Exhibitions - WELFE

2182

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I’m so tired, but I love you. 2019

E.G. Etal Gallery / Melbourne / July 24th – August 10th 2019

This wide-ranging series of kindred works was made during the artist’s first
year as a father.
Utilising found objects from both his own childhood and his son’s, Bowyer
intersplices wood, rubber, plastic and steel with his more
traditional palette of bronze, silver, gold, gems and pearls.
The resulting jewellery pieces are playful, colourful, yet deeply personal.
Interconnected with fragments of his own childhood memories, Welfe
presents a wonderland of intriguing and wearable objects that speak to our
intuitive desire to re-connect with our inner child.

Presented as part of Craft Cubed.

MARI FUNAKI AWARD 2018

Gallery Funaki / Melbourne / August 15th – September 15th 2018

2C = Twice Cast. A small series of rings that play with common metal alloys in multiple combinations. The idea was to utilise the ‘eroded’ texture that I create by hand as a structural joint. A mechanical bind between two elements that have varying strength, conductivity and patina. Each is ring is cast in two stages. First the metal outer is cast and left to harden, then a second liquid metal is poured inside, solidifying and hardening against each bump and crevice. Interior vs exterior materials are revealed or concealed by the wearer vs the onlooker. However these works are not in a finished state. Within each piece a dialogue forms between the two materials that evolves over time as they are worn and affected by outside elements. Materials will age and erode at different rates, perhaps eventually revealing the design that keeps them together.

OFFCUTS

Precinct 35 Gallery / Wellington / 2017

This series of works brings together fragments taken from past projects and composes their layered histories into new sculptural and wearable forms. Fractured, melted together and cast by Welfe, the objects in Offcuts physically bear the marks of their manufacture and construction through solder spots, patinas and rough carved surfaces. Less visible but equally present in their materiality are the memories and multiple stories imbued in the objects. Failed prototypes, changes in direction, long conversations, fragments of different creative processes. Recast and recomposed. Offcuts collages together many different temporal and historical paradoxes in a series of new ruins.

Inimitable

E.G. Etal Gallery / Melbourne / 2017

“Defined by the spark of the unpredictable, in an era where everything seems to be replicated at a global level, this exhibition showcases artists who have developed processes that rely on the beauty of intentional randomness. Through years of research and practice, these artists have developed their own unique approach to the crafting of special jewellery pieces.

In each case, the artist is taking a chance. The skilled hand of a jeweller stewards the piece, but at a certain point fate takes over, creating a one of a kind object that – by its very nature – can never be exactly replicated”

For this exhibition I have employed an experimental ‘double casting’ method that fuses metals together without solder, highlighting the material differences within the object.

Microlith (Part II)

E.G. Etal Gallery / Melbourne / 2016

A series of experiments that explore the interaction of process and material. Microlith (Part II) is an exhibition of wearable sculptures and tiny monuments that stand as testament to the expansive reach of endless time.

Building on ideas developed in his New Zealand exhibition Microlith (Part I), Welfe looks beyond the beauty of a finished piece of jewellery, embracing the effects of process and material properties. Rather than achieving the polished and perfected amalgamation of materials that defines traditional jewellery work, these objects reveal how they were heated, cast, burned,distorted and fused together.

Jewellery Here & Now

National Gallery of Victoria / Melbourne / 2016

Explore the process, design and materials used to make local jewellery in a conversation with contemporary designers Melanie Katsalidis, Director and Founder, Pieces of Eight Gallery, Adrian Lewis of Adrian Lewis Jewellery and Welfe Bowyer, founder of Welfe.

Melanie Katsalidis is the director and founder of Pieces of Eight which she established in 2005. Her work is held by many private collections and is often commission based. Adrian Lewis’s work is commissioned based. he works with precious stones and creates bespoke pieces. Welfe Bowyers jewellery label, Welfe specialises in unique handmade contemporary jewellery. His work focuses on texture and materiality.

Rarer Than Diamonds

E.G. Etal Gallery / Melbourne / 2016

A diamond’s ‘flaws’ are its unique fingerprint. They are remnants of the incredible forces of nature, over millions of years, that created the stone. For this exhibition, e.g.etal artists present jewellery that celebrates the incredible natural formation that is a diamond, in all its forms: from traditional brilliant white to black, brown, uncut, reclaimed, icy, and other variations. Each artist has created something of uncommon beauty: a piece that gives a sense of rarity to the most ubiquitous of stones.

Microlith (Part I)

Precinct 35 Gallery / Wellington / 2016

“Like a human arbiter of shape and scale, Welfe Bowyer conjures momentary monuments hewn from metals that pre-date human existence and will long outlive our entire species. Enriched with the vast history of time, orchestrated by the soft organic manipulation of his own skills and imbued with the entropic fate of its own eventual demise, each piece in Microlith is a testament of materiality, process and property. They remind us of the very earliest beginnings, the human capacity to affect change, and the expansive reach of endless time.” -Kent Wilson / Artist, Curator & Writer