Ooh La La

Ooh La La By David Clarke Presented By Ornamentum Gallery At Design Miami/ 2011

Ornamentum Gallery is showing some of the most thought-provoking contemporary jewelry and silver work at Design Miami/ this year. The gallery is featuring ten international designers in their exhibition: Luzia Vogt, Gerd Rothmann, Karl Fritsch, David Clarke, David Bielander, Iris Eichenberg, Jantje Fleischhut, John Iversen, Dan Jocz and Ted Noten (the 2012 Dutch artist of the year).

This is the first year Ornamentum is showing work by David Clarke at the fair and his pieces are making quite a stir. The British silversmith is known for pushing boundaries. He has been barred from exhibitions and publicly chastised by old masters for his provocative works and playful techniques. Clarke often takes antique silver works and “bastardizes” them with lower-class metals such as lead or pewter. The ornate forms are dissected and reconstructed in odd and surprising manners which play on the perspective and function of the original forms. At Design Miami/, you will see Spoonies, Ever So Slightly Sloshed and Ooh La La.

“Ooh La La is an important example of Clarke’s work. Clarke attributes a female figure to this curvaceous vessel and then surgically enhances the form by cutting it open and adding even more voluptuousness. At the same time, he bastardizes the medium in his use of lead as the soft add-on material. Lead destroys silver but when perfect beauty is to be attained, these risks must be taken,” says Ornamentum Gallery Owner Stefan Friedemann.

Gerd Rothmann Designs Presented By Ornamentum Gallery At Design Miami/ 2011.

Another piece to look out for in Ornamentum’s booth is Gerd Rothmann’s necklace Modelled In Wax With My Fingers. The 18K gold piece was made in 1988. Rothmann was known for intentionally leaving his fingerprints on his work as a signature.

“Having just celebrated a fifty-year and ongoing career with a major retrospective in Germany, ‘Modelled In Wax With My Fingers’ stands out as a major piece from Rothmann’s oeuvre. It is a rare example of a much less confined approach to putting his imprint in the jewelry compared to the typically straightforward use of the imprint as a design element. This free-form modeling of the material greatly pre-dates the work of other free-form artists,” explains Friedemann.

Visit: www.ornamentumgallery.com and www.designmiami.com.