Constellations reveals how contemporary jewellery interweaves aesthetic, social, and cultural ideas. The works on display demonstrate the freedom and playfulness with which jewellery artists around the world engage with form, meaning, and identity.
Ute Eitzenhöfer, Professor of Gemstone Design at the Campus Edelstein und Schmuck, is represented with a necklace combining diamond powder (255 ct), pyrite, Kevlar, wood, and blackened silver. Felicia Mülbaier (MFA) presents her brooch Abdruck, made of lapis lazuli and gold, acquired by the DMA in 2019. Levan Jishkariani (MFA) shows a necklace crafted from beech and linden wood, jade, and steel, in which natural materials meet clear, architectural forms. Petr Dvorak (MFA) is represented with the brooch Japan Frame Brooch, a homage to Eastern architecture. Nicolas Estrada (MFA) presents the ring Repaired Ring, part of his MFA graduation collection. Carmen Hauser (Dipl.) shows her Synthesis Necklace, made from organic materials such as earth and ground freshwater pearls, evoking the transience of existence.
The exhibition is largely based on the significant jewellery collection of Deedie Rose, who has entrusted the DMA with an extensive body of works. Her gifts—including the Rose-Asenbaum Collection she assembled—form a central foundation of the museum’s contemporary jewellery collection, which today comprises nearly 1,400 objects. Deedie Rose and her late husband, Rusty Rose, shaped the Dallas art scene for decades and were deeply committed to the long-term expansion of the DMA’s collections.
Deedie Rose’s interest in jewellery developed in the 1990s, sparked by early encounters with avant-garde works, including those by Eva Eisler. Since then, she has been driven by questions of how material, scale, and meaning interact—an approach that continues to define the focus of her collection.
The exhibition is accompanied by the comprehensive catalogue Constellations – Contemporary Jewellery, written by Sarah Schleuning and published by Yale University Press. Spanning 456 pages, the volume presents more than 900 works and explores themes such as body zones, geometric forms, identity, movement, and the evolution of the collection. In addition to the artists featured in the exhibition, the catalogue includes numerous renowned jewellery artists, among them Professor Ute Eitzenhöfer and a total of ten alumni of the Campus Edelstein und Schmuck: Petr Dvorak (MFA), Nicolas Estrada (MFA), Elena Gorbunova (MFA), Carmen Hauser (Dipl.), Annie Huang (MFA), Levan Jishkariani (MFA), Typhaine Le Monnier (MA), Felicia Mülbaier (MFA), Ulrich Reithofer (Dipl.), and Alejandra Solar (MFA).
Constellations is the result of many years of curatorial research. The exhibition situates contemporary jewellery at the intersection of art, design, and craft, inviting visitors to discover their own connections between the works.
Further information about the exhibition and the catalogue can be found here. A lecture by Sarah Schleuning and Deedie Rose discussing the exhibition is available here.
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