Adam Grinovich
BETATESTERS / DOOMSDAYERS
© Adam Grinovich, photo by Rob Chron.
Adam Grinovich liberates his jewelry by doubling down on its archetypes to create frenetic, overzealous remixes. Taking cues from luxury markets and the absurdity of collab culture—with the augmented amalgamations that come with it—he transfers that hyperness to a field that tends to feel stuck in the past: art jewelry. During a 2014 residency at a 3D-printing company specializing in bone and dental implants, he was the first in his niche to use the technology to print directly in stainless steel. Grinovich’s designs exploited the interdependent structural scaffolding needed for a successful print by aestheticizing it even further in the design process (versus removing it entirely), thereby showcasing it within the final form.
This is the case for Ziggurat, which is finished with comically large cubic zirconia. After a hiatus due to a five-year teaching appointment at Savannah College of Art and Design, the jeweler started using materials like nylon and other synthetics found in footwear to poke fun at the capitalist zeitgeist that has us scrambling to look cool and fit in but remain unique at the same time. Rooted in his success as a bushcrafter in the jewelry world, his practice also questions whether something “new” is no longer new at all. After all, now talent and expertise are largely determined by the resourcefulness with which we excavate the Anthropocene that our insatiable consumerist habits helped create.
B. 1981, Beverly, MA
Lives and works in Warren, VT, and Penland, SC
JW184
Armored Core III, 2024, Brass, bronze, silver, resin and cubic zirconia. Courtesy of the artist, photography by R & Company.
JW185
Armored Core I, 2024, Brass, bronze, silver, resin and cubic zirconia. Courtesy of the artist, photography by R & Company.