z o
o
m
S h o p T a l k
G eo rg eto w n
G e m
Jewelers’ W erk Galerie
3319 Cady’s Alley,
N w
Washington,
D C
20007
202-337-3319
jewelerswerk.com
In 1984 the Dutch jeweler Joke
van Ommen opened v o Galerie
in Washington,
D C .
The tiny
space broke ground as a show-
case for contemporary jewelry,
primarily from Europe. When
van Ommen died in 1988, one
of her American artists, Ellen
Reiben, took over the business
and renamed it Jewelers’ Werk.
It endures as one of the few and
foremost galleries for leading-
edge art jewelry.
How has Jewelers’ Werk
evolved?
Reiben: Well, we got a new
location [in 2007]; that’s been
the biggest change. I had a full-
page review in the
W ashington
Post
that said I moved from a
closet-sized to a kitchen-sized
space. It’s only 260 square feet,
but it’s huge for us.
You’ve made the gallery your
own yet kept its international
flavor.
It was important to keep [van
Ommen’s] idea intact. She only
020 american craft oct/nov io
had the gallery for four years,
had really just started. I fol-
lowed her lead. She’d started to
add American artists, and I ex-
panded on that. I traveled wide-
ly in Europe. I felt I needed to
show my face because Europe-
ans weren’t going to send jew -
elry to someone they didn’t
know. I met lots of the artists,
such as Bettina Dittlmann,
creator of
R ed Brooch
© ; they
got to know me, trust me.
W hat do you look for in the
work you show?
I only take work that makes me
feel I’ve never seen anything
like it before. It has nothing to
do with materials or imagery,
but with having something to
say and an original way to say it.
I’m interested in subtlety. I usu-
ally don’t represent people who
are doing very theatrical, sculp-
tural, big jewelry.
Some of my artists have been
in the field for 30 years, some
for a couple of years. I remem-
ber when I started showing jew -
elry by Karl FritschO. I think I
was the first gallery to approach
him. He was right out of the
Munich Academy, but his work
was so innovative and ballsy.
He would break the rules and
get away with it. You get in his
work a sense of his provincial
Bavarian background, and
then, of course, he’s a rebel.
That combination is incredible
in terms of what he comes
up with.
How do you get customers to
be adventurous?
It happens on its own. I’ve had
customers buy something clas-
sic and easy to understand.
Then they’ll come in again and
take a baby step from that.
They end up buying some really
interesting pieces.
I do sell production work as
well. I have to. I’m in George-
town, a very social area. I need
for someone to be able to walk
in and buy something for $100,
so I have to have accessible
work. I can’t sit here and wait
for the people who can afford
to spend thousands.
People think of Washington
as a city of conservative tastes.
But we’re very international;
that’s the key. W e have the
World Bank, the i m f , diplo-
mats, people who travel a lot.
They see things here in the gal-
lery that they’re comfortable
looking at because they’re Eu-
ropean, or whatever. There
aren’t many places that show
this kind of work, so they get
hooked.—
j . l .
©
N M / Santa Fe
M u s e u m o f In te rn a tio n a l
F o lk A r t
Silver Seduction: The A rt o f M ex -
ican M odernist Antonio Pineda
to Jan. 2
internationalfolkart.org
Pineda’s vision manifests in the
designs of his sensual jewelry
and innovative hollowware.
N Y / Corning
C o r n in g M u s e u m o f G la s s
Voices o f Contemporary Glass:
The Heineman Collection
to Jan. 2
cmog.org
Highlighting objects from 1969
to 2005, this collection repre-
sents the full breadth of a defin-
ing period in glassmaking.
N Y / New York
© M u s e u m o f A r t s and D e s ig n
The Global A frica Project
Nov. 16-May 15
madmuseum.org
A survey of the talent, such as
Ntombi Nala, maker of
Ingcazi,
that has emerged from Africa.
N C / Charlotte
M in t M u s e u m U p to w n
Contemporary British Studio
Ceramics: The Grainer Collection
Oct. i-Mar. 13
mintmuseum.org
An extensive collection includes
both established “classics,” like
Lucie Rie, and cutting-edge
ceramists like Julian Stair and
Grayson Perry.
Nala photo Robert Selby, courtesy o f Amaridian Gallery.
