FRITSCH vs WEDD
Karl Fritsch & Gerry Wedd
15 Nov – 16 Dec 2023
Wellington-based jeweller Karl Fritsch was born in Germany and classically trained at the Goldsmith’s College in Pforzheim, and then attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Karl has exhibited extensively, presented guest lectures around the world and his work is held in private and public collections internationally, including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; Pinakothek of Modern Art in Munich; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Metropolitan Museum in New York and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Fritsch has been the recipient of a number of awards including the Herbert Hoffman Prize from the International Craftsmen Trade Fair in Munich and the prestigious jury-selected Francoise van den Bosch Award (2006), given every 2 years to an international jewellery and object maker who is recognised for his/ her oeuvre, influence and contribution to the field.
Karl Fritsch has gained international recognition for his ever-developing body of work, which has focussed almost solely on rings. Fritsch’s jewellery is unmistakable. His works vary from hand-moulded one-off castings, to re-cast, contrastingly daintier jewel-embedded rings, to towering stacks of cut and colourful glass. His ability to continually create new rings is vast and varied. Combining traditional techniques, playing on jewellery history, he has developed has own personal language. He is capable of applying both careful and quick consideration to the materials and objects he works with, and employs precious and base metals, facetted and found stones in his work with egalitarian abandon, turning the most ordinary into the extraordinary.
Gerry Wedd lives in South Australia. He is a surfer and a self described potter whose initial forays into making came from watching his mother make pots on the kitchen table. Wedd’s career has been centred around ceramics practice for forty years. During this time he has made work that refers to, reflects upon, and is embedded within, both the history and materiality of ceramics. His practice has incorporated making domestic ware for daily use, large-scale works for both exhibition and public art works, and projects, working with schools and community groups. Wedd has a Degree in Visual Arts and a Masters in Fine Art (Research) from UNISA (2005). From 1986 until 2006 Wedd was a core artist producing drawings and graphics for Mambo. He has exhibited extensively and regularly in Australia and internationally including INTEGRATION AND RESISTENCE IN THE GLOBAL AGE in the 2010 Havana Biennial, Australia-Korea International Invitational in 2015 and The Victoria and Albert Museum in 1989. In 2018 Wedd was awarded the ACE Open Commission where he built and tiled a room interior in the gallery. He was the recipient of the Hobart Art Prize in 2010 and the 1998 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award and was a finalist in the Basil Sellers Art Prize for Sport in 2014. In 2023, he has shown at Galerie Zink in Germany.
Wedd’s work is in the collections of Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Artbank, University of Wollongong, SAMSTAG Art Museum, Australian National Gallery, Manly City Art Gallery, Australian National Gallery, VCA Gallery – Margaret Lawrence Australian Ceramic Collection, Melbourne Maritime Museum, Shepparton Art Gallery, La Trobe University, Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland University Collection, Powerhouse Museum and National Gallery Victoria.
> View FRITSCH vs WEDD – Karl Fritsch Catalogue
> View FRITSCH vs WEDD – Gerry Wedd Catalogue