Veronika Fabian - Exhibitions - Ornamentum Gallery, contemporary jewelry

Veronika Fabian’s work explores key societal issues of recent decades, filtering her observations through the lens of jewelry. Subverting our conventional understanding of well-known forms and meanings of jewelry, her work comments on the human condition with special emphasis on everyday life and personal identity.
Once Upon A Time is a continuation of Veronika’s series with chains speaking to the notion of identity in the modern world. While her previous Rebellious Chains (2017) were inspired by her own artistic journey towards jewelry, and Chains for an Average Woman (2018) highlighted the diverse roles society encourages in women, this newest body of work reflects on the identity crisis of our times.

Drawing parallels within her jewelry, she examines the connection between identity and sociocultural trends including access to information, social media and consumerism, all of which have a dubious effect on the freedom of our individuality.

This new body of work consists of large metal chains created from smaller ones, embodying a transition from the mass- produced to the hand- crafted. The materials are worked into new forms yet remain recognizable while random serial numbers and oversized hallmarks are arranged chaotically to embellish the surface. Veronika simultaneously celebrates and questions uniqueness over the output of mass- production. These embodied chains comment on the dilemmas of the 21st century, serving perhaps as wearable time capsules for future generations, telling a story about the milieu we live in today.

Veronika Fabian is a Hungarian jewelry artist based in London. Trained as a financial analyst, she gravitated toward jewelry after seven years in the financial sector. Fabian’s work is informed by her own journey from complex analysis to handcraft, economics to design.

With a master’s in economic policy, Fabian received her BA in Jewellery Design from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London in 2018 and MA from Sandberg Instituut, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2020. Her work investigates the impact of contemporary capitalism on daily life and personal identity, both of which play a vital role in her collections.

Fabian has received numerous awards including a Marzee Graduate prize, Cartier Scholarship, Swarovski ‘Power of Transformation’ prize and the MullenLowe NOVA, Unilever ‘Unstereotype’ Award. Her work has been exhibited internationally in shows and can be found in several public and private collections including the National Museum of Scotland, CODA Museum and the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation collection at the Stedelijk Museum.

Once Upon A Time is Veronika Fabian's first solo exhibition with Ornamentum.