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 Regular visitors to Electrum Gallery will be familiar with Ulrike Bahrs magnificent jewellery to some extent, but it is now some fifteen years, 1985 in fact, since we had the privilege of viewing her work in the context of a comprehensive one-man show.
In that time, she has continued to create ever more beautiful and meaningful pieces of jewellery - works that inspire and provoke emotional as well as intellectual responses from both wearer and onlooker. An artist/jeweller in the true sense of the word, Ulrike Bahrs clearly demonstrates the close affinity between jewellery and sculpture, the latter a medium which has attracted her quite a lot in recent years. However, this does not mean that her jewellery is in any way sculpture miniaturised, in fact, she enjoys working within a limited scale because she feels strongly that it makes the onlooker concentrate and form a relationship more effectively with the artistic inner content of the work. She has done much research into the mysteries of our past and has travelled far and wide - to India, Egypt, Indonesia, Bali, Thailand, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan and all over the United States. Her journeys have helped her much to acquire intimate knowledge of ancient beliefs and the wisdom of primitive cultures.
 Ulrike Bahrs brilliant technical expertise allows her an enviable freedom to express and articulate complex concepts, visual interpretations of deep inner connections with our archaic origins brought firmly into a contempo-rary context. These connections, and our inner self, are a vital concern to her, and throughout her entire career, she has striven to find the perfect forms and materials with which to give strength and reassurance to the eventual possessor of the piece. To achieve this, she makes use in a highly original way of all sorts of unusual combinations of material - crystals, flower petals, precious metals, mirrors, holograms, prisms, semi precious stones, pebbles, photographs, etc. She spares no effort to search for the right components and precious or not, each one is carefully selected to function within the work for a specific reason, so that the whole piece conveys its own story, illustrating an abstract but accessible and relevant idea. To this end, colours are carefully chosen, and rock crystal as well as gold and silver play an important part. Her formal language too is much influenced by ancient symbols, with pyramids, magic circles and squares often a major feature of her overall design.
 A closer look at her CV will show how, over the years, Ulrike Bahrs has earned herself a well-deserved, international reputation as an important and original artist/jeweller. She has exhibited all over the world, and received many accolades in the form of awards and inclusion in books on the important makers of the 20th century.We are indeed fortunate and grateful to have yet another opportunity to see a wider perspective of her exciting and fascinating jewellery.
Barbara Cartlidge, Director of Electrum Gallery, London,
on the occasion of the one-man show in May 2000
ULRIKE BAHRS
- State Technical School, Neu Gablonz, journeyman
- Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Masters Degree
- Freelance in Munich
SELECTED GROUP EXHlBITlONS:
- 1972 International Jewellery, Zonnehof, Amersfoort
- 1974 International Jewellery, Basle and Lausanne
- 1975 German Jewellery 15th-20th Century, Belgrade
- 1975-76 Jewellery in Europe, Edinburgh and London International Jewellery, Tokyo Aurea Arte, Florence
- 1978 Bavarian Arts & Crafts,Moscow; Contemporary German & British Crafts, Frankfurt
- 1979 International Jewellery, Tokyo
- 1980 Enamel, Jewellery & Artefacts, Past and Present, Pforzheim, Hanau, Vienna, & Australia; Schmuck International, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
- 1981 Ready-Made, Galerie Mattar, Cologne & Vienna
- 1982 Eight German Goldsmiths, Hong Kong
- 1984 Triennale 84, Frankfurt, Hanover; Goethe Insitute, Tokyo; Contemporary Jewellery - The Americas, Australia, Europe & Japan, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; German Jewellery, New Zealand
- 1985 Arts & Crafts of Northern Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, China and Budapest
- 1986 Figurative Jewellery,Munich, Zurich, Enschede, Knokke; Art and Nature, sculpture, Arte Sella, Italy
- 1988 1stInternational Symposium Art and the invisible Reality, Schloss Elmau,Munich,
- 1989 2nd Symposium Art and the invisible Reality, New York, Franklin Furnice: Performance; Alchemical miniature sculpture, New Jersey; Ornamenta, Pforzheim
- 1991 20th Anniversary Show, Electrum Gallery, London
- 1993 Jewellery Makers,Munich; Lichter Schmuck, Pullheim Museum of Holography
- 1994 Holography in Jewellery, Trimetall, Cologne, Hambourg aujourdhui,Marseille
- 1995 Cup and Spoon, Galerie Seibert Philippen, Berlin
- 1972-99 Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg
ONE-MAN SHOWS:
- 1978 Galerie Artmann, Regensburg
- 1979 Galerie Orfevre, Düsseldorf
- 1980 Galerie Art Prospect, Brussels
- 1982 Galerie Spektrum,Munich
- 1983 Galerie Cada,Munich
- 1985 Gallery Leitz, Lanzarote, Spain; Electrum Gallery, London
- 1991 Galerie dOr, Oldenburg
- 1992 Der Laden, Frankfurt; Galerie am Steinweg, Passau
- 1996 Galerie Kammer, Hamburg
- 2000 Electrum Gallery, London
WORK IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
- Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg; Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, State Museum Schleswig
PUBLICATIONS:
- 1976 Contemporary Jewellery (1945-75), Ralph Turner, Studio Vista, UK
- 1978 Goldschmiedekunst, Prof R. Reiling, Hans Schöne Verlag, Germany
- 1984 Contemporary Jewellery (1975-85), Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner, Thames & Hudson, London
- 1985 Twentieth Century Jewellery, Barbara Cartlige, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1986 Office du Livre, Fribourg
- 1990 Kunsthandwerk in Hamburg, ADK, Hamburg
- 1993 Schmuck & Gerät, Helmut Bauer, Germany; The Best In Contemporary Jewellery, David Watkins, Pro Art Library Rotovislon,UK
- 1996 International Jewellery from America & Europe, Ralph Turner, UK
- 1999 Hamburger Kunsthandwerk, Germany
- 1986 TV-Report: The Goldsmith Ulrike Bahrs, Bavarian Television
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