Delicate Creatures by Märta Mattsson and Sona Kobanova

Artist list

Sona Kabanova, Märta Mattsson

Memories, attraction and rejection illustrate the tension between strength and vulnerability, light and shadow. Through their seemingly fragile artworks, both artists explore people and the challenges they face in their daily lives from different perspectives.

Surprising pieces are showcased using unusual and extravagant materials.

Märta Mattsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1982. She received a Master degree from the Royal College of Art in London in 2010. She also received a Bachelor's degree in jewellery art from HDK - Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg and has been an exchange student at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry in Tokyo, Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and Hawaii Pacific University. She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally since 2006 in over 20 solo exhibitions and in many group exhibitions. Märta has given workshops and lectures around the theme of her work in countries like China, Belgium, Mexico, Thailand, USA, Sweden and Latvia, and she was employed as a lecturer at HDK – Academy of Design and Crafts in the department for jewellery art between 2018 and 2021. In 2016, Märta was awarded the prize Young Applied Artists 2016 in Sweden, and her pieces can be found in prestigious Museum collections like MAD – Museum of Art and Design in New York and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

My jewellery deals with the tension that lies between attraction and repulsion. I take seemingly inappropriate materials, making ordinary and familiar objects seem extraordinary and unfamiliar.


Soňa Kabaňová was born in Nové Zámky, Slovakia, in 1975. Her education as an artist started in 1989–1993 at the School of Applied Arts in Kremnica, Department of Artistic Metal Casting. From 1995–2001, she studied jewellery design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava with Prof. Karol Weisslechner, Studio S+M+L_XL, with a study exchange program from 1998–1999 at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Germany and gained her Mgr. Art. She was awarded the Volkswagen Prize in 1999 and the Rector’s Award, Academy of Fine Arts and Design (VŠVU) in 2000. Since 2001, she has been a freelance artist with her own studio. Since 1999, she had numerous local and international solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important art institutions and participations at jewellery art symposiums like Symposium, Poprad, SK, Turnov, CZ and Kremnica, SK.

I work with jewellery as a carrier of memory, emotion and fragility. I am interested in the transience of a moment — the beauty of falling in love, the vulnerability of the body and the delicate tension between strength and sensitivity.
In my work, I often use unconventional materials such as polyester resin and natural fragments. Light and transparency play an important role; they reveal inner layers and allow the material to become part of the narrative.
Although my pieces may appear fragile or even difficult to imagine as wearable objects, they are meant to be worn. In contact with the body, they gain another dimension and exist in a subtle symbiosis with the wearer.
For me, jewellery is an intimate object — a silent story that can be carried, experienced and interpreted in a personal way.



Vernissage: Friday, 6. November 19-21 pm.
Finissage: Sunday, 6. December 14-17 pm.

Open hours:
7. November to 6. December
Wednesday through Saturday 14-18 pm, and by appointment
21. November closed..
Sona Kabanova is present at the vernissage, Märta Mattson at the Finnissage.