Mari Funaki

Mari Funaki (1950 – 13 May 2010) was an Australian contemporary jeweller, designer, metal-smith and sculptor. She was active from 1990 to 2010. Initially a jeweller, she moved towards "purely sculptural forms" from the late 1990s.

Career In 1995, Funaki exhibited containers, containers for candles and gold jewellery in her exhibition Marie Funaki Metalwork in at the Crafts Council for the ACT. Work from this exhibition caught the attention of and was acquired by Jim Logan, the new assistant curator of Australian decorative arts at the National Gallery of Australia.

Funaki was known for her distinctive arthropod-like brooches, rings and bracelets, which later merged into her large scale geometric sculptural works, some up to 6 metres tall. The gallery, now run by previous gallery director Katie Scott, is regarded as one of the "key world jewellery spaces" showcasing the work of leading Australian and international jewellers.

In 2010, the National Gallery of Australia commissioned Funaki to create a sculpture for the entrance to the new Stage 1 building which included the Australian indigenous art galleries and the southern entrance. The sculpture Twilight was created in aluminium and finished with black polymer paint. Inspired by the pukumani burial poles of the Tiwi Islands, Funaki said of this work:"I like to make my forms stir people’s emotions or imagination. As an object maker I have always been interested in the interplay and dialogue between negative and positive, between volume and space, between inside and outside." since Funaki's death in 2010, the gallery has continued under the directorship of Katie Scott. The Gallery was designed by Melbourne company Workshop Architects and is located in Flinders Lane, Melbourne and hosts contemporary jewellery artists both Australian and international makers.

Exhibitions

Asialink Asia Gold exhibition, 1993, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Mari Funaki - A Selection of Containers, Containers for light and gold jewellery, 5-18 June 1995, Craft Council of the ACT Gallery, Canberra. Mari Funaki: Objects, 6 August to 24 October 2010, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square.

Awards 1996: Herbert-Hofmann-Preis

1999: Herbert-Hofmann-Preis

Legacy In 2014 the Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery was founded.

The RMIT holds a collection of over 200 books and art catalogues

A street is named after her in the Canberra suburb of Whitlam.