Please join SSG and Pierre Cavalan for a conversation about his exhibition 'Amulets for the day after tomorrow'.

The exhibition runs from 17 September - 3 October, 2026.

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This exhibition presents contemporary jewellery by Pierre Cavalan, featuring wearable objects assembled from unusual and quirky fragments collected over many years. Created in the aftermath of the global disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the works reflect a period of reflection, uncertainty, and re-imagining of everyday life.

During and after the pandemic, ordinary objects gained new meaning as people reconsidered their relationship with materials, memory, and the environment. Cavalan gathers overlooked pieces—discarded fragments, curious materials, and found elements—and reassembles them into imaginative forms. These wearable sculptures suggest artifacts from another time: relics that seem both ancient and futuristic.

Rather than traditional jewellery meant only for decoration, these works appear as objects belonging to mythical beings of the future.

They imagine a world where adornment tells stories of survival, transformation, and adaptation. Each piece becomes a small narrative—part talisman, part sculpture—hinting at characters that might inhabit a future mythology.

Through playful assemblage and unexpected combinations, the works invite viewers to reconsider what jewellery can be: not only an ornament for the present, but a speculative artifact for worlds yet to come.

Pierre Cavalan was born in Paris, France, in 1954 and graduated from the BJO, Paris National Jewellery School, in 1979. He moved to Australia in 1980, where he worked with Sydney jeweller Russel McColough until 1985.

Cavalan has developed a distinctive practice that moves beyond the traditional boundaries of jewellery, exploring the relationship between material, form, the body and the object. His work has been exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally, including major exhibitions at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim; Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal; and Château Borély, Musée des Arts Décoratifs et de la Mode in Marseille. His work has also been presented in Paris, Japan, Lithuania, Poland and throughout the United States and Australia.

Significant exhibitions include A Fine Possession: Jewellery & Identity at the Powerhouse Museum; Beyond Bling: Jewelry from the Lois Boardman Collection at LACMA; Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; GlassWear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry at Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; and Au-delà du Précieux at Galerie Helen Aziza, Paris. More recent international exhibitions include Cosmos, LEM Jewellery at the National Museum of Lithuania in Vilnius and the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, as well as exhibitions in Tokyo, Nagoya and Chiba.

Cavalan’s international professional experience has included an Artist Residency at 18th Street Arts Center in California in 1996, followed by a lecture at San Diego State University. In 1997 he taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and was awarded a Blossom Fellowship at Kent State University, Ohio, where he undertook a master workshop. In Australia, he lectured in jewellery and object design at Design Centre Enmore, TAFE NSW, from 1999 to 2024, contributing significantly to the education of emerging jewellery and object designers. He has also served as Chairperson of the Jewellery and Metalsmith Group of Australia (JMGA NSW).

His contribution to contemporary jewellery has been recognised through Australia Council for the Arts Development Grants, First Prize in the National Contemporary Jewellery Award and the Alice Springs Craft Acquisition Award.

Cavalan’s work is held in major public and institutional collections in Australia and internationally. Australian collections include the National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, Powerhouse Museum, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Wollongong Museum and the Sydney Town Hall Art Collection. International collections include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Racine Art Museum, Lowe Museum at the University of Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal, the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and the Imperial War Museum in London.

Across more than four decades, Cavalan has established a significant place within contemporary jewellery and object design, connecting his French jewellery training with the experimental and material-driven traditions of Australian contemporary craft. His extensive exhibition history, teaching, awards and representation in major public collections reflect his enduring contribution to the field.

Exhibition statement & Biography written by Pierre Cavalan with the assistance of ChatGPT, 2026, OpenAI