Campus for Design and Art

The Gemstone and Jewellery Campus welcomes Paul Adie as new Artist in Residence

Abracadabra | Necklace | Aluminium, sterling silver, paint | 2015 | © Mirei Takeuchi

The Munich-based jewellery artist will be a guest in Idar-Oberstein from May to July 2025 and will work in the workshops of the university and the Jakob Bengel industrial monument.

The Campus Gemstone and Jewellery and the Jakob Bengel industrial monument have been cooperating in a joint artist-in-residence programme since 2006. The invited artists are accommodated in a former workers' flat at the Bengel company and supported by a scholarship. During their one to three-month stay, they can use the workshops of both institutions and come into contact with the students at the Gemstone and Jewellery Campus.

Paul Adie from Glasgow lives and works in Munich. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and Spanish, he dedicated himself to the art of jewellery and initially studied at the Escola Massana in Barcelona. He then completed a diploma programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Paul has been represented in numerous group exhibitions since 2015 and has been showing his work in solo exhibitions since 2018. Adie has been nominated several times for prestigious awards such as TALENTE, SCHMUCK and the LOEWE Craft Prize.

Paul Adie describes his working method as follows:

"The starting point of my work is sitting down and making – spontaneity guides my hand rather than adhering to a rigid concept or blueprint. I play along, creating works with a gestural, intuitive and childlike aesthetic. However, the colourful façade of the works is just the surface, and on closer inspection, they act as an entry point to raise awareness of current social phenomena, such as identity, sexuality and queerness.

I refer to the history of the crafted object, but incorporate stories from contemporary society and include humour as a tool of humanisation, to build community and poke fun subversively at established power structures.

Jewellery is usually small, often overlooked and only really gets noticed for the cost of the raw materials. I aim to show that jewellery, as small as it may be, can act as a tool to raise awareness – especially when worn on the body and taken into society."

Here you can find more information about the Artist in Residence programme

Here you can find more information about Paul Adie