Checking in with Cong Ma

Far more than 100 worldwide artists used for this year’s Youthful Artist Award. Cong Ma was preferred as one of the finalists. She gained an unrestricted hard cash award of US$1,000 and exhibited her work in Platina’s booth at Schmuck, in July 2022.

AJF’s Younger Artist Award acknowledges guarantee, innovation, and individuality, advancing the careers of soaring artists. The competitiveness was open up to makers of wearable art age 35 and less than who are not currently enrolled in a specialist teaching plan. Judging was based mostly on originality, depth of thought, and top quality of craftsmanship. This year’s jurors were being 2020 AJF Artist Award winner MJ Tyson (US) collector and gallerist Karen Rotenberg (US) and educator and curator Chequita Nahar (The Netherlands).

Ma’s work signifies a group of superb parts of contemporary jewelry. We questioned her to notify us a bit about her track record and views on the potential of the field.

Bonnie Levine:  Congratulations on currently being a person of the 5 finalists for the 2022 Younger Artist Award. What an accomplishment! You should introduce by yourself to our visitors. How did you become fascinated in jewellery? What evokes your work?    

Cong Ma: I am a painter, a jewellery maker, and a designer. Born to a spouse and children of artists, I have been drawing ever since I could choose up a pen. I found my interest in art jewelry simply because it is a unique artwork form impartial of any operation however near to the folks putting on it.

What does currently being a finalist suggest for you? Do you assume it will influence you going ahead?

Cong Ma: Currently being a finalist would make me want to adhere with art jewelry. I see the creativeness amongst all the finalists, and I am grateful to be linked to this group, particularly soon after a submit-COVID era of increasing know-how and quarantine. By being in this community, my consciousness will retain up with the situations, and which is critical to an artist’s progress.

Inform us about the function you used with. 

Cong Ma: I see jewelry as a signifies to an stop for learning about all forms of expertise that desire me. My fascination in geometry and bigger proportions motivated this entire body of do the job. For case in point, a 3-dimensional ball going as a result of a two-dimensional matter would seem to be a circle rising and then acquiring smaller sized right up until it disappears. Similarly, a 90-degree angle intersecting a slanted surface area unfolded onto a two-dimensional aircraft is no more time 90 levels. These are fascinating observations and phenomena. I would like to convey these illusions by my do the job in an abstract way.

What excites you about the art jewellery industry? 

Cong Ma: I love creating art jewellery due to the fact of the flexibility it presents me to converse about any subject in the globe that passions me in significant techniques.

Any frustrations that you see or have knowledgeable? 

Cong Ma: The romance among my art and me is very all-natural. Whenever I have an idea, I can understand about 90% of that plan, and I am normally pleased. If there ever were any frustrations, it might be that I would like to master far more approaches in jewelry-earning to be capable to specific more of my suggestions. But that would need some time and determination to finding out in the long run.

The place do you assume art jewelry is going? Do you see any new and remarkable traits?

Cong Ma: I envision the artwork jewellery discipline going in numerous strategies. 1st, for the reason that the viewers is reasonably modest in contrast to other art fields, it could have the possible to develop very huge, to the extent that its definition becomes ambiguous. It could most likely merge with fashion, furniture, or technologies in the type of game titles and NFT, which one particular can in no way don. So people might not want a physical piece to don and call jewellery, but they could have an urge to associate, fantasize, and eventually convey.

In which would you like to be 5 a long time from now?

Cong Ma: I want to continue on to consider about artwork jewelry philosophically. Through my possess ordeals and exposures, I can produce a mature concept in layout. I see it in the kind of a treatise where by I would systematically look at my ideas and have my artworks replicate people concepts.

Congratulations all over again! Thank you for using the time to remedy these thoughts.

This is the past of our interviews with the honorees. Browse the job interview with Younger Artist Award winner Mallory Weston right here. Our interview with finalist Taisha Carrington is listed here. Look at out Marion Delarue’s interview here. You will discover our interview with Aaron Decker listed here.