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Margo Nelissen

Jeweller
Published: 21.06.2024

Bio

Margo Nelissen is a contemporary jewelry designer currently based in the Netherlands. Patterns and structures play an important role throughout her collections, first by the use of textile techniques, now by surface treatments. During Margo’s three-year stay in the Caribbean, tropical (underwater) nature provided her with a treasury of new inspiration.

Statement

About her Series Hidden
What interests me most is how we interact and how we show or hide our motivations, secrets, and scars. We wear masks to protect ourselves and not feel vulnerable. With our shields up and self-promoting masks, we appear in a full battle state, preventing ourselves to deeply connect. When we open up our hearts, we feel exposed. But it also makes us feel strong. We shine and attract attention.

The collection Hidden presents pieces of jewelry with a clear inside and outside. The outside is like a protective shield, like a spiny fruit that doesn’t give away easily the treasured inside. The wearer chooses how to wear the pieces and thus communicates his state of mind to the world.



On Margo Nelissen work
During her career Margo Nelissen has designed several collections. The first jewels from the 1980s are the result of studying and applying ancient textile techniques in metal wire. These applications prove to be inexhaustible. Margo constructs golden earrings from minuscule weaving and knitting work to robust yet airy iron and copper necklaces. The inspiration for the designs arises from her admiration of African ways of adornment and the symbolic meanings jewelry can have. Also historic motives are a great source of inspiration for her.
 
Over the years Margo experimented with new techniques to allow for her new forms of expression. She has created cast collections, collections consisting of natural material and for example a collection in which glass splinters are used. Since her stay in the Caribbean from 2010 to 2013, her interest shifted to nature. Her amazement about the Caribbean underwater world and tropical plants and seeds led to a whole new visual language in her jewelry.  

A new environment has had a great impact on the art of Margo Nelissen. She moved from The Netherlands to another part of the world, the Caribbean. This three year stay in the tropics let to different collections; Secret Garden inspired by her tropical garden and the abundant rainforest of South America, Coral Flowering inspired by patterns and shapes of coral and Curaçao Memoriesinspired by the island itself, its rough nature in contrast to its sparkling culture.
 
Characteristic for all her work is the refinement and detail, even in robust big pieces.
 

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2024:
Exhibition  04 Jul 2024 - 07 Jul 2024  Margo Nelissen at Stockdagen in Arnhem 2024.
Exhibition  28 Mar 2024 - 01 Apr 2024  Glans Aan Zee (Shine by the Sea).
2023:
Exhibition  26 Oct 2023 - 06 Dec 2023  Bagues #10.
Exhibition  29 Jun 2023 - 02 Jul 2023  Margo Nelissen at Stockdays Arnhem.
2020:
Exhibition  30 Nov 2020 - 06 Jan 2021  Special Christmas sale at Joya Barcelona.
Exhibition  19 Sep 2020 - 29 Nov 2020  JEWELS ON SALE at JOYA Barcelona Art Jewellery Fair 2020.
Fair  19 Sep 2020 - 29 Nov 2020  JOYA Barcelona Art Jewellery & Objects Fair 2020.
Exhibition  11 Jul 2020 - 05 Sep 2020  20th Anniversary of Cecile van Eeden Jewellery.
2019:
Exhibition  20 Sep 2019 - 23 Oct 2019  The Strength of Textile, Jewelry in Madrid.
Exhibition  29 Jun 2019 - 31 Aug 2019  The Strength of Textile, Jewelry in Porto.
Exhibition  04 May 2019 - 01 Jun 2019  The Strength of Textile, Jewelry in Neuchâtel.
Exhibition  08 Mar 2019 - 12 Apr 2019  The Strength of Textile, Jewelry.
2018:
Exhibition  19 May 2018 - 03 Jun 2018  Hidden by Joyce Willemse and Margo Nelissen.
2017:
Exhibition  12 Nov 2017 - 06 Jan 2018  Binnenste buiten.
Cecile van Eeden, Eindhoven.
Exhibition  17 Sep 2017 - 28 Oct 2017  Make a Statement with a Brooch.
Exhibition  15 Feb 2017 - 31 Dec 2017  Impressions 2017. The Permanent.
2016:
Exhibition  22 Apr 2016 - 27 May 2016  Más que Zuecos y Tulipanes.
Exhibition  18 Feb 2016 - 19 Mar 2016  Més que esclops i tulipes.
2015:
Exhibition  12 Dec 2015 - 30 Jan 2016  A Dark Spark of Light.