Ana Khouri x Sotheby's Exhibition II
Exhibition
Sotheby's Auction House, New York, November 2021
As it often happens, new ideas gave way to new energy, and with it, an evolution in my approach to jewelry. My mind became completely focused and I felt a fresh appreciation for all things, but especially the wealth of material and inspiration I have been given by the natural world. It felt revolutionary because it opened up a reexamination of my craft.
From that one vision, I set my artistic energies to applying everything I know about jewelry to materials less familiar to my work. I became absorbed in the relationships between crystals, rocks, rosewood and metals, as well as their inherent tension. Working with these new materials required me to adapt some of my imaginative ambitions and make of it something fundamentally new. The earthy palette of these pieces is singular. Experimenting with these novel materials has in turn allowed me to design pieces that reflect some of my truest instincts.
I sought to render these unique elements into pieces as if they were communing. I discovered a wonderful and surprising affinity within, resulting in a high jewelry work that places artistic merit, elegance and craft well beyond its value. Each of these pieces not only retains the magic inherent to their individual components, they are made transcendent by these new entanglements. In my mind, these pieces are a reflection of the union between all that exists in nature, and a reminder of our esteemed place within that harmony. Somewhere in that vision, not just in the world of jewelry, perhaps we might collectively arrive at a new language of beauty.
