Simon Cottrell

Simon Cottrell

1975 Melbourne, Australia

• 1997-1999 BA, Fine Arts (Honours) Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMITU)
• 1994 - 96 BA, Fine Arts Gold and Silversmithing. RMIT Melbourne

• 2004, Mar to current date Sessional Lecturer in Fine arts/Gold and silversmithing, RMITU Melb.
  2002, Mar to current date Sessional lecturer in Fine arts/Applied arts/ Metal, Monash University, Caulfield Melb.
  2001, July- Dec 2002 Tutor, Gold+Silversmithing department, RMITU
  1997, July to current date Robert Baines, Artist / Goldsmith, Studio assistant
  1997, March Frank Bauer, Artist / Metalsmith. Assisted with the assemblage and installation of large private commission.
  1995, Mark Edgoose, Artist / Metalsmith. Studio assistant

• 2004,‘National Contemporary Jewellery Prize’, Griffith Regional Art Gallery, Griffith Australia
• 2004,‘International Jewellery’ Gallery Suba, Seoul, Korea
• 2004,‘Kunst RAI’ Arts Amsterdam, Rai Exhibition Centre, Netherlands
• 2004,‘Metal Design 04’ International Design Centre, Nagoya, Japan
• 2004,‘SOFA Chicago’ USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2004,‘International Art+Design Fair’ New York, USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2004‘ SOFA 2004’ New York USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2004,‘Çollect’ contempory craft fair, Victora & Albert Museum, London UK
• 2004,‘Design Down Under’ South Shore Arts Center, Cohasset USA
• 2004PalmBeachContemporary Florida, repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2003,‘SOFA Chicago’ USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2003,‘International Art+Design Fair’ New York, USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2003‘ SOFA 2003’ New York USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2003,‘SOUND’ (Solo Exhibition), Gallery Funaki, Melbourne, Aust.
• 2003,‘Melbourne International Mokume Gane Symposium & Exhibition’, Project Space, Melbourne Aust.
• 2003,‘SEXTET’ The Church Gallery, Perth, Aust.
• 2003,“Metal element Six” Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney
• 2003,‘Metal of Six Countries’ International Design Centre, Nagoya, Japan
• 2002,‘RINGS’ , Gallery Funaki Melbourne
• 2002,‘Less is More / Less is a Bore’ Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
• 2002,‘SOFA 2002’ Chicago USA, repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2002‘ SOFA 2002’ New York USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2002,‘International Art+Design Fair’ New York, USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2001‘ SOFA 2001’ New York USA repr. by Charon Kransen
• 2001, 2003 ‘Foundations of Gold’ Asialink project, touring Melboure, Osaka, Seoul, Manila, Singapore and Mumbai
• 2001,‘Schmuck’2001 Internationale Handwerksmesse, Munich, Germany
• 2000,‘Emerging’ Seven contemporary Jewelers, Gallery Funaki, Melbourne
• 2000,‘TALENTE’ International young craft practitioners award exhibition.Internationale Handwerksmesse, Munich, Germany
• 1999,‘TRACE’ An exhibition of Melbourne Contemporary Jewellers. curator Carlier Makigawa. Gallery Yu, Tokyo & Museum of Art/Craft, Itami, Japan
• 1999,‘THE WORKS’ JMGA ,VIC. annual Members exhibition. Victorian Artists Society. Melbourne
• 1999,‘CONTEMPORARY WEARABLES 99’ Touring 11 venues throughout Australia Biennial award exhibition organized by Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
• 1999,‘Sixth Biennial Ernest Leviny Commemorative Silver Exhibition’ Part of Castlemaine State Festival Buda Historic Homestead, Castelmaine, Australia
• 1998,‘18 National Craft Acquisition Award,’ Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Teritory, Darwin.
• 1998,‘Grain’, Honors and Masters Gold+Silversmithing, First Site Gallery, Melbourne
• 1998,‘24th Alice Craft Acquisition’ The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
• 1997,‘Mornington Peninsula Craft Event’ Mornington Regional Gallery, Mornington, Victoria
• 1997,‘City of Hobart Art Prize’, Carnegie Gallery, Hobart, Australia
• 1997,‘Graduate Metal’, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart.
• 1996,‘OR(e)’ graduate exhibition, Gold and Silversmithing, Reserve Bank, Melbourne, Australia
• 1996,‘Fifth Biennial Ernest Leviny Commemorative Silver Exhibition’ Part of Castlemaine State Festival Buda Historic Homestead, Castelmaine, Australia
• 1996,‘Toy, To Toy’ Customs House, Melbourne, Australia
• 1996,‘BOX’ satellite exhibition, Part of the Next Wave festival, RMIT Melbourne, Australia
  

• 2000 Development Grant. Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Fund
• For mentorship with Robert Baines
• 1999 ‘KOODAK Peoples Choice Award’ Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Victora, Australia
• 1999 ‘JOHNSON MATHEY AWARD’ For Excellence in Silversmithing, RMITU, Australia
• 1996 L. PUZSAR AWARD. For Best Jewelery Design in Gold and Silversmithing , RMITU, Australia

• 2001 Macmillan collection, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne Australia
• 2003 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
  

I create objects that address their function only by achieving an honesty towards it. The material Monel is chosen for its ability to hold crisp form through continuous wear.

The most recent pieces have been an attempt to make work that is not only a result of the human creative process but a simple metaphor for what I see as the fundamental or phenomenological aims of the process itself.

Often using shapes that present various allusions while never overtly depicting any single subject, these pieces are drawn from an attempt to embody two natural paradoxes…the possibilities of a tenuous-calm or of complex simplicities.

The edges of simple forms are broken so that the defining outline is unclear; simple allusions to nature are broken by an obvious man made production.