Gijs Bakker b. 1942

Gijs Bakker uses the medium of jewelry as a means to explore contemporary notions of aesthetics, material, value, and historicism. Using humor and irony, Bakker, who also designs furniture, lighting and exhibitions, attacks traditional approaches to jewelry as beautifying adornment and the eminence of craftsmanship. Along with gold and precious stones, Bakker incorporates photography to great effect, at times presenting not jewelry, but conceptual caricatures of what we expect jewelry to be. Bakker studied industrial design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and is also known for being a founding member of the influential Dutch design collective Droog, for which he was the head art director until 2009. He is also a respected professor and his works are held in collections including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.