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Gijs Bakker

Gijs Bakker

Born 1942 in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Gijs Bakker was trained as a jewelry craftsman and industrial designer at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, Sweden.

Today, Bakker's body of work includes jewelry, furniture, Objets d’Art, architectural installations, public spaces and exhibition designs. He co-founded the now-famous Dutch collective Droog Design in 1993 and Chi ha paura...? (Italian for "Who is afraid of...?") in 1996, a foundation aimed at expanding the understanding of jewelry beyond the frame of decorative accessories.

A revered teacher, lecturer, and consultant, Bakker heads the Masters Program at the Design Academy Eindhoven. He is highly regarded as one of Modern Dutch Design’s most influential artists and thought-leaders.

His work has been actively collected by internationally acclaimed museums including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, H.W.D. Collection, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2005 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition (and accompanying monograph) "Gijs Bakker and Jewelry," which traveled from Stedelijk Museum s'-Hertogenbosch to museums around the world, and his work has been published in numerous books and journals.

Born 1942 in Amersfoort, Netherlands, Gijs Bakker was trained as a jewelry craftsman and industrial designer at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm, Sweden.

Today, Bakker's body of work includes jewelry, furniture, Objets d’Art, architectural installations, public spaces and exhibition designs. He co-founded the now-famous Dutch collective Droog Design in 1993 and Chi ha paura...? (Italian for "Who is afraid of...?") in 1996, a foundation aimed at expanding the understanding of jewelry beyond the frame of decorative accessories.

A revered teacher, lecturer, and consultant, Bakker heads the Masters Program at the Design Academy Eindhoven. He is highly regarded as one of Modern Dutch Design’s most influential artists and thought-leaders.

His work has been actively collected by internationally acclaimed museums including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, H.W.D. Collection, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2005 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition (and accompanying monograph) "Gijs Bakker and Jewelry," which traveled from Stedelijk Museum s'-Hertogenbosch to museums around the world, and his work has been published in numerous books and journals.