2021 Catalogue Archive

Japanese artist Asagi Maeda illustrates stories of everyday life in her jewelry. She beautifully crafts miniature vignettes of small human figures doing daily activities. By wearing a piece of Maeda’s jewelry, you participate in these tiny strangers’ world. You begin to wonder what they are like, and you find yourself thinking and feeling with them. Maeda has created one of these microcosms in her ring, Poolside. Here, the viewer must look beneath the ring’s turquoise swimming pool surface to find a little silver figure. They are suspended upside down, as if they’ve just stood up from the poolside chair and taken a dive into the water. Maeda, based in Tokyo, holds a BFA in sculpturing from Tokyo Zokei University along with degrees in gemology from the Gemological Institute of America and in jewelry making from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Since 2007, she has been lecturing on jewelry making at Jyoshibi University of Art and Design. Maeda has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Japan and all over the United States. Her work is in private and public collections around the world, including the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.