Anna Davern

Bio

Anna Davern is an Australian jeweller who lives and works on the lands of the Wurundjeri people in Naarm, Melbourne. Anna gained her undergraduate degree from Sydney College of the Arts under the tutelage of Margaret West, and completed her Masters degree at RMIT, supervised by Robert Baines and Louise Weaver. In nearly thirty years of practice, Anna has been represented in numerous Australian and international solo and group exhibitions, including three solo shows at Craft Victoria and a selection for Schmuck 2025. In 2011, she co-founded Northcity4, an ARI that provided professional and creative opportunities to Melbourne’s contemporary jewellery community. Anna has been the recipient of grants from the Australia Council, Arts Victoria and NAVA, and in 2017, she was awarded the Chairman’s prize for Innovation in the Victorian Craft Awards. Anna has taught and lectured at universities and TAFEs in Australia and overseas.

Statement

I am an Australian contemporary jeweller whose practice explores Australian identity through ideas of preciousness, devotion, and material value in jewellery and object-based works. 

My work draws on the imagery of the British monarchy alongside the Australian landscape to examine the complexities of white Australian identity in a postcolonial context. Often using visual satire, I combine humour with critique, informed by the lavish adornment of Byzantine icons, where embellishment functioned as an act of veneration. This fascination with the devotional object underpins my exploration of preciousness—how it is conferred and why certain materials are valued. High-carat gold sits beside rusted steel biscuit tins, while gemstones and pearls entwine with discarded plastic jewellery. Through touch, weight, and repeated handling, jewellery forms an intimate relationship with the body, proposing a form of transcendence that is embodied, provisional, and closely held.

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