"Once Upon A Time...” will take you inside the fantasy worlds of Anna Talbot and Tatiana Warenichová, two artists who create original, one-of-a kind jewelry inspired by fairy tales and folklore. Their bold, bright, and dreamy pieces will transform the gallery into a wonderland filled with deer, wolves, flowers, birds, bees, and castles. The exhibition will feature jewelry as well as wall-mounted paper cutouts.

United in their fascination with the magical stories that we fall in love with as children and carry with us into our adulthood, the artists choose elements that have inspired them, from castles, to forests, to the fawns that live there, to create wearable works of art. However, while their work is imbued with similar decorative elements, the artists’ approach to creating the work is highly varied. Using different techniques, Warenichová layers and cuts paper, which she combines with silver and wood, to create three-dimensional images. Talbot works in layers building up characters from anodized aluminum, wood veneer, brass, and gilded metal and silver. Both artists create work that is reminiscent of pop-up books yet made for the body, although on occasion the scale of their work can easily be at home on a wall.

In addition to the jewelry, Once Upon A Time will feature wall-mounted paper cutouts and sculptures by Warenichová made from vintage women’s fashion magazines. Asserting the artist’s belief that fashion magazines are a magical escape for adults in the same way that fairytales are for children.

Anna Talbot lives and work in Oslo, Norway where she has a room in a shared studio called Volum Atelierfellesskap alongside 20 other artists and creative people. From 2001 – 2004 she completed a BA (Honors) degree in Silversmithing, Jewellery and Allied Crafts at London Metropolitan University. She then worked as a technical assistant and later an artist in residence at Sir John Cass, London Metropolitan University. From 2007 – 2009 she did a MA degree at Oslo National Academy of the Arts in the metal and jewelry department. Since 2009 she has been working as a jewelry artist with exhibitions both in Norway and around the world. Talbot is also the head of the Metal and Jewellery Department at Oslo National Academy. The artist was selected for Schmuck in 2014 and in 2016. In 2015 she had her first solo exhibition at KRAFT – Rom For Kunsthåndverk in Bergen Norway. In 2017, two solo exhibitions took place first at the Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo and later at Platina in Stockholm.

Talbot has been the recipient of several grants from the Norwegian government, and in 2015 I was given a 10 year artist grant which allows her to focus on her art. In 2017 she was rewarded the Scheibler Foundations Grant for Crafts .

Tatiana Warenichová was born in Bratislava, Slovakia but currently lives and works in Vienna, Austria. Warenichová completed her BA in Jewelry Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium in 2009 and a year later, completed the Royal Academy’s MA program. In addition to jewelry she also studied Fashion Design at the Royal Academy. The artist has participated numerous exhibitions across Europe, including the prestigious CODA Paper Art Show at the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in 2013 and the International Graduate Show at Gallery Marzee, Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2010. During her time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts she was under the tutelage of world-renowned fashion designer Walter van Beirendonck.