HANS BRUMANN is a jeweler first and a visual artist second, but this is a pragmatic stance. “Jewelry making is my bread and butter, but I multitask now — everything that has to do with design, I love,” he told BusinessWorld.
He talked with BusinessWorld on Oct. 4 at the Makati Shangri-La during the opening of his latest exhibition, Paysage, where the pieces on view and on sale have much in common with the earrings and bracelets he makes: they are pretty, decorative, and highly collectible.
Like the accessories he’s known for, which complete an outfit and make it stand out, his watercolor paintings and sculptures — which use mother of pearl and hardwoods like molave, kamagong, and narra — are decorative and statement pieces meant for bare walls.
Mr. Brumann said he is most proud of his work called Broken Circles, a 100 cm x 100 cm sculpture that used kamagong, narra, molave, yakal, mother of pearl, oak, tangile, and resin.
“That is, in my opinion, my best [work in this exhibition]. For me, it’s my latest one. I am going to that direction more because I want to experiment and go with other look,” he said.
Another piece, Broken Series, is a mash-up of woods cut in different sizes and shapes, with mother of pearl inserts. Some wood was colored red for contrast. The work has texture. The artwork is so pretty it can be wearable — miniaturized it would work as a pair of earrings.
The artist has been using mother of pearl in his work for the last 15-18 years. “I am known now for working with hardwood and mother of pearl,” he said, adding that all his materials are locally sourced. He designs the sculptures and someone else executes it for him. “I make the design and supervise, but I have my craftsmen to do that,” he said.
The title of his ongoing exhibition is Paysage, which is a French term that means landscape in English.
Save for the Broken Series and Spiral (which is a simpler version of the former because it uses lesswood), the rest of the pieces are abstract urban landscapes of Metro Manila, primarily barong barong (small houses) and esteros (canals). The piece Esteros, he said is a view of an estero in Makati where “there are shanties on the sides and high-rise buildings at the back.”
The artist is a purveyor of anything of beauty. He said: “there’s beauty in that (shanties), while maybe the real one is not beautiful,” he said, laughing.
He added that he wanted the audience to feel happy looking at his works. “I think when you look at things it’s not sad. Today when you look at the young artist — it’s not a criticism — they make ugly things and they think it’s good. I don’t want to name but among the good ones are also good designers, they know how to draw well.”
Paysage is on view at the Makati Shangri-la hotel until Oct. 31. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

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