Eva Van Kempen
Jeweller
/
MunichSchmuckFair2026
Published: 23.02.2026
News!
The artist's profile has been updated with new pieces, an updated CV, and an upcoming exhibition at the Munich Schmuck Fair 2026.
evavankempen.comBio
Eva van Kempen (NL, 1976) is a Dutch goldsmith and jewellery ‘artivist’ whose work connects personal experience, social reflection and material inquiry. Trained in Schoonhoven and Amsterdam (2000–2005), she later completed her MA at the Sandberg Instituut in 2020. Her background in Human Resource Management and her mentorship with artists at Stichting Artless, initiated by Rietveld Academy, inform a practice that moves fluidly between craft, research and activism. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections in Europe, Asia and the United States.A period of serious illness marked a turning point in her career. Since then, Van Kempen has explored themes of vulnerability, healing and human resilience through the unexpected use of medical materials. In her solo exhibition LifeLines (2015), presented at the Amsterdam UMC—where she had once been a patient—she transformed hospital disposables and pharmaceuticals into poetic jewellery objects. By recontextualising medical waste, she revealed its symbolic and human layers. This investigation continued in Ready-To-Bear at Museum de Fundatie (2017–2018), where jewellery became a quiet but powerful witness to embodied experience.
Since 2010, filigree has been central to her practice. Fascinated by this ancient wire technique, she has dedicated herself to its preservation and renewal. Her MA research examined the state of filigree in the Netherlands and China and resulted in a safeguarding strategy. Building on this research, she founded The Filigree Embassy, an online platform (www.thefiligreeembassy.com), and Instagram-based archive (@the_filigree_embassy), initiated to reinvigorate filigree practice in the Netherlands.
Her work was included in the jewellery exhibition Bodemjuweeltjes (Gems Unearthed) at the Zeeuws Museum (2025–2026). In 2025, she received a Talent Development Grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL and began collaborating with Delft University of Technology through the Crossing Parallels residency, exploring new dialogues between digital technology and the ancient craft of filigree.
Statement
My work unfolds at the intersection of body, material and agency. Originating in medical materials and medicine, series such as LifeLines, Ready-To-Bear and Freedom as Luxury reanimate hospital waste, such as expired IV systems, syringes and pharmaceuticals, restoring dignity to materials designed to sustain life. Scaled to the human body, these remnants become jewels that question value, vulnerability and societal trends.In Helix and Hexagon, I explore the tension between tradition and innovation through the ancient technique of filigree. By translating this delicate craft into stainless steel and expanding it beyond ornament into spatial compositions, I investigate rhythm, repetition and continuity. The patterns evoke movement and infinity, reflecting the meditative flow of making. Through research-driven processes and technological collaboration, I examine how historically rooted practices can transform and acquire renewed relevance within a contemporary context.
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News!
The artist's profile has been updated with new pieces, an updated CV, and an upcoming exhibition at the Munich Schmuck Fair 2026.
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