Jorge Manilla Navarrete

Bio Statement - Jorge Manilla

By creating jewellery Jorge Manilla investigates his environment - religion, emotions, relationships and the meaning of life. Over the last years the artist has rediscovered his love for the black colour. To the artist black relates to something hidden, the secretive and the unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world. His dark forms and shapes create a barrier between the meanings of the objects and the outside world. Black implies self-control and discipline, independence and a strong will. It gives an impression of authority and power. For Manilla black is the end, but the end always implies a new beginning. When light appears, black becomes white, the color of new beginnings.

Manilla, the son of a family of Mexican goldsmiths and engravers, studied visual arts at the Academy of San Carlos, in Mexico. He received a highly technical jewellery training at the Academy of Craft and Design from the Mexican Institute of Fine Arts. In 2003 He earned a Bachelor degree in sculpture at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent and one year later he enrolled at St Lucas University College of Art and Design where he got in 2006 a Master degree in Jewellery and Silversmithing. Currently Jorge Manilla is Professor and Subject Area Coordinator he still been invited to teach give lectures and workshops in different Schools in Europe and abroad. Last year he concluded his research project (PhD) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp Belgium and now he is waiting for the dissertation date. Since 2010 he is giving workshops around the world and his work has been shown in several exhibitions and is collected in the five continents.