Working with a modest palette of 20ct gold and stainless steel, Okinari Kurokawa handles his materials with a quiet and considered reverence. These are the bare bones of jewellery – nothing superfluous, nothing cries out for attention. A deep thinker with a cerebral and philosophical approach to his art, Okinari sees jewellery as ‘sculpture to be worn’ and proportion is central – the concinnity of colour and material, form and weight converge in ascetic but elegant pieces. Function and functionality are often hidden, creating aesthetic puzzles in apparently seamless shapes. ­

After graduating from Musashino Art University’s crafts and industrial design department in 1971, Okinari, who was born in Harbin, Manchuria, in China in 1946, first worked at the Iwakura Precision Casting Institute before studying at Fachhochschule Pforzheim in Germany. His work is exhibited internationally and held in public collections including the Marzee Collection and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.