SPECIALS, a HandShake Alumni exhibition

This is the second time the HandShake project will exhibit during the annual Munich Schmuck week, with HandShake 1 exhibiting in 2013 as part of the Frame galleries.

About the Project:
The project began in February 2011, with emerging jewellers matched in mentoring roles with their chosen idols from all across the globe. Each mentee’s development was not only supported by their mentor but also through a series of workshops, masterclasses and most importantly, exhibitions in prestigious galleries in NZ and beyond.
The HandShake project will begin its third iteration (HandShake3) following the SPECIALS Alumni exhibition. Selected jewellers have been chosen from the first two projects to develop new bodies of work for a fresh series of international exhibitions, with a focus on collaboration in its broadest sense. The purpose of this HS3 programme is to allow the former mentee to become an independent artist, steering their own developments. The mentor now becomes a colleague and in most cases also a fellow art collaborator.
The world around us is interconnected with its collaborative knowledge-pool through contemporary technology and social media. The HandShake project moves within these platforms through the use of blogs, charting the developments in each participant’s practice as they happen.
The development process of all the exhibitions can be followed on the dynamic HandShake blogs.
The HandShake exhibitions were held at a variety of national and international exhibition spaces. This brought its own challenges: the dealer gallery with its object focus and commercial interest, and the exhibition spaces with an interest in art and installations, where presentation takes centre stage. All contributed to more knowledge and professional practice for each of the mentees.
Every exhibition showed the progression of each artist through the developmental processes of experimentation and making, with supportive tasks and feedback from mentors recorded on each maker’s blog.
Each exhibition was original, well researched and considered, showing new art, and produced out of unexpected interactions.

The best works from these exhibitions will now be presented during Munich Jewellery Week in the centre of Munich at the Einsäulensaal.

Organised by Makers 101 and curated by Peter Deckers.
Brochure available.


Artist List:
Renee Bevan, Jhana Millers/Suska Mackert collaboration, Kelly McDonald, Sarah Read, Becky Bliss, Kristin D’Agostino/Judy Darragh collaboration, Amelia Pascoe, Nadene Carr, Lisa Higgins, Tineke Jansen, Raewyn Walsh, Sarah Walker-Holt, Karren Dale, Kathryn Yeats/Ben Pierce collaboration, Gillian Deery, Debby Adamson, Jessica Winchcombe /Warwick Freeman, collaboration, Vanessa Arthur, Neke Moa/Karl Fritsch collaboration, Julia Middleton, Sharon Fitness/Lisa Walker collaboration
 
Opening:(artists are present) 25 Feb. from 14:00 to 16:00h