Up In Smoke
Contemporary Jewelers, Silversmiths and Designers Take On Marijuana
January 16 – February 21, 2021
Ralph Bakker, Revelry 3, 2020, necklace, gold, silver, enamel, 23.5 L x 1.5 x .75 "
(Inv# 7178)
Ralph Bakker, Revelry 4, 2020, necklace, gold, silver, enamel, gold leaf, 24.5 L x 1.375 x .675 "
(Inv# 7179)
Ralph Bakker, Revelry 11, 2020, earrings, gold, silver, enamel
Sold
Ralph Bakker, Sticks, 2016, earrings, gold, tantalum, argentum
Ralph Bakker, necklace, 2019, gold, silver, enamel
Ralph Bakker, Bamboo, 2016/2019, earrings, gold, silver, enamel
Ralph Bakker, PatternMagic Necklace, 2014, gold, silver, niello, gold leaf
Bonding 2, 2017, necklace, gold, tantalum, gold leaf
Ralph Bakker, Bonding 1, 2016, bracelet, gold, silver, enamel
Sharp , 2012, earrings, gold, silver, niello
Yin Yang 2, 2018, necklace, gold, silver, enamel
Spring, 2017, bracelet, gold, silver, enamel
Spring, 2017, necklace, gold, silver, enamel
Ear jewels, 2015, earrings, gold, argentium
Born in 1958, Ralph Bakker is a Dutch jeweler based in Rotterdam. He attended the Dutch Intermediate Technical School in Schoonhoven, the Netherlands from 1986 to 1991 before enrolling at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1991 to 1994. Since then he has been active as a studio jeweler, exhibiting his work extensively internationally. Ralph Bakker’s work is featured in numerous renowned public and private collections, including the Newark Museum of Art, the Koch Collection in Switzerland and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
My work needs to be worn and whoever is wearing the piece in turn gives meaning to the work. Jewelry becomes an intricate part of one’s own intimate mythology. How then, can they still be mine?
I want to seduce with my jewelry, my work is seduction; and when the seduction is achieved, the seduced can never be without the object of desire. The greatest compliment.