Gésine Hackenberg, born in 1972 in Germany, lives and works as a contemporary jewellery artist in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She was trained as a goldsmith in Germany and studied jewelry design at the former Fachhochschule für Gestaltung Pforzheim in Germany. In 2001 she received her degree from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and in 2013, a Master of Arts from the MAD-faculty in Hasselt, Belgium. Hackenberg has been a tutor at the PXL-MAD School of Arts from 2011 until 2019. Since 2008, she is teaching technical metalsmithing classes at the Vakschool Edelsmeden in Amsterdam. She regularly has been invited to lectures, workshops, and student tutorials worldwide. In her artistic career, she has been the recipient of three grants from The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design, and Architecture, as well as other awards such as the International Talente Prize in 2002 or the Scholarship for Modern Silver by the Stokroos Foundation in 2010 combined with an exhibition at the Netherlands Zilvermuseum Schoonhoven (NL). Gésine Hackenberg has actively exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide since 2001. Her work is published in numerous international publications and included in collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL), the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), the Mima Middelsbrough Institute of Modern Art (UK), and the Museum of Arts and Design, NY (USA).


Gésine on her work:
One of the main themes in my work is placing ordinary utensils in the perspective of jewellery. Objects of daily use often become loved and indispensable to people. The things you keep and save often have a sentimental value apart from their practical use or monetary value. Moreover, they can be seen as a portrait of their owner. In my work, I explore how these objects relate to the body and the individual. Wearing jewellery is the most intimate and direct form of expressing this specific relationship to an object.
 
As I like to investigate the boundaries of traditional jewellery, my work interacts with different disciplines and concepts. Traditions linked to objects or jewellery, their history, and the stories about them are a great source of inspiration to me. I like to reinterpret classical genres of art and jewellery history while translating those elements to my own contemporary world. More recently, my jewellery and objects tend to act as metaphors for mental states. Objects of everyday life and domestic materials become means to express and reflect on emotions.
 
I use different techniques and materials, that are telling their own stories about preciousness and adornment, like ceramics, (precious) metal, Japanese Urushi lacquer, textiles, and glass. These materials usually come from intertwined themes of domesticity, table, and food culture. Sometimes, I use existing objects as raw material. In a way, I reuse and recycle material. But what’s more, I transform and redirect their message. By manipulating these items, I isolate various layers of meanings and associations, that are immanent to the shape, pattern, and material of an object, in order to take on these values in my work.



Public Collections:
Associação Património Histórico, Caldas da Rainha (PT); Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (D); CODA Museum Apeldoorn (NL); Château Borély, Musée des Arts décoratifs, de la Faïence et de la Mode, Marseille (FR); Corning Museum of Glass, NY (USA); Die Neuen Sammlung/The Design Museum, Munich (D); Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (NL); Grassi
Museum, Leipzig (D); La Ville de Cagne-sur-Mer/Espace Solidor, (FR); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA (USA); Mima Middelsbrough Institute of Modern Art (UK); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (NL); Museum of Arts and Design, NY (USA); National Museums Scotland (UK); Nederlands Zilvermuseum Schoonhoven (NL); Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum Trondheim (NO); University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht (NL); Smyckoteket’, Rian Design Museum Falkenberg (S); Röhsska Museet, Göteborg (S); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL); Victoria and Albert Museum (UK).