Otto Künzli

The Swiss Otto Künzli (born in 1948) revolutionised modern jewellery design and is regarded as 'one of the most intelligent and at the same time most critical artists in the world of jewelry.’ Ralph Turner: The New Jewelry, 1985/1994.

Over the course of his involvement with jewellery, spanning around 50 years, Otto Künzli achieved a unique status as an artist and pioneer, and also as an author and teacher, with widespread international influence. Renowned artists such as Karen Pontoppidan, Karl Fritsch, David Bielander and Lisa Walker are amongst the graduates of the jewellery class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, which Künzli directed since 1991 as successor to Hermann Jünger.

Awards

1972 Swiss Applied Arts prize

1976 Werkpreis, Schule für Gestaltung, Zürich

1977 Dr. Herbert Hpffmann-Preis, Munich

1978 Swiss Applied Art prize

1980 Fine Art Award, Munich

1981 Swiss Applied Art prize

1987 ‘Förderpreis’ award for applied art, City of Munich

1990 Françoise van den Bosch Fundation Award, the Nederlands

Public Collections (Selection)

Bundesamt für Kultur, Bern. Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen, Berlin. Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main. Die Neue Sammlung, Museum für angewandte Kunst, München. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München. Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim. Gallery and Museum Kelvingrove. Glasgow. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. The Detroit Art Institute, American Craft Museum, Donna Schneier Collection, New York. Israelmuseum, Jérusalem. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbjourne. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

To coincide with the Design Museum's survey show Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, GALLERY S O London presents Chamber of Wonder.

While the term 'cultural resistance' has become synonymous with the world of social sciences in the 1970s, new energies emerged elsewhere. From the sub, counter and resistance cultures exciting developments in contemporary jewellery blossomed and a fresh identifiable movement among designers and makers of the day was born. The work asked questions about the cultural meanings of gender, material value and the intimate relationship between the object and body. Wearable pieces were made to rethink social rituals and stereotypes and queried the notion of how and why we adorn ourselves.

Following in the spirit of this movement Chamber of Wonder shows the work of current designer makers united by their irreverence of traditional notions of luxury jewellery and a curiosity for reinterpreting objects found and fashioned to wear. From Bernhard Schobinger's choker of hexagon rock crystal slabs linked with fine gold to Hans Stofer's renovated skipping rope necklace with timeworn handles, or David Bielander's silky, silver garlic bulb pendant, the works in the show celebrate the diverse expressions of the genre and offer fresh alternatives to the 'proper' function of jewellery.