Sint Lucas Antwerp. Graduation Tour 2025

Artist list

Zaina Benhamou, Floere Braet, Katja Jabcos, Emma Leyers, Alix Sporen

All the jewellery exhibitions will take place on the campus of Sint Lucas Antwerpen. The work of our Master students will be shown throughout on the ground floor of the new building, while the three Bachelor years of Studio sieraad will be exhibited there on the first floor.

Vernissage: Wednesday 18/6: 18h – 22 h.
Nocturne: Thursday 19/6 13h – 22 h.
Open daily: Friday - Sunday 20-22/6 13h – 17 h.

Studio Sieraad proudly presented the work of five master's students: Zaina Benhamou, Alix Spooren, Emma Leyers, Katja Jacobs, and Floere Braet. Each of them explored a personal theme in their work:

In her work Formtension, Zaina Benhamou explores the intense relationship between sport and the body. From her past as a top sports gymnast and her background in fashion and silversmithing, she examines how (formal) tension - physical and mental - is expressed in the body of an athlete. With personal stories and installations, such as a cracked silver medal on a silk thread, she asks critical questions: What does it cost to be the best? A powerful, playful and vulnerable work about perseverance, control and being a child in an adult world where hierarchy, power and achievement seem more important than the essence of sport.

With scented trees made of real leaves and dead wood, Alix Spooren explores in Limited Edition Forest our complex relationship with nature and capitalism. Each tree sold literally shrinks the forest - a critical nod to how we treat nature; a work that smells like the forest, but allows visitors to feel how it disappears. In addition, visitors are invited to share a memory of the forest on a postcard - with a photo by Alix - as part of a growing collective memory. Limited Edition Forest is a sensory installation about nature, memory and what disappears.

Why do we want to collect everything in video games? And how do our emotions play into that? In her master's project, The Value of Collecting, Emma Leyers investigated the psychological mechanism behind collecting behavior, drawing inspiration from loot boxes, Pokémon cards and blind boxes. She linked emotion to materiality, gambling behavior to game mechanics and gave cheap objects new value by making them out of precious metal. From joy to frustration, toys to art - this is an examination of how value is created, both digitally and physically.

Katja Jacobs explores with A Sentimental Archive how memory and mourning can take shape through jewellery and intimate objects. Her sculptural archive-box – a personal, layered piece filled with drawings, collections, and relics – reflects on remembrance, emotion, and the stories we carry. Rooted in slowness and sentiment, her work offers a tactile counterbalance to a fast, digital world. A tribute to emotional memory – small, wearable, and deeply personal.

Floere Braet explores the tension between beauty and violence, focusing on the hidden histories behind materials. Inspired by conflict minerals and Belgium’s colonial past in Congo, with (Y)our History she questions how value, ethics, and aesthetics intersect in art. As a poetic response, Braet created a symbolic hand from tagua nut – a plant-based, ethical vegan ivory – referencing both the Antwerp hand and Belgium’s colonial legacy. Her work challenges us to rethink what we choose to see, remember, and value.

This master exhibition not only marked the conclusion of an intensive academic journey, but also offered a glimpse into the diverse and thoughtful voices shaping the future of contemporary jewellery design. Studio Sieraad congratulates the graduates on their remarkable achievements and looks forward to following their next steps.