Gdańsk Jewellery Week 2026: Unnecessary Jewellery Exhibition at Heweliusza 31

On October 3, the opening of the Unnecessary Jewellery exhibition will take place at the headquarters of the International Amber Association. It is another attraction of this year's Gdańsk Jewellery Week.

The name Unnecessary Jewellery refers to the merely apparent superfluousness of jewelry, which in essence has remained a strong sign of identity and a means of self-expression for thousands of years. The exhibition presents works by 20 artists from Poland, Austria, Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, Mexico and South Korea, who interpreted the title theme in their own characteristic ways, using goldsmithing and non-goldsmithing techniques – always with attention to the smallest detail.

For the Second Time

This is the second edition of a recurring project organized since 2025. In 2026, in a new form, it debuted at the Inhorgenta Munich trade fair, and then appeared in the prestigious Frame section at the Handwerk & Design fair in Munich and at the Pokój Śniadań gallery in Warsaw. The exhibition at the headquarters of the International Amber Association is another opportunity to present to a wide audience this year's selection, which includes more than 100 jewelry objects – items for everyday and unusual use whose value will not fade with time.

In Search of a New Audience...

Unnecessary Jewellery is an open curatorial project that seeks, to an equal degree, high-quality works of jewelry art that are representative on a global scale (the authors of the objects are established makers honored at international competitions), as well as a new audience and opportunities to present to a public beyond the narrow circle of specialists and enthusiasts of this niche field.

...and New Spaces for Experimentation

Author jewelry, situated on the border of art, craft and design, is today looking for new spaces for experimentation in form, technique and material, and, in terms of narrative, for a point of departure both in universal matters and in the problems of everyday life. Jewelry becomes a medium that, despite its small size, contains a range of content – from personal stories to the spectrum of problems faced by today's world. At the same time, unlike other fields of contemporary art, it uses a language of symbols and meanings drawn from a centuries-old tradition of body adornment.

Quality of Execution and Usability

The shape of the exhibition reflects the diversity of ways of thinking about body adornment – it includes examples of sculptural and constructional jewelry, figurative brooches, and objects that serve as a critical message about the reality around us. In the colorful mosaic of several dozen works, the criteria of quality of execution and usability sound out unanimously. As a whole, the exhibition is a strong alternative to the unified aesthetics of mainstream jewelry.

Jewelry, Now

The curators of the exhibition: Prof. Sławomir Fijałkowski, Arek Wolski and Anna Wójcik-Korbas believe that, with the growth of interest in the applied arts (including textiles, glass and ceramics) observed in recent years, the time has come for jewelry.

Exhibition participants: Marcin Bogusław, Bogumił Bytomski, Norman Cherry, Bartosz Maria Chmielewski, Alberto Dávila, Sławomir Fijałkowski, Jolanta Gazda, Martyna Golińska, Eero Hintsanen, Paweł Kaczyński, Małgorzata Kalińska, Orsolya Karman, Jarosław Kolec, Adriana Lisowska, Konstanze Prechtl, Krzysztof Roszkiewicz, Anna Sikorska, Rose Stach, Gisbert Stach, Youjin Um, Arek Wolski.

More information:
email: unnecessaryjewellery@gmail.com

Photo: International Amber Association / Unnecessary Jewellery

Unnecessary Jewellery Exhibition
International Amber Association
ul. Heweliusza 31, 80-861 Gdańsk
Opening: October 3, 2026, 7 p.m.
www: https://www.amber.org.pl
email: office@amber.org.pl