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Visiting Artist Series

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Visiting Artist: Daniela Malev

EVENT LOCATION:
Bell Auditorium

EVENT DATE & TIME
March 14, 2026 8:05 am

Event Details

There two lectures in this series:

Lecture 1: The History of Brooches from Bronze Age to Contemporary Art

Wednesday, September 24 – 6pm
Bell Auditorium
Open to the public

The lecture takes the audience on a condensed journey throughout 5000 years of history and development of the brooch: from its early Bronze Age forms as a fibula, through the era of medieval breast pins and baroque Sévigné-brooches to the political and social statements of buttons and badges in the 1960s and finally to the brooch as one category of contemporary jewellery. The aim of this lecture is: to realize the roots and different stages of function, meaning and symbolism of the brooch and to point out why it is important to integrate backside and pin mechanism into the overall design of brooches in contemporary art jewellery.

Lecture 2: Connections in the Context of Contemporary Jewellery Design

Thursday, October 2 – 12pm
The Institute (location TBC)
Open to the public

This lecture looks on the subject of connections with the eye of a jeweller, but encourages a broader perspective onto the cosmos of connections surrounding us in daily use objects and also in a wider sense. A connection serves the purpose of making two or more separate details become a part of a bigger union. Connections can be mechanical, chemical, biological, social, philosophical or metaphysical. There are many different types of connections: fixed and mobile, material and immaterial, rational and emotional, reversible and irreversible, direct and indirect, visible and invisible. In jewellery we work with lots of connections: “hot“ connections like soldering, welding or casting and “cold“ connections using rivets, screws and nails or we can glue or stitch things together; we connect loops into each other, make connections through slots or close necklaces by hook and eye, but there are also contextual or formal aesthetic connections in the composition of jewellery pieces. This lecture is an invitation to consciously look around and find inspiring ways of connections.

About the Artist

Daniela Malev is a jeweller and teacher. Trained as a goldsmith in her hometown Dresden, Germany, she also holds a Master Craftman´s Certificate for Gold- and Silversmithing and studied Jewellery Design at Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau. She concluded her formal studies with a BA and MFA degree in Gemstone and Jewellery Design at the University of Applied Sciences Trier/Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Her jewellery work is inspired by a sense of order behind all things. Her jewellery pieces are made of contrasting materials and complementary elements and aspects which become a unity. Daniela Malev has travelled a lot and likes to gather and exchange ideas and knowledge. She has lived, worked and studied abroad in the USA, Mexico and Italy. Apart from her mother language German, she speaks fluent English and Spanish. One of her special fields of interest are brooch backs and pin mechanisms and their integration into the design of the whole brooch. She is convinced that mechanism and attachment of a brooch hold a tremendous potential for the design of a brooch in its entirety and need to be developed with equal importance. She has been invited internationally to give workshops and lectures on this subject. Her workshops initiate and encourage a conscious approach to the design of the brooch back and its mechanisms. The fact that there is a great interest in this field, but hardly any literature, inspired her to publish the book “To The Point – pin mechanisms and brooch back design”.