ITAMI
2025 International Jewellery Exhibition, 15th November – 21st December
Itami City Museum of Art, History and Culture, Japan
Colour Wheel is a meditation on the life cycle of materials, and the discreet exchanges between urban and natural environments.
Colour Wheel [necklace], 2025, found painted wood (mulch), oxidised 999 and 925 silver, 750 gold, bark-dyed silk, 420 x 420 x 16mm. Image credit: Fred Kroh
Made from 50 pieces of weathered, painted mulch collected near Merri Creek, this work explores traces of human activity through the suburban colour palette, reflecting on how our built surroundings continually return to and shape the natural world.
Itami City Museum of Art, History and Culture, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Image source: itami.com
The museum opened in 1989 with the aim of enriching the community through various arts and crafts activities. The museum displays a broad range of outstanding and cutting-edge works through its exhibitions, notably the bi-annual ‘ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition’. It also runs the “ITAMI College of Jewellery to train professional jewellery artists. The Museum of Arts and Crafts ITAMI endeavours to broaden the culture of jewellery.
The recognition of ITAMI = jewellery is now widely spread not only in Japan but also abroad. The organisers receive around 1,000 pieces of work from artists in 19 countries, of these only 93 are selected, of which 8 receive prizes after strict examination.
Among those from diverse backgrounds, the works awarded with prizes as well as those selected demonstrate careful consideration towards the relationship with body, nature and social environment.
