Chus Bures: Portraits and Jewellery

Revealing the human dimension of Bures' jewels, and containing insights into the practices of a jewellery "maverick", whose work is equally visual and emotional.

Chus Burés creates miracles. Each piece of jewelry that emerges from his workshop boasts a complex genesis, stemming from an intersection between his genius-level thought processes and his maverick lifestyle. From exploring the versatility of buttons, to accentuating the geometric planes of the human body (Infinity Lines, 1990), and using minerals to emulate and exaggerate human features (seen in the striking ''Mae Nam'' Collection of 2000), Burés'' work is always perplexing, always stimulating, and always innovative. He refuses to be cowed by convention, and delights in challenging his clients and models. The bodily focus of his work makes every piece a startling, and often uncomfortable, insight into humanity.

Burés may be a maestro of metal - the gauzy chainmail-esque veils in his Crochet collection, 2000, attest to that. Yet he has mastered the emotional dimensions of his jewelry as well as its physical properties. The relationship between his pieces and the people who collect and cherish them is essential to his artistic praxis. In Chus Burés, Portraits & Jewellery (2016), this is realized through a series of intense portraits by Antoine d''Agata, Alberto García-Alix, and Andres Serrano. These pictures reveal a transgressive melding of jewel and subject: man becomes metal and metal becomes man. Watch ideas take on physical form, and immerse yourself in Burés'' world of wearable art.

Text in English, French, and Spanish.