Alan Chris Preston (born 1941) is a New Zealand jeweller. His work has been exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally, and is held in major public collections in New Zealand.
Alan Chris Preston (born 1941) is a New Zealand jeweller. His work has been exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally, and is held in major public collections in New Zealand.
Born in Te Awamutu in 1941, Preston completed a Master of Science degree in psychology at the University of Canterbury in 1967, and took jewellery classes at the Camden Institute, London, in 1973. [1]
In 1974, after a stint as a guest artist at Brown's Mill Market, New Zealand's first craft co-operative, in Auckland, Preston approached jewellers Ruth Baird, Roy Mason, Margaret Philips and Michael Ayling to open a jewellery shop called Fingers on Auckland's Lorne Street. [2] Fingers, which moved to Kitchener Street, its current location, in 1987, is now New Zealand's longest-running contemporary jewellery gallery. [3]
After a 1979 trip to Fiji, Preston began to incorporate forms and materials from Pacific adornment, including the use of shell, coconut shell and fibre, into his work. [1] In 1983, Preston and fellow jeweller Warwick Freeman were asked by James Mack, then director of The Dowse Art Museum, to select items from Auckland Museum's collection for a 1984 exhibition at The Dowse titled Pacific Adornment. [4]
Preston was one of twelve jewellers selected for the landmark 1988 Bone Stone Shell exhibition, developed by the Craft Council of New Zealand for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that was shown in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. [5] The exhibition was restaged at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in 2013. [5] Preston's work has been shown widely in New Zealand and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Dowse Art Museum in 2007, the Auckland War Memorial Museum in 2009, and inclusion in the touring exhibition Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery in 2014. [6] [7] [8]
Preston's work is held in many public collections including The Dowse Art Museum, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Auckland War Memorial Museum. [9] [10]
Jane Dodd is a New Zealand musician and contemporary jeweller. She is well known for her role as a bass player in early Dunedin-based Flying Nun Records groups The Chills and The Verlaines, was a long-standing member of Auckland group Able Tasmans, and occasionally played with side-project The Lure of Shoes.
Jens Høyer Hansen was a Danish-born jeweller who settled in New Zealand and did most of his well-known work in Nelson, New Zealand. Hansen was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country, including Tanya Ashken, Kobi Bosshard and Gunter Taemmler.
Kobi Bosshard is a Swiss-born New Zealand jeweller. Bosshard was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in the country; others include Jens Hoyer Hansen, Tanya Ashken and Gunter Taemmler.
Owen Thomas Mapp is a New Zealand carver who works primarily in bone.
Joe Sheehan is a stone artist and jeweller who works primarily in pounamu.
Octavia Cook is a New Zealand jeweller.
Warwick Stephen Freeman is a New Zealand jeweller.
Pauline Bern is a New Zealand jeweller.
Fingers is a contemporary jewellery gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. Fingers shows and sells the work primarily of New Zealand jewellers, but also of international jewellers, mostly from Australia and Europe.
Bone Stone Shell: New Jewellery New Zealand was a 1988 exhibition of contemporary New Zealand jewellery and carving which toured internationally. The exhibition is seen as capturing a moment when New Zealand jewelers started looked less at European traditions and precious materials and more at Pacific traditions and natural materials.
Niki Hastings-McFall is a New Zealand jeweller and artist of Samoan and Pākehā descent. She has been described by art historian Karen Stevenson as one of the core members of a group of artists of Pasifika descent who brought contemporary Pacific art to 'national prominence and international acceptance'.
Chris Charteris is a New Zealand sculptor, jeweller and carver.
Lisa Walker is a contemporary New Zealand jeweller.
Emily Siddell is a New Zealand mixed-media artist.
Karl Fritsch is a German-born contemporary jeweller who has since 2009 been based in New Zealand.
Andrea Daly is a New Zealand jeweller and arts teacher. She studied at Sydney College of the Arts, completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1987. The following year, she gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts majoring in contemporary jewellery. In 1998, she completed a master's degree in Philosophy majoring in Art History at Auckland University
Ann Culy is a New Zealand jeweller. She has exhibited widely and her work is held in several New Zealand public collections.
Areta Rachael Wilkinson is a New Zealand jeweller.
Paul Geoffrey Annear was a New Zealand contemporary jeweller.
Eléna Gee is a New Zealand jeweller known for her combination of metal work with organic materials, specifically pāua shell. She was a prominent figure in the Bone, Stone, Shell movement in 1980s New Zealand. She has had a long career with her work touring around Asia and Europe.
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