Schmuckismus

The Neue Sammlung has invited Karen Pontoppidan, Professor of jewelry at the Academy for Applied Arts Munich, to curate an exhibition that keenly examines the role of artist jewelry as a mode of critical discourse. In the works of a new generation of designers, jewelry has extended far beyond an expression of personal identity to become an instrument of social commentary and critique. Themes such as ecology, consumer society, and feminism have all been directly addressed through jewelry. There are also softer, but no less societally relevant references, like questions of identity-formation or the current state of humanity in the 21^st century.