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Auf der Spur
Solo Exhibition
Gollierplatz 14, Munich-Schwanthalerhöhe, Germany
Simone Maria Bartels, Ansicht 33.0, 2021, Silver. Photographer Simone Maria Bartels
Event duration: 13-16.03.2025, Thu-Sat 11:00-18:00, Sun 11:00-15:00
Throughout her solo exhibition “Auf der Spur” (On the Trail), Simone Maria Bartels’ jewellery work explores the concept of space and the possibilities of abstraction. The artist removes the crafted jewelry from its original context, presenting it as part of an image, a structure, or as pure graphic art. Inspired by the fate of her grandmother, she embarks on a search for what remains: traces.
Her interest lies in the effect created by jewellery embedded in a plastic, three-dimensional environment. She creates a space around it, giving the jewellery a counterpart through an imprint in another material, which is then placed in a display case. Removed from its setting and worn, the jewellery leaves a trace in the picture frame, symbolising how, in a metaphorical sense, everything leaves a trace.
As an architect, she places her jewellery within architectural surroundings, acting as a visual counterpart or companion to building lines, inserted into views and perspectives. When the small and the large are finally brought together through photography, they enter into a playful dialogue on the same level.
Additionally, she creates silvery drawings by framing her jewellery and displaying it as graphic works on the wall. Thus, the jewellery, detached from its original context, becomes an abstract object.
Simone Maria Bartels was born in Munich and studied architecture in Florence and Darmstadt, where she graduated with a diploma in 1995. Inspired by the process of creating architectural models, she further developed her skills to work with precious metals, creating unique jewellery.
Her work explores the concept of space in its broadest sense, examining the possibilities of abstraction. The artist removes jewellery from its conventional context, presenting it as part of an image, a structure, or as pure graphic form.
This interplay between crafted jewellery and the process of abstraction is the focus of her exploration, in her studios in Braunschweig and near Munich.