During my five years in New York, with the Swedish Consulate General Residence at 600 Park Avenue as a base, I had the occasion to use my esthetic expression for what Sweden wants to communicate.
It was about selecting interior furnishings, art and design to underscore Sweden’s position as the spearhead of IT and design. We entertained up to 5,000 Americans, at home, each year. I used my new Swedish jewelry to awaken curiosity and give rise to conversations and questions.
That I displayed Swedish jewelry led to my being asked to curate an exhibition at the Armory, Park Avenue, for the Bard Graduate Center within the framework of the International Art + Design Fair 2005.
The exhibition was titled “Contemporary Swedish Silver: New Approaches to an Enduring Tradition of Craft and Design”. Bodil Karlsson who had done the large drapery sculpture at 600 Park, framed the exhibition with her beautiful pleats. Jewelry by Pia Aleborg, Sofia Björkman, Jenny Edlund, Auli Laitinen, Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding and Annika Åkerfeldt and others was shown.
Art critic Ken Johnson wrote in the New York Times:
”The one of a kind works on display are notable by contrast
to the severity of high Modernist Swedish Design for sensuous,
playful and surrealistic qualities.”
Above: Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding
Above: Jenny Edlund
