92nd Street Y is pleased to announce the Jewelry Center’s first Resident Artist, Göran Kling, from Hägersten, Sweden.

Kling is a goldsmith inspired by American popular culture. He has collaborated with Adidas on a line of accessorized sneakers and his work has been worn by celebrities including rapper A$AP Rocky. Kling was chosen for the Residency program by a distinguished jury including representatives from the Museum of Arts and Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

“Not only was Goran chosen as our very first 92Y Jewelry Center Resident Artist by an elite jury of experts from the most prestigious NYC arts institutions, but he was the completely unanimous choice,” says Jonathan Wahl, Director of the Jewelry Center. “I’m excited to see how Goran’s art will evolve as he immerses himself in the rich environment of jewelry design and popular culture offered by New York City.”

The 92Y Jewelry Artist Residency Program is a month-long self-directed program specializing in jewelry and metalsmithing that provides the time and space for the chosen artist to create, research, experiment and cultivate new directions in their work in New York City in August 2017. The residency immerses the artist in the heart of the fine art world, living and working steps away from the world-famous Museum Mile, which includes Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts; the Guggenheim Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and much more. The residency also allows the artist to create in a private studio within the 92Y Jewelry Center, and they will have 24-hour access to four fully equipped studios for jewelry light metals, small-scale casting, silversmithing and enameling.

Kling developed a fascination with America early in life and it continues to influence his art. “Growing up in Sweden in the 80’s and early 90’s, American television shows like The Simpsons, The A-Team and programs on MTV opened a window into American visual culture that affected a whole generation of young Swedes. This was of course before the Internet so many references were still very much a mystery left to be puzzled together by my own imagination. Somehow this fascination with American identity never faded which led me to make frequent trips back and forth over the coming years.

On Canal Street in New York, I saw the over-the-top big, golden crucifixes and fat Cuban links with diamond encrusted Jesus pieces; gold-plated brass right next to eighteen Karat solid gold. It was jewelry that was not ashamed of being too much — the complete opposite toned-down, modernist Scandinavian jewelry design. So, since then I have in different formats tried to combine and explore these two opposite poles of the design spectrum.”