The members of the jury

Dr Jack Cunningham

Emeritus professor

Jack Cunningham is a jeweller, academic and curator.

Formerly Head of the Silversmithing and Jewellery Department at The Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, Cunningham was Head of the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University between 2008 and 2014. In 2017 he was Visiting Professor at Kolding School of Design, Denmark, and since then Visiting Professor at Edinburgh College of Art. He is also an External Examiner for PhD candidates at UK institutions. His work is held in numerous public collections, including; the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the Crafts Council Collection, the Royal Scottish Museum – Edinburgh, and the Museum of Decorative Arts – Montreal.  

Cunningham and his wife live between their apartment in Paris and their village house in SW France.

Jack Cunningham’s brooches are narrative compositions that reflect his interest in relationships, place and memory. Equally important in the process of communicating his ideas are the materials incorporated, being found objects and ready-mades. Through the process of association and personal viewing methodologies, Cunningham is interested in the dialogue that is consequently established between the maker – the originator of the artefacts statement, the wearer – the vehicle by which the work is seen, and the viewer – the audience who thereafter engage with the work.

Carlo Lucidi

Artist, curator

Carlo Lucidi is an artist and curator, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He started his career working for well-known theatrical and cinematographic productions. His work in art is specialised in wearables with a focus on jewelry. His field of research analyses feelings, emotions and spiritual connections between being and not being, life, death and pureness. From 2020 he managed his eponymous gallery in Monterotondo, Rome, Italy.

Balázs Bajcsi-Nagy

Goldsmith, artist, designer

According to his creed, the balance he wants to create with his jewelry requires both strict professional foundations and an easy design approach. His objects are made according to a structure inspired by nature, not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of design methodology.

He is a member of the Board of the National Association of Precious Metalworkers and Related Trade, he is the professional curator of the Goldsmith Craft History Collection.

István Simonyi

Art historian, writer, jewellery collector

As an art historian with a background in jewellery spanning more than a decade and a half, he specialises in the history of the jewellery community. In this capacity, he has worked as a museologist in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest), and for many years he has been teaching at Hungarian universities and secondary schools, while publishing articles on the subject, mostly in the Hungarian Applied Art. His interests cover the whole spectrum of the history of the art of quintessence from antiquity to the present. His and his wife’s jewellery collection, which includes mainly contemporary works, has been in existence for 17 years since its inception in 2007. 

Katalin Jermakov

Artist, Jewelry Designer

Katalin Jermakov received a degree in Metalwork and Metal Industrial Design from the University of Applied Arts (now MOME). Since 2003 she has been running a studio called MANA Jewelry Design Studio, where she designs both unique pieces of jewelry and series. She is a regular participant in prestigious international exhibitions. In addition to several other awards, she received the Hungarian Design Award in 2001 and the Noémi Ferenczy Prize in 2009.

Magdalena Vélez Salinas

Gold & Silversmith Artistic Designer,
AdOc President

ARCHITECT, a freelance professional practice, registered in the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid (Architects Registration Council for Madrid).
UNIVERSIDAD ALFONSO X EL SABIO, from 2001, a tenured professor in Architectural Design and Graphic Expression in Architecture.
ESCUELA DE ARTE3, 2013-2016, Degree in Plastic Arts and Goldsmith and Artistic Silversmith Design.
Asociación de Diseñadores de Orfebrería y Joyería contemporáneas (AdOC), since 2016, founding partner and president.