Warwick Freeman Explained

Warwick Freeman
Birth Name:Warwick Stephen Freeman
Birth Date:5 January 1953
Birth Place:Nelson, New Zealand
Known For:Jewellery, metalwork

Warwick Stephen Freeman (born 5 January 1953) is a New Zealand jeweller.

Biography

Freeman was born in Nelson in 1953,[1] [2] and was educated at Nelson College from 1966 to 1970.[3] He began making jewellery with Peter Woods in Perth in 1972.[1] He returned to New Zealand the following year and established a workshop in Nelson before moving to Auckland in 1975.[4] In 1977 he worked with Daniel Clasby, and with Jens Hansen in 1978.[4] Freeman was a member of the Auckland-based jewellery co-operative Fingers between 1978 and 2003.[1]

In the early eighties, Freeman was a prominent member of a group of jewellers who began exploring the use of local materials in contemporary jewellery. Their work reflected a changing New Zealand cultural and political environment. “We were caught up in a historical moment triggered by the new Labour government,” Freeman recalls. “They declared us Nuclear Free, and started developing a foreign policy that was about living in the South Pacific as opposed to being an adjunct of Europe. Our work got swept up in it and adopted by locals as ‘emblematic’ in the way jewellery can.” [5]

Freeman was one of twelve jewellers selected for the landmark 1988 Bone Stone Shell exhibition, developed by New Zealand's Craft Council for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and shown in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.[6] In 2002, he received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award.[1] In the same year he was named 2002 Laureate by the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation, based at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.[1]

Freeman was the founding chair of Auckland contemporary craft and design gallery Objectspace, and in 2013 became a Governor of the New Zealand Arts Foundation.[7] In 2013 he was also the 'featured master' at the German contemporary jewellery festival Schmuck.[8]

In 2018 he designed a special brass pin which was released to coincide with a light show at St David's Memorial Church in Khyber Pass Road, Auckland for the Anzac Day commemorations; the pins were sold to raise funds for the preservation of the church.[9]

Curatorial projects

James Mack called Freeman "one of the guiding lights" behind the 1981 Paua Dreams exhibition, which was instrumental in elevating the status of paua shell from its association with the tourist market to a precious material in contemporary New Zealand jewellery.[10]

In 1983, Freeman and fellow jeweller Alan Preston were asked by Mack, then director of The Dowse Art Museum, to select items from the Auckland Museum's collection for a 1984 exhibition at The Dowse titled Pacific Adornment.[11]

In 2011 Freeman collaborated with Octavia Cook on the exhibition Eyecatch at Objectspace gallery in Auckland. The first photographic exhibition held at Objectspace, the show looked at the relationship between jewellery and photography.[12]

In 2014 Freeman co-curated Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery with Karl Fritsch, a touring exhibition of New Zealand jewellery that showed at Galerie Handwerk in Munich as part of the Schmuck festival, at The Dowse Art Museum, and at the Auckland Art Gallery in 2015 .[13] [14] [15]

Collections

His works are held various New Zealand and international collections, including at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Powerhouse Museum, the Neue Pinakothek, The Dowse Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[2] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

Further information

Interviews

Publications and articles on Freeman's work

Publications on contemporary jewellery

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Biography, Warwick Freeman - Jeweller. The Arts Foundation. 5 December 2014.
  2. Web site: Freeman, Warwick . . 13 December 2014.
  3. Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006, 6th edition (CD-ROM).
  4. Book: Schamroth. Helen. 100 New Zealand Craft Artists. 1998. Random House. Auckland. 1869620364. 27.
  5. Book: Stevens. Andrea. New Zealand contemporary jeweller, Warwick Freeman, on making meaning from ‘found’ objects. 2011. Indesign Media. Sydney. 199.
  6. Web site: Bone Stone Shell. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. 4 December 2014.
  7. Web site: Three new Governors. The Arts Foundation. 5 December 2014.
  8. Web site: Warwick Freeman. Art Jewelry Forum. 5 December 2014. 24 August 2013.
  9. Web site: 25 April 2018 . War show lights up historic St David's church . 2024-07-24 . NZ Herald . en-NZ.
  10. Mack. James. Warwick Freeman: Maker of Things. New Zealand Crafts. Autumn 1985. 10–11. 3 November 2015.
  11. Book: Skinner. Damian. Murray. Kevin. Place and Adornment: A history of contemporary jewellery in Australia and New Zealand. 2014. University of Hawai'i. Honolulu. 9781869538200. 141.
  12. Web site: Eye Catch:Jewellery and Photography. The See Here. 20 June 2015. 9 June 2011.
  13. Web site: Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery. The Dowse Art Museum. 5 December 2014.
  14. Web site: Wunderruma: New Zealand Jewellery. Auckland Art Gallery. 20 June 2015.
  15. Web site: Wunderrūma at AAG. 15 October 2015. 27 October 2015. EyeContact. Jameson. Emma.
  16. Web site: Warwick Freeman. The National. 17 March 2015.
  17. Web site: Warwick Freeman. Luminaries. 5 December 2014.
  18. Web site: Warwick Freeman. Stedelijk Museum. 17 March 2015.
  19. Web site: Collections Online - Made by: Warwick Freeman. Auckland Museum. 21 January 2022.
  20. Web site: The Family Jewels. Objectspace. 13 July 2015.
  21. Web site: The Family Jewels. The Dowse Art Museum. 6 February 2016.
  22. Web site: Prime. Gallery Funaki. 3 November 2015.
  23. Web site: Warwick Freeman. The National. 3 November 2015.
  24. Web site: The Bold and the Beautiful. The Dowse Art Museum. 20 June 2015.

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