Warwick Freeman

Warwick Freeman’s career spans more than fifty years. In that time he has become one of the most important and influential figures in contemporary jewellery, here in Aotearoa and on the international stage. His practice has been defined by an uncompromising exploration of this place — its history, its culture, and its materials. From volcanic rock to pounamu, from shells to found objects, Warwick has transformed the essence of Aotearoa into forms that are at once minimal and complex, timeless and immediate. His works are not only to be worn, they are to be read, like characters in the visual language he has forged across decades.

Warwick’s practice is firmly rooted in place, and what it means to be a New Zealander. As a pākehā artist, his work has often navigated the terrain of identity and the complexities of our colonial past. His jewellery inhabits that space of friction and discovery, raising questions of culture, appropriation, and meaning, and in doing so, it has created room for conversations this country still urgently needs to have.

Warwick has been at the centre of almost every major development in New Zealand jewellery since the 1970s, not only as an artist but as a leader: a founding chair of Objectspace, a governor of the Arts Foundation, and a pivotal member of the Fingers cooperative that changed the course of our applied arts.

And 2025 marks a defining moment in his career. His solo exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung in Munich, the world’s leading museum of applied arts, has brought global recognition at the highest level. And now, that same exhibition has come home, to be celebrated here at Objectspace in Auckland.

Warwick Freeman is not only a great artist. He is also a husband, a father, and a grandfather, roles he considers his greatest achievement