Alexander Blank

Artist in residence, Göteborg, March 1 – May 31, 2023

Alexander Blank is a contemporary jewellery artist based in Munich, Germany. He considers jewellery as a language through personal/social coding in public and his interest in this art form is beyond the classical representation of status and wealth or other expressions of human vanity. “Jewellery has a lot more to offer beside a confirmation of stereotypical role models. Since it is directly without compromise connected to the wearer it is very interesting in terms of participation – it becomes a communicator in the triad of maker, wearer and observer.” Alexander Blank asks himself what could, should or can be communicated today? And how can it be expressed through jewellery? This has science-fictional or utopian quality to him, to imagine how a change of physical appearance of a person by using other symbols and codings in jewellery could influence public life and human interactions. Privatly. Personally. Politically.

Photo: Barbara Posch

Alexander Blank

His most recent interest lays in the relationship between material and surface, more precisely in the expectations and irritations it causes and the symbolic values given to it. In his last works, Pile of Branches and En Vague 2, he started to play with digital images, printing them on synthetic material, using this as a surface on found objects. That kind of process was interesting to him and therefore demands a closer look and deeper investigation of its possibilities. Taking this as a starting point he would like to broaden his thoughts through research and experimentation, to clarify what it might be about and then find a focus, whilst staying open for unexpected changes.

Alexander Blank attended the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (2004-2010) and since then his work finds international recognition and he participated in several exhibitions, mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium, USA, Japan, Korea and Germany, and his first solo exhibition was in Gothenburg, Sweden (2010). Accompanying his art practice he is also interested in teaching and gave workshops and lectures in USA, Japan and Germany. He was a Co-Curator of the jewellery-collection at the Pinakothek der Moderne-the Design Museum, Munich (2020) He received international prices and the Herbert-Hoffmann-Price in 2012 and his works are featured in many private and public collections, including the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, the National Museum of Scotland, Edinborough (UK), the CODA Museum, Apeldoorn (NL), the Kestner Museum, Hanover (DE), the MAD Museum, New York (USA) and others.