Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art: Dallas Museum of Art

Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art showcases more than 350 wearable works of art, spanning from the 1940s to the present day, many of which have never been on view before. This landmark exhibition surveys nearly a century of creativity and celebrates the ingenuity of jewelry artists from across the globe. It provides a fresh perspective on contemporary jewelry, illuminating the delightful connections that unite established masters and burgeoning talents and transcend chronological boundaries and geographical borders. 

Featuring golden crowns formed to look like cardboard, enchanting necklaces made from plastic bags, and whimsical brooches resembling toast, Constellations does not simply highlight the treasures of a world-class collection, but captures the depth, breadth, and diversity of contemporary jewelry design. 

My contribution to the exhibition is a special commission: a fully traceable Fairtrade Gold statement hand sculpture.

 

This piece, from my Calligraphy series, is conceived as a sculptural jewellery form that finds expression both on the hand and can metamorphose into a neck pendant. This capacity to be worn in two distinct ways quietly embodies my core concept of wearable sculpture - a work that encourages the wearer's own creative participation.

 

This sculptural form  is a meditation on capturing the pure, enfolding form of a calligrapher’s fleeting movement, made material in hand-sculpted gold.

The exhibition itself is of historic importance, drawing significantly from the foundational celebrated Asenbaum collection, later built upon by Deedie Potter Rose. The initial Rose-Asenbaum Collection elevated the DMA to one of the foremost jewelry collections in the world of modern and contemporary jewelry featuring more than 700 works by internationally acclaimed artists. It joined the Museum’s superlative holdings of modern design objects in other media as well as complements its Greek and Etruscan, African, pre-Columbian, and Indian jewelry. As an important new component of the Museum’s international collections, modern jewelry greatly enhanced the ability to portray the richness and depth of artistic enterprise through the very personal medium of “wearable art.”

Curated by Sarah Schleuning, the DMA’s Senior Curator of Design and Decorative Art, the exhibition features celebrated masters of studio jewelry including Giovanni Corvaja, Karl Fritsch, Bettina Dittlmann, Peter Skubic, Georg Dobler, William Harper and Wendy Ramshaw, Francesco Pavan, Emmy van Leersum, Fritz Maierhofer, Hermann Jünger, Bruno Martinazzi and Ute Decker. 

Comprehensive Exhibition Book 

The exhibition is also accompanied by a comprehensive publication written by the exhibition curator, Sarah Schleuning, offering deeper insights into the collection and the artists. Learn more about the treasures in the DMA’s collection, the ingenuity of individual artists, and the visionary activators and collectors who helped build the Museum’s magnificent contemporary jewelry holdings. 

dma.org/art/exhibitions/constellations-contemporary-jewelry-dallas-museum-art

Further reading:

https://artandseek.org/2015/05/01/dma-acquires-700-pieces-of-modern-jewelry/

Interview: 

Deedie Rose & Sarah Schleuning: Creating Constellations of Curiosity
At Munich's Jewelry Week 2025—March 13, 2025 By Art Jewelry Forum 

For high res images please visit:

https://www.utedecker.com/press-news/press-room/

Photography Xavier Young