Found At… Amsterdam / Made In… South Channels of Chile. Neckpiece, gemstones, rope. 58 x 10 x 2.5 cm

Object. Found At…Texel, The Netherlands / Made In…Amsterdam. Broken shells. 85 x 45 x 3 cm

Found At… Grenada, Caribbean / Made In… Caleta Brecknock, Chile. Neckpiece, wood, beads, rope, porcelana fria. 58 x 11 x 3 cm

Found At… Sao Paulo, Brazil / Made In… Rio Grande, Brazil. Ring, copper, 24K gold, quartz. 4 x 2 x 2 cm

Found At… New York, USA / Made In… Nizan, France. Neckpiece, felt, coral, elastic. 10 x 12 x 1 cm

Found At… Amsterdam / Made In… South Channels of Chile. Neckpiece, gemstones, rope, 58 x 10 x 2.5 cm

Found At… Sao Paulo, Brazil / Made In… Rio Grande, Brazil. Ring, copper, silver, tourmaline, quartz. 3.5 x 3 x 1 cm

Neckpiece. Found At…Bohemian Paradise, Czech Republic / Made In…Turnov symposium, Czech Republic. Wood, porcelana fría, rope

Gallery Loupe is proud to present Rian de Jong: Found at… Made in…, an intriguing presentation by the esteemed  Dutch sculptor-jeweler. As the title implies, Found at… Made in… consists of pieces fabricated from objects and materials aquired during myriad travels taken with her partner, Herman, aboard their sloop, the Lyra. Some of the pieces in this collection of over twenty brooches, neckpieces, rings, and jewelry-related objects will be paired with a framed photograph by de Jong, which illuminates the jewel along with its genesis. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful catalogue of images by de Jong of the jewelry, site-specific landscapes, and her boat-based workspace, with texts by artist Moniker Brugger in English, German, Spanish, French, and Dutch, languages deliberately chosen by de Jong to illustrate the need for verbal communication in learning about, and nurturing a receptiveness to, the various cultures that influence her oeuvre.

The peripatetic de Jong divides her time between her home city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and the rest of the world, which she sails around in the house boat, sometimes remaining at an exotic locale for extended periods of time. In fact, place and the processes of necessity inform her diverse practice. She is notable for incorporating elements obtained during her travels with rough, electroformed copper, semi-precious stones, glass or ceramic, fabricating jewelry within a tiny shower stall and counter area on board the Lyra. Encountering terrible weather in Patagonia during March 2014, de Jong and Herman were sequestered for eleven days on the boat, within a cave along the Straits of Magellan, awaiting favorable sailing conditions, when she began Found at… Made in….. As with most of de Jong’s series’, Found at… Made in... is an excellent example of “Arte Relacional” (relational art), where content depends mostly upon context, or as de Jong puts it “working on location…en-route [and] on the move.” 

Of all de Jong’s series’, Found at… Made in… metaphorically charts her life’s course by propelling her aesthetic to a definitive level. “It is about things you pick up,” she states, “and when in another place [the possibilities you perceive]…It’s about the impression of travelling, being receptive to new experiences, working and living on the ship, and [its associations with the sea]. It’s about joy, new materials and the courage to do something unexpected…[and always the insatiable desire to discover].”

A graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, de Jong has shown internationally for thirty years, including at Galerie Ra in Amsterdam, Ornamenta 1 in Pforzheim, and Schmuck in Munich. Her work is represented internationally in numerous collections, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal. A gold, pebble, and copper ring is in the private collection of Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.

Artist Talk: Brooklyn Metal Works – Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015 at 3 pm