Warwick Freeman

Bio

Warwick Freeman (b.1953, Nelson) began making jewellery in 1972. As a prominent member of Auckland Jewellery Co-operative, Fingers, he was at the forefront of a rethinking of New Zealand contemporary jewellery practice that began in the 1980s. He has exhibited internationally since that time. In 2002 he was made a Laureate by the Francoise van den Bosch Foundation based at the Stedelijk Museum. In the same year, Freeman received a laureate award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In 2014, Freeman co-curated the exhibition Wunderrūma, with jeweller Karl Fritsch. Wunderrūma was presented at Galerie Handwerk in Munich, and on its return to New Zealand at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Freeman has also been involved in governance and curatorial activities: in 2004 he became the inaugural Chair of Objectspace, a public gallery dedicated to the exhibition of craft, design and architecture. His works are held in public and private collections in New Zealand and internationally, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the V&A, London, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, LACMA, Los Angeles, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Statement

Warwick Freeman’s emblematic jewellery pursues meaning. Across five decades the New Zealand jeweller has built a lexicon of signs: from the cultural symbolism of the hook and the star to the heart redrawn in the volcanic scoria of Rangitoto island. When worn, his jewellery communicates something of who we are and how we have lived. 
Freeman’s work reflects a depth of thinking about the construction of identity that weaves together the big with the small. He has explored forms found in the detritus of daily life, the influence of New Zealand’s colonization, and the rich geology of the land, all of which have provided him with an abundant supply of materials and narratives to draw from.
/ Texts by Pinakothek der Moderne