off-cultures” of the 60’s.

Versatility, her very contemporary approach and to make use of simple word-play the “plasticity” of the material allow Svenja John the free expression of a creative imagination in constant search of ever-more expressive solutions to problems. To the artist, jewellery might be the garment that stretches out, as though it were an extension of the body, communicating messages to the world.

Stunning and sumptuous neckpieces and bracelets, brooches and handbags (who’s spontaneity bely the labour that their making entails) are the results of a fusion of the artist’s passion combined with the rigorous discipline of her approach. At times they seem like fragile, delicately colourful bouquets of flowers yet at other times, they project us into the rigourous formality of the world of science, as if they were molecular structures viewed through the lens of a microscope.

Svenja’s artistic career begins after her studies in archeology at the Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany, which is followed by her studies in design at the college for goldsmithing in Hanau where in 1993 she graduates from the Staatliche Zeichenakademie. In 1994 she opens her workshop in Berlin where she continues to work today. Other significant directions in her career are her participation in the highly prestigious “Premiere Classe” Paris fairs and her work for the fashion house Christian Lacroix.

Examples of Svenja John’s work are in the public collections of:
The Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, Germany
American Craft Museum, New York, USA
Material ConneXion, New York, USA
Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Danner Stiftung, Munich, Germany
Hiko Mizuno Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Germany
Lotte Reimers-Stiftung, Deidesheim/Deutsche Weinstrasse, Germany
Mint Museum of Craft & Design, New York, USA
Museum fuer Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France