MANON VAN KOUSWIJK is a Dutch artist and contemporary jeweller who lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where she held the position of Head of the Jewellery Department before relocating to Australia in 2010.

Her working methodology is based on exploring the visual and conceptual potential of archetypal jewellery forms and motifs and translating them through a range of materials and processes. An integral aspect of her practice is the framing and contextualising of her work through the making of exhibitions and artist publications often in collaboration with other artists and designers. Her artist books feature found and made photographs and drawings to trace and reimagine the presence of jewellery and other personal possessions in private settings, in museums and in popular culture.

Manon likes to think that it’s possible to reinvent jewellery, despite the fact that its archetypal forms and motifs haven’t fundamentally changed throughout its long history. She views these archetypes as templates that she uses for her translations of the jewellery types she works from (for example the beaded necklace).

The traces of the making process are often visible in her work. The imperfection of the handmade, present in marks of fingerprints and moulds, is an integral part of the objects.

While originating from a conceptual approach to making at the same time her works embrace the sensual qualities of jewellery objects in the use of colour, their weight, sound, rythm and material expression.

Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums and is part of private and public collections worldwide including: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ABN-AMRO Art Collection, The Netherlands; Røsska Museet, Gøteborg, Sweden; FNAC, Paris, France; NGV, Melbourne, Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Marseille, France; NGA, Canberra, Australia; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.

Manon van Kouswijk mentors Mia Straka.

Faces Images

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