Peter Bauhuis
Casting is the method of choice for German goldsmith Peter Bauhuis. The tactile surfaces of his jewelry and vessels are rough and uneven, revealing the ghosts of the wax models that gave them life. Bauhuis utilizes silver, gold, copper, and zinc, oftentimes creating alloys, which produce uniquely colored shapes and sketches on the objects’ surfaces. His forms are primal, sensual, and talismanic – inviting touch, fondling. The void is as imperative as the form; brooches and bowls sometimes have holes; the hollow backs of brooches may reveal an inner web. Bauhuis has been inspired by blobs and orifices, so-naming respective series’. Rings can sport vessels as miniaturized examples informed by his larger works.
He sometimes channels natural phenomena. Chains and Flowers is a series of necklaces, which initially take the form of stationary sculptures prior to being separated from their armatures to be worn. For the Flavedo series Bauhuis cast mask-like visages, shaped from dried tangerine skins in tumbago (an alloy of gold and copper), which he then gilded.
Trained as a goldsmith, Bauhuis received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he studied with master Otto Künzli. He was the recipient of the grand prize at the 17th Silver Triennial in Hanau (2013); Bavarian State Award (2011); Danner Competition Prize of Honor, Munich (2005); and Friedrich Becker Prize, Dusseldorf (2001), along with several others. He has been the subject of numerous international solo and group exhibitions, and his jewelry and vessels are represented in many public collections including Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim; Die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Basel; and Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris. In 2020, Bauhuis was honored with a Danner Prize and short-listed for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.
Recent exhibitions:
