Galaxy by Kimiaki Kageyama

Artist list

Kimiaki Kageyama

This exhibition includes rings, necklaces, and brooches, as well as hand-painted antique wooden rice boxes that house some of the pieces. For these stellar works, Kageyama was inspired by the nature surrounding his wooded home outside of Tokyo near Mount Fuji where he has clear views of the night sky. To craft these dazzling works, Kageyama, a master goldsmith, uses fragments of 300-year-old Urushi lacquer, made from the poisonous sap of the Urushi lacquer tree. He incorporates other natural materials such as mother of pearl, fine gold, cinnabar, and brilliant baroque pearls to evoke galactic bodies like black holes, suns, and moons. For his “Black Hole” brooches, Kageyama looked to the ancient Egyptians’study of astronomy and its alignment with the pyramids. His pieces merge a modern aesthetic with a reverence for the ancient and the timelessness of the natural world.

Kimiaki Kageyama received his B.A. in Craft of Applied Arts in 1972 and his M.A. in Metalworks in 1974, both from the Tokyo National Arts University. He is one of the most important Japanese master goldsmiths and also served as Professor and Head of the Department of Metal at Hiko Mizuno Jewelry College in Tokyo. Kageyama has won multiple prestigious international awards and exhibited worldwide. His pieces are represented in the permanent collections of notable museums throughout the world. Kageyama is represented exclusively in the U.S. by Jewelers’Werk Galerie.

Jewelers’Werk Galerie is the longest-running and only contemporary art jewelry gallery of its kind in the greater Washington DC area, where owner and industry veteran Ellen Reiben shows precious and non-precious works by international artist-jewelers.


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