©Jiro Kamata Studio, photo Ulrike Myrzik
Jiro Kamata is widely regarded as a leading figure in contemporary jewelry. Since 1998, his practice has played a significant role in shaping the field’s conceptual and material trajectories. Since 2008, his works have entered major institutional collections, and are now held in over twenty museums worldwide, including the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum. In 2023, Jiro Kamata was featured on the cover of Schmuck. His work has been exhibited extensively across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, with presentations in more than twenty international cities. A student of Otto Künzli, a pioneer of contemporary jewelry, Jiro Kamata extends the notion of jewelry as a critical and conceptual artistic language.
Central to his practice is the transformation of devices that capture images and register time — such as cameras and telescopes—into what he terms “optical gemstones.” Through this approach, Jiro Kamata redefines jewelry as a medium of perception, positioning the act of seeing itself as its primary subject, rather than treating form or symbolism as its endpoint. Drawing on principles of optical perception—whether in the observation of celestial phenomena or the recording of memory — Jiro Kamata has developed a highly distinctive and inimitable visual language. Consequently, his practice dismantles the conventional paradigm that equates the value of jewelry with the scarcity of its materials, arguing instead that true value resides in the perceptual experience and the embodied act of wearing. His work is frequently situated within a discourse of relational aesthetics, in which meaning is not fixed, but unfolds through the dynamic interplay between object, environment, light, movement, and the gaze of others.
Artist Background
Jiro Kamata was born into a family of traditional jewelers in Japan. From an early age, he found himself at odds with the conventional value system that privileges rarity in gemstones. This sense of resistance became a generative force in his artistic development. As a young student, he moved independently to Munich, Germany—widely recognized as a key locus for contemporary jewelry — where he has since established both his practice and his life.
Artwork Inspiration
Jiro Kamata's work is deeply informed by his experiences of traveling across diverse geographies, as well as by an enduring fascination with supernatural phenomena and anomalous celestial events. These encounters evoke an acute awareness of the vastness of the universe and the relative insignificance of human presence. His practice can be understood as an ongoing attempt to register and translate these elusive chromatic and perceptual experiences, often shaped by the optical devices and visual interfaces he has encountered at different stages of his life.
In his early Momentopia series, Jiro Kamata established his signature motif through camera lenses that evoke an abyssal gaze. The BI period was inspired by Kamata witnessing the sunset and rising moon positioned at opposite ends of the horizon in Chile, transforming a scene that could not originally coexist into an optical work where the two elements coexist and interdepend. The Holon series extends his understanding of the coexistence between the whole and its parts. Through the process of vacuum deposition combined with optical refraction, he enables concave and convex lenses to present three-dimensional holographic projections. These works simultaneously record the reflection of the environment and mirror the wearer, expressing how an individual can be both complete in oneself and part of a larger whole. During the Oculus phase, Jiro Kamata was deeply moved by the oculus of the Pantheon, conceived as a threshold between the divine and the human, which led to the development of looping, circular light experiences. Finally, in the Celestial Eyes (CE) phase, his experience of witnessing the curved horizon at high latitudes led to a profound realization of Earth as a sphere within a larger cosmic sphere. This insight prompted him to synthesize two decades of optical exploration into the creation of his first original lens, based on the dual-axis refraction principles of astronomical telescopes.
The Celestial Eyes optical gemstones mark a pivotal milestone in Jiro Kamata’s artistic journey. By merging archetypal ancient symbols with futuristic fluorescent luminosity, he constructs a unique visual experience that compresses the perception of time itself.
｜Biography｜
1978 Born in Hirosaki, JAPAN - lives and works in Munich, GERMANY
1996-98 Yamanashi Institute of Gemology and Jewelry Art, Kofu, JAPAN
1998-99 Hochschule für Gestalltung Pforzheim with Prof. Rudolf Bott and Prof. Johanna Dahm, GERMANY
2000-06 Academy of Fine Arts Munich with Prof.Otto Künzli, GERMANY
2004-06 Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, GERMANY, and obtained a diploma.
2005 Studio in Munich
2009-15 Artistic assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, department of jewelry, GERMANY
｜Selected Exhibition｜
2025 CELESTIAL EYES, ALIEN Art Centre, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
2024 HOLOCULUS, Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
2022 THREE WORLDS, ATTA Gallery, Bangkok, THAILAND
2021 HOLON, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2021 HOPE, ALIEN Art Centre, with Caroline Halley, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
2021 HOLON, galley deux poissons, Tokyo, JAPAN
2021 HOLON, ornamentum galley, Hudson/ NY, USA
2021 VOICES, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2020 VOICES, Bayerischer Kunstgewerbe Verein, Munich, Germany
2019 EXTENDED DEFINITION, Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Australia
VOICES, ALIEN Art Centre, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2018 BATTLE OF MAGENTA, With Noon Passama, super+ CENTERCOUT, Munich, Germany
EXPOSITION, Galerie Bijouterie Jungblut, Luxembourg
MOTHER, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017 EMERGE, Galerie Beyond, Antwerp, Belgium
GHOST, Galerie Biró, Munich, Germany
GHOST, OONA Galerie, Berlin, Germany
MULTIPLE-SOLO, Multiple, Hasselt, Belgium
2016 FLARE, Collective Design Fair with Ornamentum gallery, New York City, USA
FLARE, ATTA gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
JIRO KAMATA, Four gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
GHOST, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2016 FLARE, Collective Design Fair with Ornamentum gallery, New York City, USA
FLARE, ATTA gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
JIRO KAMATA, Four gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
GHOST, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2015 DARK TO LIGHT TO DARK. Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Australia
AROUND A ND AROUND. Villa Bengel, Idar-Oberstein, Germany
BORDER. Klimt02 gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2014 BI, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
BI, O-Jewel, Tokyo, Japan
2013 ARBORESQU, Galeria Nudo, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
BI, OONA Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2012 ARBORESQU, gallery vivekkevin, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
ARBORESQU, Gallery Pascale, Stockholm, Sweden
2011 ARBORESQU, SOFA New York by Ornamentum gallery, USA
ARBORESQU, galerie viceversa, Lausanne, Switzerland
ARBORESQU, O-Jewel, Tokyo, Japan
2010 MOMENTOPIA, Galería Mexicana de Diseño, Mexico City, Mexico
MOMENTOPIA, Galerie Bijouterie Jungblut, Luxembourg
ARBORESQU, Galerie Biró, Munich, Germany
2009 MOMENTOPIA, Galerie Rob Koudijs, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ZEITFASSUNGEN. With Bettina Speckner, Eva Maisch Schmuck, Würzburg, Germany
MOMENTOPIA, Hnoss gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
2008 MOMENTOPIA, Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau, Germany
MOMENTOPIA, Klimt02 gallery, Barcelona,Spain
MOMENTOPIA, OONA Galerie, Berlin, Germany
MOMENTOPIA, O-Jewel, Tokyo, Japan
FULL DUPLEX, With Stefan Heuser, Ornamentum gallery, Hudson, USA
THINGS OF VALUE, Harappa gallery, Hirosaki, Japan
2006 EXTROVERT, Diploma Exhibition. Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany
EXTROVERT, O-Jewel, Tokyo, Japan
2005 BLENDABLE, OONA Galerie, Berlin, Germany Dunstkreis #3: Cultural Supermarket With Akira Onishi, Pestalozzistraße 24, Munich, Germany
｜Awards｜
1998 Excellence Prize, Asahi Modern Craft Exhibition, JAPAN
2003 Jury Prize, Itami Internation Craft Exhibition, JAPAN
2006 City of Goldsmith Award, City of Hanau, GERMANY
2011 Förderpreis Award, City of Munich, GERMANY
2017 Bavarian Studio Grant Program for Artists, Munich, GERMANY
2019 Sponsorship Award from Prinzregent-Luotpold Stiftung, Munich, GERMANY
｜Museum Collection｜
Die Neue Sammlung—The Design Museum,Munich, GERMANY
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, GERMANY
Art+Plus Museum, Donaueschingen, GERMANY
Jakob Bengel-Stiftung, Idar-Oberstein, GERMANY
Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo, JAPAN
Swiss National Museum, Basel, SWITZERLAND
Espace Solidor Musée du Bijou, Cagnes-sur-Mer, FRANCE
Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, USA
Legnica Art Gallery, POLAND
Françoise van den Bosch Foundation, Amsterdam,
NETHERLANDS
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam,NETHERLANDS
ALIEN Art Centre, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, GERMANY
Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Grassi Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Leipzig,GERMANY
Publication
2025.01.10-2026.04.30
2021.07.13 - 2022.03.27
2019.10.04-2020.08.27