Otto Künzli

Otto Künzli (born 22 July 1948 ) is an active Munich-based goldsmith and university teacher at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.

Life and career

1965–1978: Early life Künzli attended a metals class with teachers, Max Fröhlich and Fritz Loosi at the School of Design Zurich in 1965 and completed training as a goldsmith in 1970. After attending the School of Design Zurich, Künzli worked in various workshops with Günter Wyss (Zurich), Othmar Zschaler (Bern) and Professor Hermann Jünger (Munich). In 1972 he married goldsmith Therese Hilbert and moved to Ingelsberg in Bavaria. He furthered his goldsmithing education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Hermann Jünger from 1972 to 1978. In that time he and Therese had their first child, Miriam Künzli (born 1976). Today, Miriam is a professional photographer. Since 1993, he has held regular lectures and workshops at Hiko Mizuno College in Tokyo. In 2015, solo show "Otto Künzli: The Exhibition" at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. From 2008 to 2012 he was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London.

Legacy Künzli's works have been recorded internationally in more than 50 museums, public collections and important private collections. Künzli's artistic impact is evident in his national and international appeal as a professor of jewelry design. There are many successful artists such as Karl Fritsch, Karen Pontoppidan, Norman Weber, Lisa Walker, David Bielander, Bettina Speckner and Jiro Kamata who have completed studies under Künzli.

Some of Künzli's pieces of jewelry are marked with his signature. This can be read vertically as the number eight (Italian "otto") and horizontally as the mathematical symbol for infinity.

Awards and scholarships 2010: Grand Prix Design, Switzerland 2010: Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in silver for the design of the exhibition "The madness fat booty - jewelry at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich: The class Künzli" 2011: Golden Ring of Honor, Society for Goldsmithing