Paul Derrez

Paul Derrez (born 20 February 1950) is an Amsterdam-based visual artist. He has established himself as a jewelry designer, gallery owner and collector. He has worked as a teacher in the arts education sector and as an author. Derrez was a founder and for six years a board member of the Dutch Association of jewelry designers and makers ("Vereniging van Edelsmeden en Sieraadontwerpers").

Life Paul Derrez was born in Sittard, a small former mining town a short distance to the north of Maastricht in Limburg. His parents ran a jewelry shop in Sittard.

On 1 November 2015 an exhibition opened featuring approximately 100 Derrez pieces at the CODA (culture centre) in Apeldoorn in celebration of the artist's forty years as a designer and pioneer in the world of jewelry. Derrez insists that jewelry should not always be harmonious: often it is more exciting when pieces also highlight discrepancies and rougher elements. When, in 1993, he was invited to make male jewelry for fashion shows, as a self-aware homosexual himself, he took inspiration from subcultures, fetishism and "adult toys". He himself likes to wear jewelry from his "Tools and Toys" series. For this series he used materials from the estate of Françoise van den Bosch and it is therefore sometimes referred to as his "aristocratic aluminium" ("adellijk aluminium") collection.

During the present century the focus of his work has increasingly been on silverware: spoons, bowls, jugs and containers, occasionally with a humorous or provocative character, as in the case of his "Conversation bowl".

In 2012 Derrez started applying so-called "confetti" on some of his jewelry and tableware. This involved applying dots of transparent acrylate, often tinted in bright or fluorescent colours. Later he applied a similar decorative effect "monumentally", at the CODA (culture centre) in Apeldoorn and at his own gallery.

Personal Paul Derrez married his longstanding partner, Willem Hoogstede, in 2006.