Elena Gee

Eléna Gee is a New Zealand jeweller known for her combination of metal work with organic materials, specifically pāua shell. She was a prominent figure in the Bone, Stone, Shell movement in 1980s New Zealand. She has had a long career with her work touring around Asia and Europe.

Early life Born in Auckland in 1949, Elena Gee gained her first skills in handcrafts from her family. Her grandmother taught her to make shell boxes when she was eight and she taught herself metalwork in her fathers workshop that he used as an aircraft engineer. Gaining her first skills in craftmanship from her family and with limited opportunities to receive professional training in New Zealand Gee describes herself as being 'largely self-taught.'

Career After graduating from St Mary's College in 1969 Gee spent a year as a trainee commercial jeweller. The following year she left for Australia where she held her first exhibition in 1972 at Gallery 16, Sydney. While in Australia she taught jewellery at the Waverly Woollahra Arts School and was a resident craftswoman at the Sturt Workshops in New South Wales. Her work was selected for two Australian exhibitions which toured Europe and Asia.

In 1981 she returned to New Zealand. Finding limited opportunities for craft jewellery compared to Australia, Gee became a founding member of Details a New Zealand craft jewellers group. in 1985 she joined Fingers, a jewellery co-operative in Auckland. This gallery is where Gee would showcase most of her work in the following decades.

Exhibitions

1972 Gallery 16, Paddington, Sydney 1976 Old Bakery Gallery, Lane Cove, Sydney 1979 Blackfriars Gallery, Glebe, Sydney 1980 Sturt Gallery, Mittagong, New South Wales 1981 Durham Arts, Auckland 1986 Fluxus Jewellery, Dunedin 1987 Finger Gallery, Auckland 1988 Fluxus Jewellery, Dunedin 1989 Nelson Polytechnic 1992 Finger Gallery, Auckland 1996 Finger Gallery, Auckland 1988 Scratching the Surface: Jewellery by Elena Gee, Bowen Galleries Wellington 1987 Jewellery From around New Zealand Compendium Gallery, Auckland 1988 Bone, Stone, Shell, toured Australia and Asia 1990 Antipodean Dreams, Auckland War Memorial Museum 1992 Strum Fingers Gallery 1993 No Mans Land, Dowse Art Museum Schmuckszene '93 Munich, Germany 1994 Jewellery by Paul Annear, Warwick Freeman, Elena Gee Bowen Galleries, Wellington 1995 New Zealand Craft in the Nineties Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington 1996 Second New Zealand Jewellery, Biennial. Dowse Art Museum 1997 Same but Different Dowse Art Museum.