Nicole Polentas: Psychomanteum

Artist list

Nicole Polentas

Nicole Polentas currently resides in Australia, but her connections to her family's origins in Crete are an important influence on her jewelry. An accomplished gold and silversmith, she draws on her Greek heritage for inspiration and for the unique manner in which she exhibits her current body of work in a setting meant to depict the psychomanteum - the naturally occurring rockpools of myth where ancient Greeks would go to consult the oracles.

Polentas has created her personal psychomanteum made of plinths to display her jewelry. The installation includes water which re-creates the aquatic area where one could commune with the gods. The jewelry pieces themselves are fascinating and intricate constructions of metal wire and steel sheets, sterling silver, plastic and paint, ornamented with personal photographs and bits of traditional music from Crete known as riztitka. For the artist, the song fragments are a bridge to her sense of belonging to a place she is rooted in but no longer lives. Her past and present become connected in her very personal jewelry.


About Nicole Polentas
A former student of the well-known Australian educator and artist, Robert Baines, Polentas is a Ph.D candidate in philosophy at RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), the same institution from which she received her bachelor's and master's degrees in fine arts. Her work has been exhibited at the Counihan Gallery, Melbourne; The Hellenic Museum, Melbourne; Keeper Gallery, Sydney, Galerie Marzee, The Netherlands; and numerous other venues. It was also included in a group show at Gallery Loupe in 2011 entitled Australian Jewellery Topos.

Polentas' awards include the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Contemporary Wearables Biennial Jewellery Award, and the Diana Morgan Gold and Silversmithing First Prize. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and is in the permanent collection of RMIT University, Melbourne; the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; and Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Queensland.