Before my visit to Munich in February I did a little research on jewellery galleries. I also asked some people to advise places to visit so I got the most out of my research trip. I got there a day and half before Inhorgenta started so had the chance to get settled in my hotel and visit some galleries before the show.
In Germany – it is a little different from Britain with regards to how the jewellers work – the jewellers have their own small retail outlet/gallery/shop with their workshop in the back rather than have an artist studio and sell through galleries.
The display was very minimal with no busts or display blocks the jewellery was just displayed as it is.
I managed to visit a lot of small galleries, some of which we randomly found and others that I planned to see. These included:
Galerie Spektrum which had very conceptual jewellery made from non precious materials, interesting but mostly not wearable pieces.
I visited Galerie Biro as it is devoted to plastic jewellery and was really looking forward to seeing the pieces but it had weird opening times so was closed when I was there. It was also situated in a residential area, which was weird to see a gallery in-between lots of flats and houses.
Goldbraun was fantastic as it mixed home made chocolate with contemporary jewellery. There was some really nice jewellery here but I couldn’t resist buying some chocolate. Tastie good!
While wondering I also came across Gallie Jewels a very tiny shop that didn’t have much in it as she had just opened but had nice pieces in the window.
Hillmanns also had some amazing pieces and I nearly treated myself to a titanium, gold leaf and resin ring – stunning! But went for the cheaper option of a black and red wooden ring.
Inge Mayer Goldschmiede Galerie had a stunning mix of high end pieces – totally mind blowing work and a really nice lady.
Bayerischer Kunstgewerbe-Verein (BKV) is an organisation for the professional crafts sector with approximately 400 members working in jewellery, ceramics, textiles and sculpture. I managed to find their gallery and what a fantastic large space. It was like a trendy product design shop but with handmade pieces! Amazing work.
And finally Artefact was a mix of gorgeous contemporary jewellery with nice textiles and clothes. There was so many nice rings in here too. I nearly bought a square silver and felt ring from Michaela Binder who happened to be exhibiting at Inhorgenta so I got the chance to meet her and see her full range at the show. Artefact also stocked Esther Ackermann and Monika Jakubec rings which I also loved and they were also exhibiting at Inhorgenta. It’s really inspiring meeting other designers and see how they work.
On the last day we decided to visit some museums as they we all very close together and had found out it’s cheaper and some cases free on a Sunday. The Pinakothek Der Moderne was fantastic and mixed with modern art, design, architecture and also had a large selection of contemporary jewellery in the basement. The basement was very dark and only the cabinets were lit so some pictures are a bit poor. The jewellery pieces down here were more conceptual than wearable but interesting nonetheless.
There are some pictures of the basement and me looking in one of the desk cabinets. There were also standing cabinets built into the walls with really unusual large neckpieces and other conceptual bits.
They had a few pieces of one of my favourite jewellers Friedrich Becker who made fantastic kinetic jewellery.