Guntis Lauders (b. 1965 in Latvia)

1992 Tallinn Art University BA, 2005 Latvian Academy of Arts MA

I started pretty early to look around for my own way in art and chose jewellery design. There are no specific national features in my works – they are open to the world. My basic material for making jewellery is silver. I combine it with different exotic materials like ebony, mammoth ivory, corals, coconut shell, and various precious and semi-precious stones. I like constructing two-piece rings that give an impression of two separate rings.

I don’t especially try to find symbolic elements – they just come to me. During my studies I have absorbed many impressions from other cultures. Nature influences me most. I like cutting the grass. In summer I go to the countryside. I don’t work there but gather a huge luggage of information. It all gets mixed in my head and finds expression in my jewellery later.- In the book “A-Gallery. Estonian art jewellery gallery for 20 years” (2014)

“My first solo exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, took place in 1994. One of my first clients were art historians – doctor Elisabeth and Adolf Stader. We became friends for years to come. A couple of years ago they gave me their fossil and ammonite collection they had collected in the fifties in America from Death Valley, Arizona desert and Grand Canyon. I fell in love with these materials. I was fascinated how well they fit with precious stones, silver and gold. Each fossil is like a sculpture and has its own story. Even now when visiting mineral fairs in Germany, I look for interesting fossils, they’re lots of fun to work with.” – Guntis Lauders at the A-Gallery exhibition MEMORY CARDS (2019)