Brooch by Kinga Huber, AUTOR Award Winner at Athens Jewelry Week
AUTOR Awards 2021 Wrapped is here. Let’s make a short recap of the most effervescent names on the jewelry scene, traveling through shapes, colors and techniques full of personality. Find a comfortable spot for reading and enjoy.
Here, in our cozy corner, in the world of contemporary jewelry, we approached 2021 as a challenge. A challenge to stay consistent and present, inspired and creative, grateful for the art that unites us. Regardless of the ups and downs that time subjects us to.
We are pleased to bring into the spotlight the artists AUTOR awarded during 2021. The awards were offered at major European competitions and exhibitions specializing in designer jewelry, including: JOYA Barcelona, Athens Jewelry Week, Precious Collective Jewelry Week and Central Saint Martins.
Rita Martínez ๏ AUTOR Award at JOYA Barcelona
From Verona, Italy, Rita Martínez skillfully combines stories, spirituality and bold ideas in her new collection, Maledetta Primavera (Cursed Spring). As a woman and designer, Rita has managed to concentrate all her creative strength and energy in a collection inspired by pandemic limitations. Her pieces touch on the theme of alchemy, (re)offering freedoms to both the wearer and the creator, as well as the created object.
Read more about Rita Martínez and her collection here.
Lavinia Adkins ๏ AUTOR Award at Central Saint Martins (BA Alumni)
AUTOR was also present in 2021 at the exhibition of the graduation works of the CSM students, offering its prize to the artist Lara Adkins. Already a tradition, the AUTOR x CSM award aims to provide a platform for contemporary jewelry designers at the beginning of their creative evolution.
Coming from a small village in England’s countryside, Lara Adkins grew up a country girl with aspirations to move to the big city, motivated by her passion for art and fashion. She ended up moving to London permanently, where she studied at Central Saint Martins, continuing with a BA in Jewelry Designs.
Using wax to capture and preserve passing moments in someone’s life, Lara has designed a collection of commemorative jewelry. The pieces are responsive, picking up knocks, scrapes and damage that change the designs in unique ways and trace the wearer’s experiences.
Read more about Lara Adkins and her collection here.
Matilde Mozzanega ๏ AUTOR Media Award at Precious Collective Online Jewelry Week
The PCOJW experience was truly unique, being the first edition of this type of event, in a new and challenging environment. AUTOR was also a partner and was happy to offer a media award to the artist Matilde Mozzanega, an award that consists in promoting and increasing her visibility.
Matilde Mozzanega is a contemporary jewelry designer from Milan, based in London.
The Bling & Bloom collection consists of playful, contemporary necklaces made out of Swarovski crystals and flowers, vacuum sealed within recyclable plastic pouches. Borrowing the aesthetic from traditional colliers and pearl necklaces, the design is a commentary on the current and urgent issue related to packaging plastic waste.
Read more about Matilde Mozzanega and her collection here.
The AUTOR 2020 awards also focused on new talents
Kinga Huber ๏ AUTOR Award Winner at Athens Jewelry Week
Kinga Huber is a Budapest based designer and creator of jewelry. Her works are characterized by the driving of contrast and the continuous experimenting. Kinga likes to choose new materials and techniques by putting objects into nonconventional positions.
The Senseless Roles pieces reflect towards the chosen or given roles of women. Lip jewelry and finger jewelry, which can not be worn in any usual way, fulfill the functions of traditional jewelry while being barriers, hindering one’s free actions. Just like an ornamental burqa, or gold plated cuffs, which express the privileges as well as the subservience and dependence of its wearer.
Read more about Kinga Huber and her collection here.
Smaranda Voican ๏ AUTOR Award Winner at Central Saint Martins (BA Alumni)
Driven by an inquisitive view on the world that constantly fuels her interest towards interdisciplinary approaches, Smaranda’s practice situates at the intersection of design and sculpture, using jewellery as her main medium of expression.
Highly influenced by her first passion – dance – her work is most of the time based around motion, often integrating a performative side through video, photography and new technology. Informed by a conceptual approach, her process revolves around sustainable thinking, blending digital design with poetic narratives to address environmental or political issues. She holds a BA in Jewellery Design from UAL Central Saint Martins and lives and works in London, United Kingdom.
Aide-memoire is a mixed-reality collection responding to the climate crisis through a speculative, digital approach, presenting a series of ephemeral sculptural pieces and augmented reality virtual jewelry to comment on the socio-political implications of global warming and the ongoing migration towards the digital world.You will soon be able to read more about Smaranda’s collection.
An article is in the making, so stay tuned.