A Moveable Feast
Taiwanese jewellery artist Cindy Chao continues to entice art lovers with her latest museum-calibre creations
Pink and purple sapphires are folded into diamond-dusted creases, knotted with rubies and glittering garnets. Fixed onto an anodised titanium frame less than 1mm thick, these stunning stones are wrapped into the shape of a decorative ribbon which glistens like silk with even the slightest movement from the wearer. Designed by Cindy Chao The Art Jewel, this is the 2022 Black Label Masterpiece VI Rosé Ribbon brooch, which stole the show at this year’s Masterpiece London.
To celebrate the art fair’s return after two years of pandemic-induced postponement, Cindy Chao The Art Jewel collaborated with Dutch architect Tom Postma to craft a “mobile museum” for her works. Postma is famous for designing the dark, dramatic interior of the prestigious Tefaf Maastricht art fair, where Chao has exhibited over the past three years. His talent ensured that the jeweller’s six latest Black Label Masterpieces were presented in style.
Each of her Black Label Masterpieces takes up to 10,000 hours of work to complete, in part because of her passion for a centuries-old wax-sculpting technique that results in free-flowing shapes.
Other highlights of the exhibition included the organically inspired Morning Dew earrings, featuring 14 Columbia emeralds and layers of bluish-green sapphires that depict Chao’s interpretation of the titular drops of water on climbing vines of ivy. Chao has additionally expanded her more accessible White Label Collection, which was on display alongside her signature Four Seasons and Rose collections.
Not that Chao needs help getting noticed—her Peony brooch was awarded “Outstanding Object” by the Masterpiece 2018 Awards Committee. Her Winter Leaves necklace won the Masterpiece London Highlight Award the following year and she won the “Precious Stone” category in 2021. Just a few months later, Chao became the first Asian jewellery artist to be appointed a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature), one of France’s highest artistic honours, by the French government.
The arts run in Chao’s blood: her father was a prominent sculptor, while her grandfather was a much celebrated architect who designed temples across Taiwan. Picking up where they left off, Chao has worked to unite east and west by combining elements of Asian contemporary art with European craftsmanship.