Traditionally in October we meet at the Romanian Jewelry Week, the largest and most important event dedicated to authorial, conceptual, and experimental jewellery art in Romania. It brings together artists, collectors, critics, curators, and institutions, showcasing current trends and promoting innovation. For many years, Justyna Teodorczyk has supported the festival as a jury member. This year, she awarded a solo exhibition during the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2027 to Kaori Juzu.
Juzu is an eternal islander – a Japanese goldsmith living on Bornholm, considered one of Denmark’s Baltic pearls. Drawing from her dual cultural identity, the artist achieves an almost perfect balance between the refinement of Japanese craftsmanship and the minimalist aesthetics of Danish design. Her enamelled treasures are often described as microrevelations. Insights into how Juzu thinks about her work, how she achieves the effect of moonlight reflected on water, and how her objects enter into dialogue with space to create new rhythms can already be found on our Facebook and Instagram. In 2027, we will see her microrevelations – and meet the artist herself – in Legnica.
We are also pleased to announce that, following our presence in Bucharest, Andreia Gabriela Popescu – a prominent figure in the world of contemporary jewellery and a curator and educator of Romanian Jewelry Week – will visit Legnica in 2026. Popescu will be a juror for the upcoming EVERY BODY competition.
October in the world of contemporary jewellery also means Milano Jewelry Week. Milan brings together designers, artists, collectors, galleries, art schools, and jewellery enthusiasts, celebrating history, tradition, and modernity in goldsmithing. During this exceptional event, Justyna Teodorczyk, as a jury member, presented two prizes. The first – a solo exhibition during the Legnica Jewellery Festival Silver in 2027 – was awarded to Francesca di Virgilio.
The Italian artist perceives her many years of work in the medium of jewellery as the creation of narratives, deep relationships, and records of memory. Each of her objects begins with a spark of inspiration, often triggered by encountering a beautiful object that tells its own story – for example, an antique cameo bearing traces of a life lived before ours.
The second prize, in the form of promotion through the Festival’s social media channels, was awarded to Jennifer Younger. Káakaxaawulga (her tribal name, which she uses) grew up in Yakutat, Alaska, and currently lives in Sitka. She comes from a Native North American community and, in her work, addresses her lost heritage, speaking out as an Indigenous artist. For over 20 years, she has combined the aesthetics of Tlingit formline (a traditional visual language of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America) with contemporary sensitivity and design.
Another important event of this year – this time attended virtually – was the Cluster London Fairs, presenting works by independent illustrators, craftspeople, photographers, visual artists, and jewellery designers. During the fair, Justyna Teodorczyk awarded her prize in the form of a solo exhibition at the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2027. The award went to Sara Ortuzar.
Ortuzar, based in Bilbao, works at the intersection of sculpture and contemporary jewellery, pushing the boundaries of classical jewellery and creating her own hybrid artistic language. She combines goldsmithing techniques with sculptural processes and experiments with materials and 3D technologies. In her work, she explores natural phenomena and processes of transformation –crumbling, melting, and the tension between light and matter. Her jewellery often takes the form of miniature sculptures, created through the fusion of traditional craftsmanship, modern technologies, and sustainable materials. Her work has been presented at institutions such as, at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, the Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum in Getaria, Spain, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Soon, her work will be presented in a solo exhibition during the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2027.
The three awards presented this year announce three solo exhibitions at the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER 2027. In the meantime, our daily work is filled with preparations for more than a dozen exhibitions and events, including the 34th International Jewellery Competition under the theme EVERY BODY!
