Hans Stofer

Hans Stofer (1957, CH) lives and works in London. Trained as a precision engineer before entering the Zurich School of Art, where he studied jewellery and design. In 1984 he set up his first studio in Zurich. In 1987 he moved to London. From 2006 til 2017 he was appointed Professor of Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery at the Royal College of Art, London. Later from 2017 till 2023 Stofer was appointed Professor of Jewellery at the Burg Giebichenstein, University of Art and Design Halle, Germany.

Recent projects and exhibitions have included: Walk the Line, Gallery SO, London; Straw Dogs, Spring Project, London; Causing Chaos, Fife Contemporary Art & Craft, St Andrews Museum; Thing Tang Trash - Upcycling in Contemporary Ceramics, West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, Bergen; The Nature Of Things, New Art Centre, Roche Court, UK and Beautiful Objects, The Aram Gallery, London.

He has work in a variety of public collections, including: V&A Museum, London; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Danner Stiftung, Munich; MUDAC, Lausanne; Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zurich; Louis Koch Collection; Crafts Council Collection, London.

PRESS:

Hans Stofer, How Long is a Piece of String?, Crafts Magazine, 2014

To coincide with the Design Museum's survey show Unexpected Pleasures: The Art and Design of Contemporary Jewellery, GALLERY S O London presents Chamber of Wonder.

While the term 'cultural resistance' has become synonymous with the world of social sciences in the 1970s, new energies emerged elsewhere. From the sub, counter and resistance cultures exciting developments in contemporary jewellery blossomed and a fresh identifiable movement among designers and makers of the day was born. The work asked questions about the cultural meanings of gender, material value and the intimate relationship between the object and body. Wearable pieces were made to rethink social rituals and stereotypes and queried the notion of how and why we adorn ourselves.

Following in the spirit of this movement Chamber of Wonder shows the work of current designer makers united by their irreverence of traditional notions of luxury jewellery and a curiosity for reinterpreting objects found and fashioned to wear. From Bernhard Schobinger's choker of hexagon rock crystal slabs linked with fine gold to Hans Stofer's renovated skipping rope necklace with timeworn handles, or David Bielander's silky, silver garlic bulb pendant, the works in the show celebrate the diverse expressions of the genre and offer fresh alternatives to the 'proper' function of jewellery.