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Artist in Residence: matt lambert explores the Gemstone and Jewellery Campus and the Jakob Bengel Industrial Monument

matt lambert wearing 'Loaded - Keep Hitting Our Jaw' (in Zusammenarbeit mit Máret Ánne Sara) | Reindeer Jaw Bones | 2018 | © Máret Ánne Sara

The joint Artist-in-Residence programme between the Jakob Bengel Foundation and the Gemstone and Jewellery Campus offers residencies for up to three months in Idar-Oberstein.

We are delighted to welcome lambert (they/them, artist name: matt lambert) as Artist in Residence at the Gemstone and Jewellery Campus and the Jakob Bengel industrial monument until November.

lambert is a trans non-binary, multidisciplinary artist whose practice entangles making, writing, performing, curating, and collaborating. At the core of their work lies the question of how craft can as both a lens and a language: on the one hand, as a tool to make systems of land, labor, power, and exploitation visible; on the other, as a knowledge passed on through kinship and shared skills.

Their work has been exhibited internationally and is part of renowned collections including the Museum of Art and Design (New York, US), the Museum of Fine Art, (Houston, US), and the Homografiska Museet (Dals Långed, Sweden). lambert is currently based in Stockholm and is pursuing a PhD in artistic practice in visual, applied and spatial arts at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design.

In their artistic research, lambert developed a method they call “cruising”: a form of navigation less focused on destinations and more on movement, desire, and encounter. Objects are understood as producers of cartographic points: part of shifting constellations that resist fixation and boundaries.

lambert’s works often draw on historically masculine-coded spaces and objects: armor, hunting gear, sports and military references. These symbols of protection, rank, and power are transformed into queer forms, creating layered assemblages that renegotiate identity, embodiment, and systems of power.

We warmly invite everyone to meet matt lambert and gain insight into this multifaceted artistic practice!

Here you can find more info about matt lambert, the AiR programme and the Jakob Bengel Industrial Monument.

Like a Spectacle To Behold Not A Human Needing To Be Held | From the series: Dead as Disco | April Showers, stolen fire crystals, stones, beads, flowers from a swinging chandelier, bits & bobs, cord from a circus performer, the Karoo desert, flame worked glass, gifts from a drag queen, epoxy | 2025 | © matt lambert
Blue Monday’s Babe Born on a Wednesday | From the series: The Guardeners | woeful grace, fallen flowers from swinging on the chandelier, kisses from a flame on broken bottles, gifts from a drag queen, Cape Town estimations, gold from Parisian fleas, her grandmothers Italian mirror knocked off the wall in Georgia, the last hope and a prayer, a ship in the harbor, the warm illumination of the horizon, a little bit of red for my baby blue | 2025 | © matt lambert
We Don't Need Another Hero | From the series: Dead as Disco | (non/semi/super)-precious metals, stones, beads, the pins and needles from wanting to..., bits & bobs, tears of a god/Alanis, flame worked glass, leather from daddy, gifts from a drag queen, epoxy | 2024 | © matt lambert
I Just Wanna Dance With Somebody | From the series: Dead as Disco | Everything CoCo said to take off, Gifts of a drag queen, bobbles and bits, the military belt used to… | 2023 | © matt lambert
Silver Danger | Necklace | Wood| 2022 | © matt lambert
Can We Just Breathe? | Necklace from the series: Kiff Slemmons 'Rattle Tag' | Glass Amyl Nitrate bottles, plastic lids, aluminum flashing tape, tags, cotton string, cotton edge tape | © matt lambert
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