07 Mar 2025
Opening on 14 March 2025, acclaimed Aotearoa New Zealand jeweller Warwick Freeman will be the focus of a major international exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum in Munich, Germany. Titled Hook Hand Heart Star, this exhibition is the most comprehensive survey of Freeman’s career to date.
Curated by Dr Petra Hölscher (Senior Curator, Die Neue Sammlung), Kim Paton (Director, Objectspace), and Dr Bronwyn Lloyd (Curator, Objectspace), Hook Hand Heart Star explores Freeman’s distinctive approach to emblematic jewellery, presenting works from public and private collections across Europe, Australia, and Aotearoa, alongside pieces from his own archive.
Freeman’s exhibition is part of a significant New Zealand presence at Munich Jewellery Week 2025, with other leading contemporary jewellers Neke Moa, Stevei Houkāmau, Sofia Tekela-Smith and Moniek Schrijer also delivering projects as part of Munich Jewellery Week. This marks a defining moment for New Zealand’s craft and object sector on the global stage.
Creative New Zealand (CNZ) has provided major support, including $60,000 via the International Market Development for Craft Object and $23,000 through the International Presenters Fund to support New Zealand artists with freight, travel, and accommodation. Additional investment through CNZ’s Creative Impact Fund and Arts Grants have supported Warwick Freeman and Moniek Schrijer’s exhibitions – including her solo exhibition at Museum Mineralogia München, A Hologram of a Diamond.
Exhibition journey and international impact
Hook Hand Heart Star will be presented at Die Neue Sammlung within the Pinakothek der Moderne from 15 March – 15 June 2025, aligning with Munich Jewellery Week, the world’s most prestigious platform for contemporary jewellery. The exhibition will then travel to Objectspace in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in November 2025 before showing at The Dowse Art Museum in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt in July 2026. The exhibition is accompanied by a major monograph published by arnoldsche Art Publishers. Objectspace was nominated by Warwick Freeman as the Aotearoa partner for this exhibition and book, and has worked closely with Die Neue Sammlung and arnoldsche over the last three years towards this project – fostering new international connections for the Aotearoa jewellery field.
With Hook Hand Heart Star, Freeman’s work will reach new international audiences, naturally drawing attention to New Zealand’s jewellery makers within this global context.
In 2025 a considerable number of New Zealand based jewellers across the motu will partake in Munich Jewellery Week, including:
- Fran Allison
- Paul Annear
- Vanessa Arthur
- Richard Bell
- Pauline Bern
- Renee Bevan
- Becky Bliss
- Kobi Bosshard
- Vernon Bowden
- Jose Bribiesca
- Trevor Byron
- Chris Charteris
- Octavia Cook
- Andrea Daly
- Peter Deckers
- Jane Dodd
- Sharon Fitness
- Warwick Freeman
- Karl Fritsch
- Phillipa Gee
- Stacy Gordine
- Jack Hadley
- Jason Hall
- Niki Hastings-McFall
- Stevei Houkāmau
- Louisa Humphrey
- Rangi Kipa
- Jennifer Laracy
- Lupe Mahe
- Ross Malcolm
- Gina Matchitt
- Kelly McDonald
- Craig McIntosh
- Neke Moa
- Brendon Monson
- Tamaea Nanton
- Shelley Norton
- Rowan Panther
- Molima Pihigia
- Alan Preston
- Moniek Schrijer
- Joe Sheehan
- Elfi Spiewack
- Frances Stachl
- Mia Straka
- Kereama Taepa
- Tanuvasa Esekia Taituave
- Suzanne Tamaki
- Chloe Rose Taylor
- Sofia Tekela-Smith
- Caroline Thomas
- Grant Thompson
- Nina van Duijnhoven
- Lisa Walker
- Sarah Walker-Holt
- Raewyn Walsh
- Kaetaeta Watson
- Rohan Wealleans
- Areta Wilkinson
- Matthew McIntyre Wilson
- Grace Yu-Piper
- Keri-Mei Zagrobelna
Key sector figures will also be on the ground advocating for Aotearoa jewellery, including representatives from Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, The Dowse Art Museum, dealer galleries, and Objectspace as the national leadership organisation for the Craft Object discipline.
About Warwick Freeman
Freeman is renowned for his exploration of emblems, building a visual vocabulary of signs over five decades—his pieces transform familiar forms like the four-pointed star and the heart into powerful, wearable symbols. Drawing from New Zealand’s landscape, history, and cultural identity, Freeman’s work speaks to who we are and how we live, turning jewellery into a badge of meaning.
His deep engagement with materials and place is central to his practice. From volcanic scoria from Rangitoto Island to objects found in everyday life, Freeman’s work reflects the layered history of Aotearoa, engaging with both its geology and its colonial past. His jewellery is an ongoing exploration of identity—small in scale but vast in meaning.
The exhibition’s title, Hook Hand Heart Star, takes inspiration from one of Freeman’s earliest emblematic works—his 1987 four-piece series Fern. Fish. Feather. Rose. This seminal work marked a turning point in his practice, showing how recognizable forms, when assembled together, create their own atmosphere of meaning—like words in a poem.
Share this
