A Review of JOYA, Barcelona Art Jewellery & Objects Fair 2019. This year's event focused on the communicative and diplomatic meaning of art jewellery and objects.

A small overview in numbers:​

Joya Barcelona has taken place on October 10.-12. 2019 at Museu del Disseny de Barcelona.

The fair and the frame program consisted of 430 exhibitors in total: 8 winners from different awards, 58 individual artists, 27 artists represented by 2 galleries, 29 artists represented by 3 collectives, 22 students represented by 10 schools, 286 artists in 21 exhibitions in the city of Barcelona and Girona.

The event had 4,500 visitors, including galleries and museums from all over the world, such as Putti Gallery from Latvia, Charon Cransen from NY, Alliages from France, Myday-byday from Rome, Popeye loves Olive from Greece, Galeria Reverso from Portugal, MAD Museum NY, DOR Museum of Jewellery and Museo del Gioielli Vincenza.


The topic of this year's event focused on the communicative and diplomatic meaning of art jewellery and objects nowadays. Some of the shown pieces and concepts could be easily assigned:

The works of the Collective "Tresor" dealt with the political situation in and around Barcelona and Catalunya. The 20 artists of Tresors make social rights a subject of discussion. By showing work, which seems to be loud and dirty, sometimes fragile and vulnerable, colorful, monochromatic, narrative and abstract, they tell the story of their home, an area which is in revolt at the moment. It is moving to see how the artists deal with themes such as poverty, homelessness and the loss of democracy. 


Jordi Sànchez, Bracelet, Repesió Democraticà, Oxidized Silver, Cubic Zirkonia, White Silver, 2019 


The Romanian group "Assamblage" with a show titled "Belongings" in which the works have been showcased in suitcases, accompanied by a wall of papers, each of them signed by a visitor, with 3 belongings they would take if they would be in the need to leave home forever. Opposite to the visitors who wrote down they would take an image of their beloved ones, a pencil or their favorite book, I was doubting to take one of these things. It sounds less romantic, but what about your mobile, money or your passport? 




Exhibition installation by Assamblage collective with written letters by visitors. 


See here all selected collectives, schools and galleries, or read in the article "Collective Action" from Lieta Marzali about the Collectives at JOYA 2019.

In the entrance area of the fair, next to the collectives, the Award winners of last year could be found: Sara Barbanti (JOYA 2018), Raluca Bazura (Autor 2019), Jamila Wallentin (Talente 2019), Elwy Schutten (Talente 2019), Junwon Jung (Herbert Hoffman 2019), Artemis Valsamaki (Athens Jewelry Week 2019), Gabriela Baca (Enjoiat 2018), and Najin Lee (Enjoiat 2018).


Works by Sara Barbanti at Joya 2019


Junwon Jung, winner of the Herbert Hoffman Award 2019 impressed the visitors' whit his minimalist jewellery objects. His jewellery appears in forms like tiny, inconspicuous little boxes. They can be disassembled and worn playfully in different ways. He appears to invert the relationship between interior and exterior, open and closed, sequence and isolation.


Junwon Jung (right) and Gigi Mariani (left) at Joya 2019.

Junwon Jungs playful work on the table at Joya 2019.


Elwy Schutten, winner of Talente 2019 works on pieces that fit into this year's theme of politics perfectly. She examinates the relationship between group affiliation and individuality. Her works are based on modules and clear forms, characterized by tenderness, fragility, the subtle combination of shapes and colors. The plates, whit which she won the Talente Award 2019 this year, focus on the topic of "Belonging". She sensitized us visitors to the subject matter. Being an individual is as important as belonging to a group and having a social network. Trough our emotional longings and the ability to share ideas and communicate, trough the fact that we create a society and build social groups, she wants to focus on the importance of being an individual. 


Elwy Schutten with her awarded stone works and some older collections.


The 58 artists represented at the fair, have been showing a mix of conceptual jewellery and object, wearable pieces and innovative ideas, not all of them related to politics or democracy in the first hand. Two of them for example, dealt with the ideas of our digital times and artificial intelligence:

Denis Musìc COPYism collection brings up the question of the authors' role in the process of creating during the era of reproducibility. The artist states, that on the one hand artificial intelligence has comprehended the basics of generating and reproducing ideas, which seems to eliminate human participation in the creative process. On the other hand, only a person is capable of giving meaning to a subject and only his recognition allows the subject to become art.


Denis Musìc, copy (007), Ring, 2019, resin, black vintage silver

Denis Musìc, copy (001), Brooch, 2019, resin, black vintage silver


Xiangyin Shi is born and raised in Hangzhou, China. Her collection focuses as well on technology but doesn't use it to produce her pieces. She believes jewelry can act as a communication device to bridge the tangible and intangible, virtual and real. With digital technology, her jewelry triggers communication between people and devices celebrates the digital world in a funny but ironic way, but also critically questions the emptiness in people’s souls.


Xiangyin Shi, Brooch: Hey! Listen! #6 #7 #8 #9, 2019, Plastic (pa12), copper, mini speaker, wood, found objects, acrylic paint, steel (pin).

Xiangyin Shi, Brooch: Mr. Lemon, 2019, Sterling silver, wood, mini camera, acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, steel., 9 x 13 x 4 cm


See here all selected artists of Joya 2019.

As part of the programme of the fair and next to the lectures of Pravu Mazumdar and Alba Cappellieri, 10 Award givings have been held in the 3 fair days.

On the first day, the Myday-byday Gallery Award  was awarded to Jamilla Wallentin, the Amber Award to Francesca Zilli, and the DTerra Award was given Natascha Frechen from University of Applied Sciences Trier, Campus Idar-Oberstein.


Francesca Zilli, Ring, Real? Unreal?, 2019, Rhodium, Silver, Glass, 7.1 x 1.4 cm


On the second day, the Arte & Joya Award was given to Jeemin Jamie Chung the Joya Award winner of 2015, for her technically outstanding jewellery pieces. The Athens Jewellery Week Award was granted to Nanna Obel, for her provocative and ironic jewellery which deals with current events. The Dor Museum Award was awarded to Junmin Bae for her colorful and bizarre yet poetic jewellery pieces. The 2019 Autor Award winner is Valdis Broze, JOYA Worth Award winner is Lily Kanellopolou.


Lily Kanellopoulou Brooch: Blue Shadows, 2019, Resin, pigments, silver, bronze, stainless steel., 7.5 x 6 x 2 cm, From series: Healing 


Valdis Broze, Bracelet, 2019, Untitled, Silver, Glass

Valdis Broze, Bracelet, 2019, Untitled, Silver, Glass, on Body


The 25th Enjoia’t Awards, organized by A-FAD and this years Jury Joaquim Capdevila, Judy McCaig, Gemma Draper, Pravu Mazumdar, and Amador Bertomeu was awarded in 2 categories.


Winners, Finalists, Jury and last years winners at the Award giving ceremony at the Enjoiat Award 2019


The Enjoiat Professional Award was given to Ruudt Peters, he won the prize for his piece Suctus “Sucana”.
The judges were most impressed by the length search by the artist, for a shape that signifies suction. For the real function of abstraction, for the capacity to capture light and its glowing reflection. It’s a work that still carries an on-going question.


 Ruudt Peters, Suctus Sucana, 2019, Silver, Fluorite


Student Eva Fortuño was awarded for her peice Linja. For an optimal translation from an interior experience. The jury outlines its research, simplicity, delicate precision, following the path led by the matter but still being in control of it.


Eva Fortuño, Brooch, Linja, 2019, mixed materials


Winner ot the Enjoia’t MISUI Award 2019 is Hansel Tai, for his piece "Nude jade pierced".
The jury valued the symbolic significance of his pieces, such as the intervention upon a material with so many connotations, the jade, by putting elements to distort it. The object materiality and the excellent execution confirm its message. His work refers to the future, not the one that is coming to us, but the one that is hurling over all of us”.


Hansel Tai, Pendant, Nude Jade Pierced, 2019, mixed media


Read here everything about the Awarded artists and the finalists of Enjoiart 2019.