Masterworks from the 80s & 90s. A Curated Selection by Hannah Gallery from María Luisa Samaranch's Private Collection

November 1986 was a key month in the beginning of my contemporary jewellery collection. With a passion for art, jewellery and design, and having been a professional graphic designer since 1977, I decided to open a tiny space named Hipòtesi in Barcelona dedicated to contemporary jewellery. This venue later expanded to include contemporary ceramics, glass and textile art.
In those days, at the end of the 1980s, the jewellery industry was split into two distinct trends: One with a completely contemporary approach, where the jewellers crafted the pieces under a concept of design, production and seriation, using materials considered to be classic such as silver and gold.
In the other, we find all those jewellers who, working in a more conceptual or artistic manner, championed unique pieces and the use of non-precious materials.

/ Maria Luisa Samaranch, graphic designer, book publisher and jewellery collector.


The exhibition recollects a fearless moment in the history of art jewellery; when pushing boundaries of skills and materials, jewellery became a body-related art form, a medium of personal expression and social comment. However, the curators’ purpose is more activist than laudatory: Exhibiting contemporary jewellery from previous decades promotes historical awareness amongst younger artists and informs an emerging community of collectors while helping to create more inclusive networks of expertise and passion about the art jewellery field. Memory is not taken for granted, and histories are situated narratives that can change over time.

/ Mònica Gaspar, Art Historian.


Proposing, preparing, and curating the exhibition afforded us a special opportunity. We had the privilege of coming into contact with, seeing, and appreciating an extensive collection of jewellery that the editor, gallerist, and collector has created over many years of her innovative, brave, intuitive, and intelligent career.

/ Hannah Gallery.



The publication features selected works of the following artists:
Vicki Ambery-Smith, Gijs Bakker, Marta Breis, Caroline Broadhead, Peter Chang, Norman Cherry, Lin Cheung, Xavier Domenech, Karl Fritsch, Lluis Gilberga, Nuala Jamison, Esther Knobel, Nel Linssen, Angeles López Ante, Marc Monzó, Peter Niczewski, Ramon Puig Cuyàs, Wendy Ramshaw, Sarah Stafford, Janna Syvanoja, Mecky Van den Brink, David Watkins, Beatriz Zingg, Rian de Jong.


Graphic design: María Luisa Samaranch
Photographs: Guillem Fernández-Huerta
© texts: the respective authors
© drawings: the respective authors
© edition: sd·edicions