Christie’s To Host Europe’s Largest Exhibition Of Wallace Chan’s Art

The colorful dreamlike world of Wallace Chan will be the focus of a 50-year retrospective dedicated to the contemporary artist’s high jewelry masterpieces and titanium sculptures.

Titled, “The Wheel of Time,” the exhibition will feature 150 jewelry creations and six titanium sculptures that represents the creative life of the renowned Hong Kong artist and craftsman. The free public exhibition will run September 4 – 10 at Christie’s King Street headquarters in London. The event represents the largest collection of Chan’s works in Europe and likely the largest in the world under one roof. It will also be the fifth time that Christie’s will host an exhibition of Chan’s creations.

“In the blink of an eye, a half a century has flown by,” Chan said. “Time is an eternal wheel that rotates for infinity with neither beginning nor end. In the creative process, time is a theme so intangible, yet omnificent.”

The exhibition will introduce previously unseen works as well as reflect upon Chan’s past accomplishments. Among the new creations is a shoulder brooch centered by the world’s largest known cut black diamond.

The exhibition serves as a metaphor for Chan’s labor-intensive working process with meticulous attention to detail. His art embraces traditional aspects of Chinese aesthetics, combined with respect for the intrinsic qualities of his working materials, the unique skill employed in carving them and the element of time involved in their creation.

“A deeply philosophical man, Wallace infuses his jewels with Oriental spiritualism,” said François Curiel, chairman, Christie’s Europe. “This is the motif which he spends his entire creative life interpreting and reinterpreting, experimenting with endless combinations of gemstones, mediums, styles, aesthetics, and executed in his world-renowned techniques.”

The 67-year-old artist and sculptor grew up in extreme poverty in Hong Kong. In 1973 at the age of 16 he began his career in jewelry and art as a gemstone carver. Because of this first job, he became one of a very few high jewelry artists to actually craft his own creations. Through his intense curiosity and his tireless work ethic, he created innovative techniques that took years to develop.

His first innovation was “The Wallace Cut” in 1987, a gem carving technique that produced an illusionary three-dimensional figure inside the gem. In Chan’s world, gemstones are alive. One way he put this belief into practice is through a patented luminosity-enhancing technique for jadeite that sends light racing and pulsating along the material’s surface. He placed the stone in contemporary designs, which is much different than the traditional designs used in Chinese culture.

Chan was a one of the first jewelers to use titanium for his works. The space-age metal with color-changing properties allowed him to create big, bold, colorful and highly complex jewels that were still comfortable to wear. He has said that the metal’s strength and durability allow his creations to last for generations.

It took seven years of research and experimentation for Chan to produce a porcelain that is unbreakable. The idea originated from a childhood incident where he accidentally broke a porcelain spoon. “The Wallace Chan Porcelain” he created is not only unbreakable but five times stronger than steel.

A highlight of the exhibition will be “Legend of the Color Black,” a shoulder brooch sculpture. Centered with the largest known cut black diamonds in the world, at 312.24 carats. It rests alongside silver-gray diamonds, crystal sapphire, black agate, titanium and the Wallace Chan Porcelain.

Another notable piece is The Joy of Life brooch, featuring one of Chan’s most important motifs, a colorful butterfly, comprised of pink sapphire, sapphire, tsavorite garnet, diamond, yellow diamond, pearl and titanium.

The majority of pieces on display are on loan from many of Chan’s international collectors.