Warwick Freeman’s emblematic jewellery pursues meaning. Across five decades the New Zealand jeweller has built a lexicon of signs: from the cultural symbolism of the hook and the star to the heart redrawn in the volcanic scoria of Rangitoto island. When worn, his jewellery communicates something of who we are and how we have lived. Throughout his career Freeman has never tired of exploring what it means to make jewellery in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Freeman’s work reflects a depth of thinking about the construction of identity that weaves together the big with the small. He has explored forms found in the detritus of daily life, the influence of Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonisation, and the rich geology of the land, all of which have provided him with an abundant supply of materials and narratives to draw from.

Hook Hand Heart Star includes key installation works, emblematic groupings and a number of suites of emblems, described by Freeman as Sentences. Composed of arrangements of individual works, these groupings evidence Freeman’s practice as always in motion, building on itself iteratively over many years.

The four nouns that form the title of this exhibition are inspired by Freeman’s first stand-alone grouping of emblems from 1987, the four-piece ‘poem’, Fern Fish Feather Rose. This significant work catalysed Freeman’s thinking about the power of assembling recognisable forms that could communicate their stories in lieu of words.

The Aotearoa tour of Hook Hand Heart Star includes the addition of a materials library drawn from Freeman's studio, accumulated over 40 years of jewellery practice and transplanted into the gallery alongside some of his domestic objects.

This survey exhibition brings together works from public and private collections throughout Europe, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, along with works from Freeman’s own archive.

—

Warwick Freeman (b.1953, Nelson) began making jewellery in 1972. As a prominent member of Auckland Jewellery Co-operative, Fingers, he was at the forefront of a rethinking of New Zealand contemporary jewellery practice that began in the 1980s. He has exhibited internationally since that time. In 2002 he was made a Laureate by the Francoise van den Bosch Foundation based at the Stedelijk Museum. In the same year Freeman received a laureate award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In 2014, Freeman co-curated the exhibition Wunderrūma, with jeweller, Karl Fritsch. Wunderrūma was presented at Galerie Handwerk in Munich, and on its return to New Zealand at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. In 2025 he was honoured by the Designers Institute of New Zealand with a John Britten Black Pin.

Freeman has also been involved in governance and curatorial activities: in 2004 he became the inaugural Chair of Objectspace, a public gallery dedicated to the exhibition of craft, design and architecture. His works are held in public and private collections in New Zealand and internationally including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, the V&A, London, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, LACMA, Los Angeles, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

—

Hook Hand Heart Star is presented in partnership between Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum in Munich, Germany, and Objectspace in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is curated by Kim Paton, Director, Objectspace, Dr Bronwyn Lloyd, Archivist, Objectspace and Dr Petra Hölscher, Senior Curator, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum.

The Hook Hand Heart Star exhibition and monograph have been produced with the generous support of Creative New Zealand, Blumhardt Foundation, The Stout Trust and Museumsstiftung zur Förderung der Staatlichen Bayerischen Museen – Estate of Christof and Ursula Engelhorn.

Our gratitude to the Project Supporters who have made this milestone exhibition possible for Objectspace: Jo and Alistair Blair, Sue Fisher, Max Gimblett and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Marianne Hargreaves MNZM, Sonja and Glenn Hawkins, Hynds Foundation, Lizzie de Lambert, Catherine Marcus Rose, Pip Oldham and Quentin Hay, Deedie Rose, Kim Smith, and those who wish to remain anonymous. 

Product Partner: Skape