Peter Bauhuis

Peter Bauhuis is fascinated by the possibilities presented by cast metals. His jewellery and vessels are characterised by engaging with the process of casting and melting metals. By playfully oxidising gold, silver and copper, he achieves unexpected colours from matt white and pale green-yellow to deep orange and dark red. The wax rendering process also opens up a wide range of possibilities. He keeps reinventing forms that are seemingly very simple. Apparent casting mistakes, such as fine lines or cracks and visible traces left by the casting process, are not removed but are integrated into the form of the objects. The result is a lightness which is remarkable for metal and its materiality.

Peter Bauhuis was born in 1965 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. He studied at Staatliche Zeichenakademie, Hanau and Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. His work is represented in Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Okresni muzeum Ceskeho raje Turnov; Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Basel; Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. In 2011 he won the Bavarian Sate Award for his vessels. He lives and works in Munich. In 2013 Bauhuis won the 17th Silver Triennial in Hanau and became artist in residence at Artkommunalka Kolomna, Russia.

His work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Die Neue Sammlung, Munich; Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Alice and Louis Koch Collection, Basel; Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; and National Museum, Oslo.

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.