I’ve been slowly working on a new collection inspired by memories. Here are some work in progress shots!
Odds & Ends from Alex Kinsley Vey
Tag: art
Munich Jewellery Week 2024
It’s that time of year again! Alex is off to Munich to see the wild and crazy world of Art Jewellery.
Precious Collective will be presenting works from their members at ‘The Space Between’ for the fair!
I will post my favourite finds from the festival when I return!
Alex
OCAD University GradEx 2023
I had the opportunity to check out OCAD Universities GradEx exhibtiion this month, specifically the MAAD Departments Jewellery Graduates. See some of my favourite images below!
I encourage anyone reading this to take a look at https://www.instagram.com/ocadumaad/ for much better photos and more detailed images! There were many more students I was not able to include here!
Alex
Meanderings 2022 NYC Jewelry Week
My favourite works from the Meanderings exhibition at NYCJW this year.
Animal Vegetable Mineral Highlights
I want to share some images of the recent Animal Vegetable Mineral exhibition here in Toronto of which I was a part of. This fantastic exhibition was curated by Melanie Egan and brought together Canadian and Nordic artists to buck traditional ideas of ‘fine jewellery’. These are just a few highlights from the exhibition!
-Alex
Work In Progress – Diese Ist (Mein) Opa
By Alex Kinsley Vey
1950’s
Recently I’ve been invited to participate in an exhibition with the theme and title Memento Mori. The usual tropes are skulls, hair, references to time, but I decided to respond to this theme in a less direct way.
My Opa (Grandpa in German) was unfortunately a man I never got to know well while he was alive. He passed away in 2012, and suffered a stroke shortly after I was born which made it incredibly difficult for us to communicate. As I’ve gotten older I’ve regretted that we were never able to talk much.
Well after his passing I began to learn more and more about the man he was, the things he liked and disliked, and trials and tribulations both during and after the Second World War.
Memento Mori made me think of my Opa, all the black and white pictures of him in his youth, frozen in time, and how eventually that will be me, only surviving through memory and photography.
And yours truly rocking the bowl-cut
I decided to memorialize him and create work that acts as a reminder that when we pass all that is left are pictures and memories. By taking these images of him, translating them into a solid wearable form, I hope to remember his life, and process my own eventual death.
This series of work is still very much in progress, but I thought it would be fun to share! The next step will be to create the final etchings on steel. Decide on a framing system for the brooch findings. And to finalize how I will treat the steel once it’s been etched.
Inspiration, creativity and Salvador Dali
Continuing on the theme of artists I find inspriring, this month I am talking a bit about surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
Dali’s Mustache – Photo by Philippe Halsman
taken from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali
I love surrealism. It appeals so much to my sense of whimsy, and the sci fi/fantasy book loving geek in me! I’ve had a long fascination with Dali, and when I was going through my phase of visiting galleries round Europe in my late 20’s, I’d always be on the lookout for any offering from this artist. One of my favourite paintings is Persistence of Memory, although it’s unfortunately not one I’ve seen in person .
One of the things I didn’t initially appreciate was how prolific he was. Over his lifetime he created over 1600 paintings, to say nothing of the sculptures and other objects (like the Lobster phone).
The Lobster Telephone
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lobster_Telephone_Photo.jpg ; user Nasch92
It wasn’t until I visited the Dali Paris gallery that I realised how interesting and strange the inside of Dali’s brain must be (in only the best way of course!). This was finally confirmed when I purchased (and read) his autobiography after visting Dali Universe London (Which, incidentally is a lovely venue by the banks of the Thames, just over Westminster Bridge), The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.
Apart from his art, one of the things that really stuck with me, was his daily practice of creativity. Not necessarily for any purpose, but just to let it out of himself, as if he couldn’t hold it back, and he’d make something out of almost anything. I love that concept, and it’s something I strive to practice too, although not on nearly the same scale.
How do you practice your creativity? Here’s a suggestion: why not visit us at the studio and learn a new skill or develop your existing ones in jewellery creation.
Stay safe, and we hope to see you soon!
-Robin
Alex Kinsley – Experiments with plaster
Recently I’ve been experimenting with plaster as a material to create work with. Below is my journey so far!
I’d been planning on exploring this material in my work for a while, but with the recent slowdown due to COVID19 I figured this was the time.
My first tests mostly focused on embedding steel into the plaster and then revealing it and letting nature do its work via rusting.
I’ve still got a lot of testing to do, but the most recent one above is looking promising! Excited to continue down this path and post more results here.